TRAIL TALES
“It has been around since the late
1970s, and historically it’s been one
of the stronger clubs as far as mem-bership
and activity goes in the Or-egon
State Snowmobile Association,”
he said.
Christensen says there are many peo-ple
who donate their time to support
the Tollgate Trailfinders, including 25
volunteers in appointed positions. That
includes eight people who comprise
the club’s snow grooming team.
“We’re blessed to have a lot of long-term
members,” said Christensen. “We
have several members of our club who
were some of the original groomer
drivers back in the late ‘70s and then
the ‘80s. They’ve since retired from ac-tive
grooming, but they’re still paying
club members.”
Among the club’s long time members
is Bernie Chapman, a Tollgate Trail-finders
fixture whose many contribu-tions
include helping to get one of the
club’s warming shelters – now named
after him – built. Christensen fondly re-calls
a time last year that clearly illus-trates
Chapman’s strong commitment
to his snowmobiling club.
“It was funny, we were cutting fire-wood
this past summer and Bernie
showed up. Now Bernie is 94 years
old, so we said, ‘Let’s go get you a
chair so you sit down and relax,’”
said Christensen.
“He said, ‘Hell no, I’m here to help,’
so he started hauling in wood and
helping us to stack it. It just shows how
blessed we are. We have people like him
and many others that are willing to
help out.”
According to Christensen, some
parts of the trail system used by his
snowmobiling club are shared with
a wide assortment of other outdoors
enthusiasts – cross-country skiers and
snowshoers in the winter, and people
wishing to hike, mountain bike or use a
dirt bike or all-terrain vehicle to travel
the trails during the summer.
Christensen says while most of
the trail system is on national for-est
land, 10 to 15 percent of the Toll-gate
Trailfinders’ trails run through
private property.
“We want to be respectful to the
landowners who are kind enough to let
our trail system go through there, and
we work really hard with these land-owners
to make sure that their voices
are heard when they have concerns,” he
said. “We’ve got lots of signage in that
part of our trail system, encouraging
people to stay on the trails and just fol-low
the rules.”
Focus on safety
Christensen notes the snow grooming
team responsible for setting and
maintaining the Tollgate Trailfinders’
trails, led by longtime club member
Jess Thompson, has a lot of experience
between them.
“Jess has decades of experience and
he’s been doing this for the club for
many, many years,” he said. “Most of the
guys have been doing this for at least
10 years. We have a couple of younger
guys who are riding along to do their
training, so we’ve got some youth in
there too.”
According to Christensen, that
training includes a strong emphasis
on safety.
“We have on-the-snow training with
our newer guys, and they’re required to
spend many, many hours with an expe-rienced
groomer driver, learning about
different snow conditions and how to
set the trail and all the different things
that that need to be done,” he said. “We
cross a highway several times with our
groomers and so there’s safety training
around that as well.”
The trail system is situated in a
mountainous area and that means
another safety consideration for
groomer operators and snowmobilers
is avalanches.
Christensen considers the majority
of the trails maintained by the Tollgate
Trailfinders club to be relatively safe
from avalanches, but he says there
some areas close by where they pose a
more serious threat.
“We have some trail systems nearby
that our club does not manage which
are definitely in high-risk avalanche
territory, and a lot of our members are
going to those areas,” he said. “We want
people to be safe when they’re riding in
the back country.”
For this reason, there is an avalanche
awareness course that’s available to
Tollgate Trailfinders members.
Christensen says the course, which
is run by the Wallowa Avalanche Cen-ter
in Joseph, Ore., will be offered again
next season. It is free for club members,
although participants are encouraged
to provide a donation to help support
the non-profit avalanche center.
Tucker Sno-Cat
groomers
The Tollgate Trailfinders club uses
a pair of Tucker Sno-Cat over-snow
vehicles to groom their trails, a
2008 Tucker-Terra and a brand-new
2020 Tucker-Terra that was
purchased recently.
“Even though they look similar, our
brand-new Tucker requires a little
more training because there’s quite
a bit more technology built into that
PHOTO COURTESY OF TOLLGATE TRAILFINDERS
Left to right: Glenn Warren, Allan Townsend and Mike Kelly at Table Rock Lookout
overlooking Walla Walla, Wash., during the club’s annual 90 mile ride to Godman
Warming Shelter near Bluewood Ski Resort
8 April 2020 | snowopsmag.com
/snowopsmag.com
