Drift Skippers working on trails

President Gene Leininger opened the December Jim River Drift Skippers meeting with 12 members present.

The north and south trail system should meet the first benchmark as most of the trail has been signed. A few signs are still needed down south and someone has already stolen the stop sign near the airport, but that should be remedied in the next week. The trail has not yet been groomed.

Eleven members attended the North Dakota Snowmobile Convention on Dec. 1 in Rugby. Snowmobile North Dakota’s website has been upgraded to make it easier for clubs to handle memberships, and SND has also partnered up with North Dakota Parks and Recreation and Foremost Insurance Company.

Next year, the convention will be moving east to Grand Forks; and for 2014, the Devils Lake club will be host with the completion of a new convention center.

Leininger and Glenn Christianson will be distributing some of the new map displays at popular trail stops in the next couple weeks.

Mike Gee has arranged for a fundraising event at Applebee’s on March 2. The last fundraiser seemed to go well and members were asked to mark their calendars to help out with the event.

The club reviewed some of the season’s runs. Some of the upcoming events include the Pink Ribbon run Jan. 11-12 in Bottineau, McGinnis Memorial Run on Jan. 26 at Marion, Cabin Fever Run on Feb. 2 from Jamestown to Sanborn, North Dakota State Run on Feb. 16 in Fordville, and Fort Ransom Retro Ride on Feb. 23. The club has also scheduled a date for the Rainbow Resort in Minnesota for Feb 16. Leininger needs to know how many couples are interested so reservations can be made.

Christianson started discussion on getting reimbursement for those who help out year after year signing trails. With the price of fuel, it can run some members a couple hundred dollars to travel the miles of trail several weekends in a row.

The next meeting will be Jan. 3 at Tapps Lounge.

Tags: community, clubs