Snow and Weather: 8"

Trail Report: The Michigan Snowmobile Association has put out the following statement:

GAYLORD GROOMING PROGRAM STILL A QUESTION ?
In September 2008 the DNR received a letter from the Gaylord Area Trails stating that they could not go on grooming their area unless some things changed in the contract with the DNR. The department concluded that they could not agree to the changes requested and decided to do something different in the area.

The department has requested that the Department of Management & Budget put the area trails out to bid. The first bid for signing, brushing, and grooming went out in October. The department reviewed the bid received and split out the signing & brushing portion and awarded it to a local contractor. They did not like the way the grooming portion was bid and revise the bid spec and sent it out again. The bid for grooming this portion of trails was due on November 17. At the time of this writing MSA has not heard who was awarded this contract.

MSA of course has concerns; we are going to watch this process very carefully. On one hand the department is trying a process that has never been done in Michigan. Will it save the program money? Will it provide the snowmobiler with the trails that they have become accustomed to by the current Grant Sponsors? These and many more question will hopefully be answered over the course of this winter. As we are afforded more information we will keep you all posted. So if you’re on the Gaylord trails system let us know what you found in riding through the area, good and bad.

We encourage anyone with questions to call the DNR Gaylord Office.

Additional Area Report Links

Report By: Alpine Snowmobile Trails