Paul Bickford/NNSL photo
As recreational facilities in Hay River closed in mid-March because of the Covid-19 crisis, the trails at the Hay River Ski Club offered a welcomed exception.
The clubhouse itself was closed, but the trails – in the great outdoors – have been maintained by Chuck Lirette, the trail's co-ordinator with the club.
"When this whole Covid crisis kind of arrived, we were contacted by the town and informed that we had to close the clubhouse immediately," he said. "All the assets out here are owned by the Town of Hay River. The ski clubhouse would fall under their recreational facilities, and so this one had to close just like the ones in town."
However, Lirette said it was a "fairly automatic" decision that the trails would remain open for skiers and snowshoers.
"What better place to do your social distancing," he noted. "We've got kilometres and kilometres of trails. And it's been fairly steady out here with people coming out to take advantage of the sunshine and the trails."
Plus, he said it's a great way to get some exercise and some fresh air, and get out of the house.
Lirette, who is also the biathlon coach at the club, noted that, if skiers are following the trails the way that they're laid out, everybody would be going in the same direction and unlikely to get near each other.
"I guess there's a possibility of passing somebody if somebody is going backwards on a trail, but you're still going to be two metres apart when you pass by one another," he said. "So you're out here social distancing with the squirrels."
Lirette hasn't been tracking how many people are using the trails since other recreational facilities closed in Hay River, but he said there has been an increase. On a nice sunny day, there are sometimes upwards of a dozen vehicles in the parking lot and perhaps 20-25 people on the trails.
"People are pleased that the trails are open," said Lirette. "People are very thankful that I'm continuing to groom and maintain them, because we've had a bunch of snow in April."
It's now a matter of how long the warmer weather will stay away.
"The conversation out here with people skiing or snowshoeing now is how long we're going to be able to keep going," said Lirette on April 8. "That's kind of in the hands of the weatherman, but I'm thinking we're going to get into the third week of April. The last time I looked at the long-range forecast, we don't see any really warm temperatures until the last week of April, where it's plus 8 or plus 9."
Those type of temperatures would make the trails extremely soft, and they could also freeze overnight and create icy conditions.
With the clubhouse closed, it means that skiers and snowshoers have to bring their own equipment to use the trails, and can't borrow equipment at the facility.
Non-members are asked to pay a $5 trail fee to use the dog walking trail, and $10 for the ski/snowshoe trails to help offset the costs of the fuel for maintaining the trails. There are dropboxes for the fees.
Lirette noted the trails have been suffering more damage than usual from snowmobilers.
"On occasion, we've had issues where people will come on the trails with Ski-Doos," he said. "But since the other facilities have closed, we've had Ski-Doos on our trails three or four times now. That is unusual to have that. Usually it's kind of an occasional occurrence."
On the evening of April 7, three snowmobilers come up from the river and did "significant damage" to the two-kilometre loop, Lirette noted, adding it would take him a few hours to repair the damage.
"I can't see them getting lost and not knowing where they are," he said of the snowmobilers. "I think they just see a riverbank that has access where they can get up top onto the ski trails and the golf course, and they just decide to come up and drive around."
The damage from snowmobilers is very disappointing and discouraging, and could be dangerous to skiers, he said.
Lirette asks snowmobilers to stay off the trails.
"There's hundreds of kilometres of river and lakeshore and cutlines and snowmobile association trails," he said. "So we ask that you take your Ski-Doo into those areas and leave our little corner of Hay River alone here so that the skiers and snowshoers can continue to enjoy the trails."