Early Tuesday, during a gray morning of wet, sideways-blowing snow, a heavily bundled Dave Brann, hitched up a snow compacter to the back of a snowmachine and motored to the Baycrest trailhead on Roger's Loop Drive.
"I could do without this wind," said Brann, a board member and volunteer trail groomer for the Kachemak Nordic Ski Club. "But it's good to see the snow."
Many area cross-country skiers and snowmachiners share his sentiment — snow conditions this winter, so far, have been spotty at best.
But while some outdoor enthusiasts have spent this winter sulking next to a fire, contemplating the potential effects of global warming on maritime climates — more than 20 volunteers have been busy building and maintaining an expanding snow trail system for skiers and snowmachiners alike.
"It's never ending," said Mickey Todd, president of the Snomads Snowmachine Club.
Photo by Ben Stuart, Homer News
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Todd grooms a 50-mile trail from his home on North Fork Road with a 1976 Tucker Sno-cat and an 8-foot-by-21-foot drag.
This year, for the first time, Todd and the Snomads connected the Anchor Point trail system to the 125-mile Caribou Lake area trail system.
This in turn is connected to hundreds of miles of groomed trails maintained by the Caribou Hills Cabin Hoppers Snowmachine Club out of Ninilchik. Snowmachiners now can travel from North Fork Road and East End Road all the way to Clam Gulch and Centennial Lake farther north on groomed trails.
"The trails are in pretty good shape," Todd said Friday, as he prepared for another grooming session. "We had that big dump last week and that's what we hoped for."
Brann agreed.
"We've been lucky," Brann said. "The groomers have been working hard and we've had at least some skiing all winter."
"The last couple days have been as good as all winter," he said.
In 1980 the Kachemak Nordic Ski Club's primary mission was to maintain a ski trail for the high school ski team near Ohlson Mountain.
Today, that trail is history, but membership in the club has grown to roughly 200 members.
The money raised by membership fees, fund raising during events such as the annual wine and cheese tour and grants has been reinvested in equipment and the trail systems have expanded significantly.
The club's largest trail system, the Baycrest Ski Trails, contains 30 kilometers of groomed trails interwoven through the Demonstration Forest near Roger's Loop Drive to the main trailhead on the Sterling Highway and up to Dimond Ridge Road.
The club also maintains 10 kilometers of trails at McNeil Canyon School, two to three kilometers at Lookout Mountain and the Eveline trails off Alpine Meadow Road.
Photo by Ben Stuart, Homer News
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This year for the first time groomers have connected the McNeil and Eveline trail systems creating a 7.5-kilometer loop.
Trail maintenance at the different locations is strictly a volunteer effort. Fees and grants pay for gas and equipment, while nearly 20 volunteers handle the grooming duties.
This year, Brann said, the groomers have had their work cut out for them.
"It's been a chore for the groomers all season," he said.
Someone works on the trails just about every day, setting classical tracks, clearing limbs or making improvements, Brann said.
The work is essential, Brann said, because the trails are used nearly everyday, regardless of weather. On a sunny day, the Baycrest trails might host 100 people, Brann said
Add all the school teams and junior programs that use the trails for practice, and races — such as the Besh Cups every two years and this weekend's Middle School Borough Meet at McNeil — and Brann estimates 500-600 people from the Homer area use the trails annually.
When not grooming trails, club members have been busy working with private landowners and government to acquire permanent trail easements.
"We've had really good cooperation from private landowners, the borough and the state," Brann said. "More and more we're working to try to establish better relationships."
As it sits now, Brann said, none of the trails the club currently maintains are guaranteed to exist in the future.
"Things can change almost overnight," he said.
Brann and the board currently are working on a 25-year plan for the trail systems and hope to find a permanent solution to current land-use issues.
For those looking to find out what the trails conditions look like today, the club has updated its Web site (www.kachemaknordicskiclub.org) this year to include a bulletin board where skiers can provide updated snow conditions.
"The more people that use it the more valuable it becomes," Brann said.
The Snomad Snowmachine Club began in 1990 and has grown to 300 members.
Todd is one of two groomers who maintain more than 200 miles of backcountry trails on state and borough land north of Homer.
Most of the trails are 14 to 16 feet wide, which makes them ideal for large groups of snowmachiners.
Unlike the Kachemak Nordic Ski Club, a large percentage of the Snomads' $35,000 annual grooming budget comes from gaming revenues from pull tabs at local bars.
While the largest chunk of money is spent on trail marking and maintenance, the Snomads also hold snowmachine education, safety and ethics classes at area schools.
Todd said part of the reason the club holds so many youth events — like this weekend's 120-cc snowmachine races for 5-8 year olds — is to help kids become better riders early while also teaching them the effects of speed at an early age.
Todd said the club also strictly enforces a code of ethics that is tolerant of other users.
"We promote all trail uses, skiers, dog mushers — it's the community's trails," Todd said.
"It's good to see them out and enjoying the back country."
When multiple user groups — each with different expectations — compete for trails, conflicts often arise.
Todd said mutual respect between groups always is an issue.
But Brann said he has seen a definite improvement in snowmachiner behavior since the Snomads began their classes.
"The Snomads have been real supportive," Brann said. "They've benefited the ski club a lot. (Today) you don't have kids riding snowmachines on the ski trials."
To make his point, Brann said he skied on Snomad-groomed trails near Caribou Lake last weekend.
"I used the groomed trails and it was a fabulous ski day," Brann said. "All the snowmachiners slowed down, waved and were real respectful."
The weather forecast this weekend is calling for mostly cloudy skies and, thanks to area ski and snowmachine groomers, a chance of fun in the hill country.
Ben Stuart can be reached at ben.stuart@homernews.com.
