Tantramar Outdoor Club

Active Living in Sackville and the Tantramar Region

TOC Potluck-This Friday, 15th Jan,2010 January 11, 2010

Filed under: Activities, Administration — grothomas @ 11:09 pm

St Anne’s Church Hall, Westcock; This Friday, 15th January, starting at 6:00 p.m. aiming to eat by 6:30p.m. Bring something for you and yours and a few bucks for rental of the Hall.

            Brief meeting to follow to discuss fallout from annual directors meeting(minutes at http://tantramaroutdoorclub.com/category/administration/ ).

In particular we suggested changing membership fees, this year only,  to help defray the cost of cabin construction(~$4,200= $800 from last year’s membership, $1,700 grant from the triathlon fund $200 owed P. Manchester, $30 owed Roy Pierog and $1500 owed R. Thomas). Our proposal was to ask sustaining members to pay $100 per family or $40 individually while keeping regular membership @ $5 per individual. (The alternate suggestion was to offer repayable bonds of $100, no interest, and try to sell 18 of them). We are checking into funding from Renaissance Sackville

Secondly we would like to change some ski trail names. We thought giving local names to the Beech Hill trails, rather than red and blue would be better. Bring suggestions to meeting or email me.  And there was general dissatisfaction and confusion with the Twisted Creek Trail name so we propose Ogden Brook Loop.

Thirdly it was agreed that we should strongly discourage the taking of dogs on groomed or tracked cross country ski trails. This includes the Crooked Tree Trail, Ogden Brook Loop, Beech Hill Trails and the Blue Trail system. There are lots of other areas to ski-see Doug Campbell’s post under Skijoring on the website     http://tantramaroutdoorclub.com/category/uncategorized/skiing-with-dogsskijoring/   or contact Doug dcampbell@mta.ca for more info on where to ski with dogs.

We would be happy to discuss this at the meeting but the consensus of the directors was that beings walking on the trail make bumps negating the work of the trail breakers.

            Also as most of you know the ski hut is more or less complete. Thank you very much to Lid and Marilyn Haugen-Strand, Tony Massarelli and Sharon and Doyle Hache who all offered stoves. We ended up using Doyle’s because Peter got to it first. Doug, Peter and I hauled it in on the snow on the homemade sled(now behind the wood shed if you are interested). It also makes a great groomer but it is too hard to get the stove out of the cabin now (needed for weight), and it’s a tad heavy to pull. The “key” to the stove is on the floor under the stove where it should stay as it gets quite hot. There are two draft controls at the back/top of the stove-counter clockwise to open and let in more air for starting fires and increasing heat/clockwise to dampen things down as in late afternoon/too hot. Wood in wood shed is a bit damp so if you are energetic bring a few pieces in when you come. There is a splitting maul in the wood shed behind the wood on the left, and an axe for splitting kindling on beam under the hut to the right of the door. Matches are in the center beam above the Summerby Murray windows.

            There are keys to the door-one under the deck under the door and the other on the outside back wall behind the cabin. Please, though, do not lock the door.

            There are also a few brooms and shovels-feel free to use them.

            As you may have figured out there is no toilet or outhouse. If you or yours have the need to use a toilet the unofficial pee area is up behind the wood shed-just look for the yellow snow paint.

            Finally a huge thank you to the dozens of people who lugged, hammered, sawed and encouraged the building of the ski hut.(It has an unofficial name, which has escaped me, my German being weak, but the sign, by an infamous local artiste, is quite classy)

            See you this Friday night, Ross

 

Munutes Directors Meeting-8thJan,2010 January 11, 2010

Filed under: Administration — grothomas @ 10:42 pm

Tantramar Outdoor Club-Directors’ Annual Meeting

                        8th January,2010

Ross Thomas,Peter Higham. Peter Manchester,KAte Bredin, Graham Watt

1.Town Grant-asked for $1000-? Not received yet. Peter and Kate will look into grant from Renaissance Sackville for $2000-$3000. Ross will sort out if cheque received yet.

Kate and PeterM

 

2.Hut expenses-so far a little over $4,000. $2,500 from TOC bank account of which ~$800 is from membership and the rest a grant from the Triathlon Fund.

            It was agreed to ask those able to to pay a one time sustaining fee of $100 per family or $40 per individual which would include membership for 2010.

            Otherwise it was agreed regular membership would be $5 per individual.

3.It was agreed to again join Cross Country NB which gives us liability insurance. Ross

 

4. Potluck will be either the 15th or 23rd, depending on hall availability-Kate will check with Rob S-M

5.Family Ski tomorrow from 12 – 2 p.m. with lunch at the cabin.

6. Ross will check with Susan K-R re interest in moonlight skis.

7.PeterM will check with the Town about putting a link on the Town website to the TOC site and the facebook group. He will also look at letting the SAC know about the links, ?via the Outing Club(mcgalex@mta.ca) or as a link on the Athletics Dept website.

8.Trail names-Graham had suggested changing names at Beech Hill Park to people’s names with Sackville connections( you know like Watt, McTavish etc.). We will decide this hopefully at the next potluck.

            We also agreed that pending approval of the masses we would change the Twisted Creek Trail to the Ogden Mill Loop. This is a little less confusing and Geographically correct.

9.We may need to put signage up about asking people to refrain from bringing dogs on groomed or broken ski trails-i.e. BHP, CTT,OML, and the Blue trail system. Ross will put a note in an email and suggest Doug Campbell could act as a resource on places to ski with dogs.  Ross

            Peter will check again with Blaise about getting small(15” x 15”) ski maps to put at intersections of the trails at the Reservoir and BHP.

10.We will try to post info at the cabin about how to start the fire, control the damper, not to lock the door and perhaps a few aphorisms. Graham wondered about having a student there on weekends to tend the fire. He offered to buy the colt 45 and a little extra to smoke with it. We decided this likely wasn’t practical. Ross

11.Peter claims he has a sign to put on the cabin. Graham wanted another naming contest. The signage is not authorized.

                        The meeting ended peacefully.

 

Fundy Biosphere Trail Meeting July 9, 2009

Filed under: Activities, Administration, Trail Clearing — Harold Jarche @ 2:03 pm

The Fundy Biosphere Reserve will be hosting a meeting on July 21, at 7PM at Mount Allison University (Avard-Dixon room 117) to discuss the Fundy Biosphere Trail Initiative.

This trail will build on the UNESCO designation and become a marquee outdoor experience for hikers and bikers, highlighting the natural landscape, culture and history of Fundy Biosphere Reserve. This Trail will be a collaborative initiative of the trail organizations, community groups and municipalities within the Fundy Biosphere Reserve as well as the provincial Trail Council. The Trail will link the communities of St. Martins and Sackville, traveling through the Biosphere Reserve with each section under the jurisdiction of each individual trail council or municipality.

The FBR is seeking public input on this project in hopes of gathering information on potential trail routes from Sackville to Memramcook as well as develop a community stakeholder group to help develop this and other initiatives.

TOC members are strongly encouraged to attend.

 

Membership has its benefits April 9, 2009

Filed under: Administration — Harold Jarche @ 1:19 pm

If you are a paid-up member of the Tantramar Outdoor Club, Wanderlust Outfitters now offers a 15% discount.

storefront

There’s an excellent selection of clothing and gear at the store on 12 Bridge Street.

 

Meeting Minutes 21 feb,2009 March 4, 2009

Filed under: Administration — grothomas @ 10:27 pm

 

  1. Proposal to erect a warming hut on the Crooked Tree Trail, likely close to the second bridge (LeanToo). Cy, Peter M, Ross and several others on building committee. We do have permission from the Town and Planning Commission to proceed. We are looking at a 12’ x 16’ footprint with no foundation or bathroom but with the intent to install a wood burning warming device. We briefly discussed funding for this. The cost will likely be $2000 to $3500 depending on how cheap we can get materials, especially windows, doors, roofing and stove costs. Kate Bredin and Harold Jarche will look into grants for trail building including a warming shed.
  2. Members were reminded that Peter Manchester(that would be el Prresidente himself) has updated maps and they are posted on the website under ….”maps”. If you get lost Peter said to call Shelagh…
  3. There was a grooming committee meeting-the minutes are on the website-I think under “Administration”
  4. There was likely other chatter but I can’t recall anything earth shattering. The meeting ended with pledges of future sobriety and plans for skiing the next day.

 

Respectfully, Ross Thomas,scribe

 

 

GroomingMeetingMinutes 26thJanuary,2009 January 28, 2009

Filed under: Administration, Skiing, Trail Clearing — grothomas @ 12:06 am

Grooming meeting 26Jan,2008 Ross, Graham, Peter M, Ian D, Harold J

  1. Brief discussion re the club purchasing and operating snowmobile. Graham , Ian and possibly Cy Bernard as potential groomers, Paul Chamberland as a possible tech support. Decided that this would be a long term goal-next year at the absolute earliest. First we should exhaust the possibility of improving the work Brett does by first deciding what our priorities are , communicating them to Todd, and trying to work out a direct relationship with Brett. It was decided Graham Watt would be the liaison as this would keep communications simpler. If we are not able to get what we think is a reasonable grooming level we would relook at doing it ourselves. This could be a lot more work and expense, even if we got a grant from the Town.

Graham also discussed the benefits of using the new Trackor Groomer to groom level walking paths in the waterfowl park.

2.Grooming Priorities:

-We feel grooming should be done within 24 hours after fresh snowfalls and every 3-5 days otherwise to freshen up the trails.

-We felt Beech Hill Park itself should be the priority for grooming. We will propose that a figure of eight loop around the now unploughed road loop, around the outside of the field within the park and back up to the main road via the serpentine trail which presently has a stop sign to the main trail should be groomed for both skating and classical skiing. This would allow walking on the skating track.

Besides this we felt an additional classic loop inside the field would be an asset.

-Presently the Red loop is quite curving, bumpy and crisscrossed by a new ATV trail several times. This part of the trail is all on private land and subject to non pedestrian use and the committee felt there were potential safety issues. If there are time or financial constraints we would propose this be the lowest priority for grooming.

-We would like to see the Beech Hill blue trail be groomed, even though it is largely outside park boundaries.

-We would like to see the Crooked Tree Trail continue to be groomed.

-It was felt that for this year the Twisted Creek Trail was not appropriate to groom because of narrow and wet sections.

-We will propose that any hills(the “Caution” hill, and hill coming into the “fields with a view”on the Beech Hill Blue, and the hill 200 m before the Crookd Tree and the CyRoy hill before the bridge at the end/start of the CTT) be groomed with the corduroy part of the groomer, not the grooves to allow snowploughing down or duck walking up. Less fun/more safety.

-It was felt there should be a review of signage with perhaps names or at least degree of difficulty designations for the Beech Hill trails, new maps, snowshoe trail signs(these trails do exist!), and pictoral signage about walking on ski tracks-i.e it is OK to walk on the pole track but preferably not on or in the grooves. This won’t happen until the summer.

  1. Brief discussion about the Cross Country ski “open house/try some skis” session which is set to take place Saturday afternoon, February 7th as part of Winterfest-likely around 1 or 2 p.m.. We will encourage TOC members to come out to help show novices how to put skis on, show them around and some technique tips. We will do a mail out closer to the event.

There was also a proposal that Brett be asked to groom 3 or 4 classic tracks down and across the big field to be used for sprint races. Some of those involved in this proposal suggested they would be winning this event but there was no consensus nor bets placed. This event will take place at ~3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

 

TOC Meeting 16th January, 2008 January 18, 2009

Filed under: Administration — grothomas @ 10:41 pm

Minutes Tantramar Outdoor Club 16th January, 2009

  1. Motion: To join Cross Country New Brunswick and avail ourselves of their liability insurance coverage for directors. Moved by Sandy Burnett, seconded by Roy Pierog. Passed unanimously

  1. Trail Grooming Discussion: Graham Watt thinks the new $4000 groomer recently purchased by the town does a super job of track setting and should be able to rework some types of old/hard snow. There was consensus that grooming should take place within 24 hours of any significant snowfall and likely at least once a week to freshen up tracks. Ross, Ian, Sandy and Peter will try to communicate this to Todd at the next Parks Advisory meeting, proceeded of course by our satisfaction at the newly set tracks. Graham Watt has sent a letter congratulating council on their wise decision to promote exercise. Ian Dennis and Paul Chamberland were appointed to the “acquiring a snowmobile for grooming ski trails committee. They will decide the chair and report to our next meeting. It was felt despite our longstanding disgruntlement with the frequency of grooming that we should try to work with the Town for the remainder of this season to improve things, whilst the aforementioned committee explores other options. There was also considerable discussion on the Town’s not ploughing the paved loop in BeechHill which apparently has created some disgruntlement among dogwalkers. We figure if the trails are groomed regularly there should be a nice firm base which will be great for walkers and skate skiers.

  1. Financial/Membership report: Kate Bredin reported that there were now 70 members and close to $1000 in revenue. Expenses are Close to $500 for signs, nails, and wood for the new trail (see below). Kate will try to keep separate spread sheets for TOC money and “Sackville Athletics” money, the later which is used to fund the Triathlon and Dave McAulay 5 K Folly.

  1. Evening Skis started this past Monday and plans are for them to continue-meeting at 6:45 p.m. at the Reservoir Gate.

  1. New Trail is skiable thanks to many hours of toil by various members over the fall. There are still some wet areas, ups and downs and tortuosity which hopefully will be addressed if that darned snow ever melts. After a heated discussion and an exciting second round of voting the new trail has been christened the Twisted Creek Trail, in order to tie it to the Crooked Tree Trail and keep our senior skiers confused and guessing.

  1. Upcoming events: There will be a weekend afternoon family ski sometime in the next few weeks. Sackville’s winterfest is on the weekend of February 6-8th. There will be a chance for interested folk to have a go at cross country skiing, likely on the Saturday afternoon. Club members are encouraged to come along to help out or join the ski. We decided due to lack of interest not to do the waxing clinic but to concentrate instead on technique tips and helping people get their skis on.

The meeting ended amiably enough with some keeners expressing keen disappointment at the absence of the longed for lecture by C. Leblanc. Something to look forward to next month….

Ross Thomas, Recording secretary

 

Potluck and Meeting 16 January January 14, 2009

Filed under: Activities, Administration, Skiing — Harold Jarche @ 1:13 pm

Tantramar Outdoor Club Potluck and Meeting

6:00 PM Friday, 16 January 2008

Saint Anne’s Church Hall in Westcock, off Queen’s Road (Head to Dorchester, left at the bottom of the first long hill toward Wood Point but turn right after the abboiteau  and it’s less than 1 km on your right at the sharp right turn).

*** Bring any ski equipment to buy/sell/trade ***

Agenda of the meeting which inevitably follows may include the following:

  • Financial update – Kate Bredin
  • Membership Update- Kate Bredin  Please bring any unpaid dues-more members means more leverage-$5 each or $20 for sustaining members $50 for sustaining families (practically and mathematically speaking that means there are kids being sustained) .
  • Grooming Update and discussion- Graham Watt
  • Insurance for TOC executive/
  • Motion-“TOC should  join Cross Country New Brunswick” ($200 to join, then $4 per member per year/minimum $200/year after that)
  • Evening Ski Update – Susan Kastuk Ridlington and/or Sharon French
  • Name the Trail Vote
 

Membership Dues December 3, 2008

Filed under: Administration — Harold Jarche @ 9:40 pm

At the recent potluck we again confirmed the membership rate as $ 5 per member or $20 for sustaining members and $50 for sustaining families. Cheques may be sent to Kate Bredin, Treasurer of the TOC at 2 Sawdon Pl, Sackville, E4L 4K5. She will in turn send you a membership card and receipt.

Membership is important as it will help determine what weight we are able to exert with government, particularly the Town, in our efforts to lobby for recreational trails, grooming of ski trails, money for these and potentially other associated ventures etc.