Then and Now
A little bit of history about the Maple Leaf Snow Skimmers:
- Con Dillabough and Glen Jones (both of Maple Leaf) groomed some old logging roads and brushed some areas for trails for their friends and themselves to ride. They used a short-track Alpine and metal bed spring for a drag.
- 1974: Glen and Con decided to form a club, they met at the Maple Leaf Orange Hall and called the new snowmobile club, Maple Leaf Snow Skimmers. Con Dillabough was the first President. In order to get started, membership cards cost $5.00
- A new drag was made of 3′ angle iron, 4′ wide with 2 side rails and 4 crosser’s. When the drag was filled it had to be manually lifted and dumped
- 1978: A new alpine was purchased for $3000 and a new drag for $600 with money saved by the club and a grant
- Through the years, many new trails were built by volunteers:
- Milt Saylor, Delbert Crowder and Jack Dempsey helped build the trail from Blairs Lake to Lake St. Peter
- Tom Buckley, Dean Foster and Charlie Foster helped build the trail to Martins Mill.
- The MNR really helped the club
- Assistance grants for the club
- MNR groomed the west to Martins Mill and later groomed the rail road tracks, while the club groomed from Martins Mill to Maple leaf
- 1981: The club joined the OFSC.
- 1983: Bruce Davis was President, he and his wife, Ethel completed all of the paper work required to incorporate the club. Their work saved the club lawyer fees and the incorporation cost the club $100
- 1990: Maple leaf Snowskimmers successfully lobbied Queens Park to have the rail road tracks turned into a public trail. The club then leased the rail road tracks from the MNR for $1.00 per year
- Bruce Davis taught the Young Snowmobile Driver Training Course for 10 years, followed by Neil Crowder of Papineau Lake who continues to this date to teach our young snowmobilers the safe driving course.
- In those early years the club held snowmobile races in Bruce Davis’ field and the Maple Leaf Baseball Diamond. The Municipality used their grader to groom a circular race track. Refreshments were sold and a lot of fun was had by all who attended.
- Today the Maple Leaf Snow Skimmers Club maintains over 280 kilometers of trails with the use of 3 groomers. The club is administered by an 9 member executive. Approximately 12 trained groomer operators and 20 certified trail wardens as well as numerous volunteers work throughout the year to keep the club operating smoothly. The membership has exceeded 900 and continues to increase each year.