HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, N.L. — In the wintertime in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, the snowmobile trails are widely accessed by snowmobiles thanks to the continuous work of the Grand River Snowmobile Club who are responsible for grooming the trails and making sure they are safe for all riders.
But what happens to these trails during the summer months?
The Aurora ATV Club was recently established and will operate under the auspices of the Grand River Snowmobile Club. The newly formed club has recently employed two people to maintain the trails, this includes removing any tree stumps, large rocks, installation of additional signage and the general smoothing out of ground surface.
Even though the Aurora ATV Club will operate as a subsidiary of the Snowmobile Club, there will be two separate executives responsible to for the governance of the respective clubs. Greg Wheeler, president of the snowmobile club, will assume presidency of the ATV Club as well.
Wheeler told The Labradorian one of the goals of the ATV Club was to link up the existing trail system so that it will be easier for ATV riders to get around and out of town without having to access the provincial road network.
“We want to join the bottom of the Valley to up the top of town near Spruce Park,” he said. “There will be a main trail that will be marked with red signage to identify that this is the main trail.
“Unlike usage of the trail network during the winter months which requires users to purchase an access pass, there will be no user fees applied to access the trails during the Summer months. In future years it is anticipated that a club membership fee will be required to be purchased in order to maintain usage.”
Wheeler added that one of the main reasons for the Aurora ATV Club being established was to encourage users of ATV’s and side by sides to access the snowmobile trails during summer to try and reduce the amount of vehicles that illegally access the road network.
