Any of our members?
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The setting was serene. Mike Reeder and I glided along the steady but gradual uphill trail, glad to be outside in the idyllic winter setting. Because it was a weekday, we had the trail to ourselves. The quiet swoosh of our skis was only infrequently interrupted when snow-burdened trees suddenly unloaded branch loads of snow.
A couple of miles into our ski, the stillness was broken by an increasingly louder sound of an engine. Into sight came a large snowcat slowly making its way downhill, carving and leaving in its wake a broad path and a crenulated corduroy track. We stepped aside as it passed alongside. Its operators, Ken Crutchfield and Jim Goosen, paused long enough to exchange greetings before forging on. Their snowcat was a 2015 PistenBully, one of two owned and operated by Klamath Basin Snowdrifters.
As Dan Riblett, the Snowdrifters president and grooming chairman later explained, the Snowdrifters Club is part of the Oregon State Snowmobile Association.
“We are a ‘grooming’ club, which means OSSA provides us with a snowcat and money for maintenance and fuel,” Riblett said.
The two snowcats — the other is a 2004 Bombardier — are operated by volunteers. The machines are used to groom designated multi-use trails leading to Pelican Butte, Buck Peak, Lake of the Woods, Surveyor Mountain, Fish Lake, Robinson Butte and down to the Howard Prairie/Hyatt Lake area. The PistenBull is kept at the club’s shed at the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Lake of the Woods station, while the Bombardier is housed at the Bureau of Land Management campground at Hyatt Lake.
The Snowdrifters are an active group. According to Riblett, during the winter of 2019-2020, 22 different volunteers helped operate the snowcats. In a good snow season, volunteers groom more than 2,000 miles and log more than 600 hours.
“In a good snow year we will attempt to schedule grooming operations daily, Monday through Friday, on the 230-plus miles of trail system in our area,” Riblett said. He noted that grooming is usually not done on weekends to help avoid conflicts with trail users.
The entire trail system is groomed for multiple use, including snowmobilers, cross country skiers, snowshoers and fat tire bikers. “We try to groom the trail to Fourmile Lake and the west side of Lake of the Woods at least weekly to allow for good skiing for those folks,” he said. “Those trails are very popular to skiers, as are the ones south of the Pederson Snow Park.”
Over the years growing numbers of cross country skiers have taken advantage of the groomed trails. Many skiers routinely check the Snowdrifters website for their grooming schedule, then plan outings the following day to take advantage of freshly groomed trails.
The focus is on winter, but Snowdrifters volunteers also perform fall and spring trail maintenance to remove vegetation growing on the trails and road right-of-way.
“We also work at keeping trails open in the winter by removing trees that have fallen across the trail system or removing small trees that are leaning into the trail that could cause issues,” Riblett said. “The club also provides firewood for the three snow shelters at Fourmile Lake, Big Meadow and Brown Mountain. We cut, split, and deliver about four cords of wood a year for use by winter recreationalists. Some cross country skiers have even joined our club to assist in maintenance and grooming operations and assist in cutting and splitting firewood for the shelters.
Snowdrifters members are also responsible for building maintenance and improvement at the cat shed, which was purchased with Recreational Trails Program money, and for the snowcat’s minor maintenance and repairs.
“We try to maintain the equipment on schedule to minimize expensive repairs that could occur due of lack of maintenance,” Ribett explained, noting the oil is changed once a season and the chassis is lubricated about once a month.
He said volunteers work under OSSA guidelines and under permit and direction of the Fremont/Winema National Forest, Rogue/Siskiyou National Forest, Lakeview District of the Bureau of Land Management, and Medford District of the BLM.
To become a groomer, Riblett said a person must be an OSSA and Klamath Basin Snowdrifter Club member. New operators ride with an experienced operator to learn to drive the snowcat. After training, which can be as long as three years, a trainee can become a lead operator.
“The club has a core group of about eight folks that are at the lead operator level,” Riblett said, noting most operators donate one day a week to ensure there are well-groomed trails for the winter recreationalist.
Mike and I didn’t know those details while we were skiing. But as we continued up the now smoothly groomed track, our kick and gliding made easier, we appreciated the difference.
Eventually we turned and skied back. Or, rather, mostly double-poled, letting gravity — and the near perfect surface — speed us back to the Fourmile Lake Trailhead. And gave thanks to the Klamath Basin Snowdrifters.
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Grooming trails in the wintry Cascades
We were cross country skiing up the snow-covered Forest Service road toward Fourmile Lake. The trail offered mostly good conditions, although the main route had obviously been traveled by snowmobiles and a few other skiers.The setting was serene. Mike Reeder and I glided along the steady but gradual uphill trail, glad to be outside in the idyllic winter setting. Because it was a weekday, we had the trail to ourselves. The quiet swoosh of our skis was only infrequently interrupted when snow-burdened trees suddenly unloaded branch loads of snow.
A couple of miles into our ski, the stillness was broken by an increasingly louder sound of an engine. Into sight came a large snowcat slowly making its way downhill, carving and leaving in its wake a broad path and a crenulated corduroy track. We stepped aside as it passed alongside. Its operators, Ken Crutchfield and Jim Goosen, paused long enough to exchange greetings before forging on. Their snowcat was a 2015 PistenBully, one of two owned and operated by Klamath Basin Snowdrifters.
As Dan Riblett, the Snowdrifters president and grooming chairman later explained, the Snowdrifters Club is part of the Oregon State Snowmobile Association.
“We are a ‘grooming’ club, which means OSSA provides us with a snowcat and money for maintenance and fuel,” Riblett said.
The two snowcats — the other is a 2004 Bombardier — are operated by volunteers. The machines are used to groom designated multi-use trails leading to Pelican Butte, Buck Peak, Lake of the Woods, Surveyor Mountain, Fish Lake, Robinson Butte and down to the Howard Prairie/Hyatt Lake area. The PistenBull is kept at the club’s shed at the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Lake of the Woods station, while the Bombardier is housed at the Bureau of Land Management campground at Hyatt Lake.
The Snowdrifters are an active group. According to Riblett, during the winter of 2019-2020, 22 different volunteers helped operate the snowcats. In a good snow season, volunteers groom more than 2,000 miles and log more than 600 hours.
“In a good snow year we will attempt to schedule grooming operations daily, Monday through Friday, on the 230-plus miles of trail system in our area,” Riblett said. He noted that grooming is usually not done on weekends to help avoid conflicts with trail users.
The entire trail system is groomed for multiple use, including snowmobilers, cross country skiers, snowshoers and fat tire bikers. “We try to groom the trail to Fourmile Lake and the west side of Lake of the Woods at least weekly to allow for good skiing for those folks,” he said. “Those trails are very popular to skiers, as are the ones south of the Pederson Snow Park.”
Over the years growing numbers of cross country skiers have taken advantage of the groomed trails. Many skiers routinely check the Snowdrifters website for their grooming schedule, then plan outings the following day to take advantage of freshly groomed trails.
The focus is on winter, but Snowdrifters volunteers also perform fall and spring trail maintenance to remove vegetation growing on the trails and road right-of-way.
“We also work at keeping trails open in the winter by removing trees that have fallen across the trail system or removing small trees that are leaning into the trail that could cause issues,” Riblett said. “The club also provides firewood for the three snow shelters at Fourmile Lake, Big Meadow and Brown Mountain. We cut, split, and deliver about four cords of wood a year for use by winter recreationalists. Some cross country skiers have even joined our club to assist in maintenance and grooming operations and assist in cutting and splitting firewood for the shelters.
Snowdrifters members are also responsible for building maintenance and improvement at the cat shed, which was purchased with Recreational Trails Program money, and for the snowcat’s minor maintenance and repairs.
“We try to maintain the equipment on schedule to minimize expensive repairs that could occur due of lack of maintenance,” Ribett explained, noting the oil is changed once a season and the chassis is lubricated about once a month.
He said volunteers work under OSSA guidelines and under permit and direction of the Fremont/Winema National Forest, Rogue/Siskiyou National Forest, Lakeview District of the Bureau of Land Management, and Medford District of the BLM.
To become a groomer, Riblett said a person must be an OSSA and Klamath Basin Snowdrifter Club member. New operators ride with an experienced operator to learn to drive the snowcat. After training, which can be as long as three years, a trainee can become a lead operator.
“The club has a core group of about eight folks that are at the lead operator level,” Riblett said, noting most operators donate one day a week to ensure there are well-groomed trails for the winter recreationalist.
Mike and I didn’t know those details while we were skiing. But as we continued up the now smoothly groomed track, our kick and gliding made easier, we appreciated the difference.
Eventually we turned and skied back. Or, rather, mostly double-poled, letting gravity — and the near perfect surface — speed us back to the Fourmile Lake Trailhead. And gave thanks to the Klamath Basin Snowdrifters.
