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Work underway as Williams Lake Cross-Country Ski Club prepares for season

Bull Mountain has been a hive of activity lately with another work bee coming Oct. 30

The Williams Lake Cross Country Ski Club is prepping for the season, with some big improvements happening at Bull Mountain.

The new day lodge is underway, after delays due to permitting, and volunteers are working on trail preparation and moving rental equipment for use for the season.

As well, a new outdoor log pavilion is being constructed as an announcing booth thanks to Mike Wessels of Wessels Custom Logworks.

Robin Dawes, club president, said the new pavilion will be a fitting complement to the new lodge.

“We hope to have a wood stove in it to warm the hearts and hands of those of us who love to be outdoors in the winter,” she said.

The group is also going to be welcoming the addition of a new piston bully, which is a larger groomer and will hopefully help reduce the amount of volunteer hours it takes to groom the large trail network. Previously, the group used snowmobiles to pull track setters for the entire network. While these will still be needed to do some of the network, the piston bully should help reduce the hours, as it covers a much wider area than a snowmobile groomer. But the wider track means trail widening is required in places, another chore volunteers are working on at the facility.

The new piston bully machine was donated by 100 Mile House and Dave Skarra has been volunteering his time to bring it up to speed, with over 200 hours in the project so far. Richard Nelson donated the funds to purchase the parts for these repairs.

They also hope to have a building to house it finished by the end of the winter.

The group had a great turnout for some pre-season work bees and the logs for the pavilion were peeled thanks to the hard work of 10 volunteers.

Dawes has been helping run a tractor to mow trails and the AGM was held on Oct. 18.

They have another work bee scheduled for Oct. 30 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to prep the snowshoe trails, so Dawes said they are calling on snowshoers and dog enthusiasts to come out and help.

The group is also looking for anyone interested in helping coach young skiers, with their popular Jackrabbit and Bunny Rabbit and school programs booking up.

Track Attack and Junior Racer skiers were up in Prince George over the weekend for their third and fourth level skill development program training and they’ll have a busy racing season ahead of them.

Registration for the 2022-23 ski season is now open, and skiers can register online from the website for their season passes at: https://www.williamslakecrosscountryskiclub.ca/club/membership-fees/

Read more: Williams Lake Cross Country Ski Club awarded funds for lodge



ruth.lloyd@wltribune.com

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Ruth Lloyd

About the Author: Ruth Lloyd

After moving back to Williams Lake, where I was born and graduated from school, I joined the amazing team at the Williams Lake Tribune in 2021.
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