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This is a La Nina year, which is supposed to give Ontario a bully of a winter, but the weather models are wrong.

So far, it has been mostly a soft winter and all the work by the Kincardine Cross-Country Ski Club in the past year, on trail improvements at Stoney Island Conservation Area, has been in vain. Let us hope we will make up for this with cold and snowy months in February and March – a winter with a sting in its tail.

Club members put in 336 volunteer hours in 2011 on trail improvements, removing fallen trees, installing drainage, building new bridges and many other tasks. By this date (Jan. 6) last year, we had groomed the trails 10 times. This year, we haven’t had enough snow to groom once although several skiers have taken their old skis out for a circuit, and the snowshoe trails are fine for use.

We have established a new snowshoe trail at the south end of the property which leads down the Algonquin shoreline and along its base, then climbs up a small ravine to the beautiful Ridge Trail along which John Lash has set three benches with a superb view over the hardwood forest.

We will be leading a guided tour (three kilometres) of these snowshoe trails for anyone interested starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 14, at the parking lot. Bring your own snowshoes - we will meet you there. Stoney Island Conservation Area is located on Bruce County Road 23 (the B-Line), four kilometres north of Kincardine hospital.

We are planning a five-kilometre community ski race - the Great Kincardine Handicap Ski Race – Saturday, Jan. 28. We hope to have good snow by then. Watch out for an announcement in two weeks' time and check out the club's website at: http://www.angelfire.com/co/kccsc/. There will be prizes, including a prize for the fastest Kincardine District Secondary School (KDSS) student if five or more KDSS students compete.

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Friday, January 06, 2012