Report for April 9, 2024
Join us this Saturday 4/13/24 for a ride to Crater Lake and the WRR annual meeting!
Meeting at 9am sharp @ Junction Snopark and then trailering to the north entrance of Crater Lake
We had scheduled on the ride list to do a scavenger hunt, but the local crescent Lake trails are currently starting to show a lot of dirt, so several people won't want to ride snowmobiles and still too much snow to make it a side-by-side run sooooo....
We've decided to trailer down to the entrance of crater Lake national Park and ride in to the rim with hopefully warm T-shirt spring like conditions! Afterword we might trailer over to diamond Lake Lodge and grab a quick lunch before returning for the annual general meeting at 2 PM in the junction Sno- park in front of the warming hut.
With it being a very short ride it would be a great time to bring the entire family for an enjoyable trip into crater Lake to make memories and grab the seasonal bucket list trip to view the lake before all the tourists come out!!
Hope you can join us!
Report for March 8, 2024
Club ride this Saturday!! This ride was originally going to focus on lady’s skills, but the original leader isn’t able to make it. Instead, Mike Strode will meet with those that show up in the morning and let the group decide where to go. This could be an easy, fun ride around Crescent Lake or maybe up to Timpanogas. We’ll meet at the warming shed in the Junction Sno-Park and leave around 9:30. Bring your snacks, drinks and some cash in case the group decides to visit one of
our local restaurants. This will be an easy ride on groomed trails, but plenty of areas to go play for those who want to.
Reminder - our board meeting and no host dinner will be at Odell Lake Lodge Saturday at 6:00. Everyone is invited to attend and we’d love for you to come and get involved!
Grooming Report for March 7, 2024
Finally had time to run up and groom lower moore creek loop and clear it of trees. Ran around Royce mountain while I was headed up also. The snow is prime but it's beginning to set up a little bit! Get out there and enjoy it
Report for March 7, 2024
Club ride this Saturday!! This ride was originally going to focus on lady’s skills, but the original leader isn’t able to make it. Instead, Mike Strode will meet with those that show up in the morning and let the group decide where to go. This could be an easy, fun ride around Crescent Lake or maybe up to Timpanogas. We’ll meet at the warming shed in the Junction Sno-Park and leave around 9:30. Bring your snacks, drinks and some cash in case the group decides to visit one of our local restaurants. This will be an easy ride on groomed trails, but plenty of areas to go play for those who want to.
Reminder - our board meeting and no host dinner will be at Odell Lake Lodge Saturday at 6:00. Everyone is invited to attend, and we’d love for you to come and get involved!
Report for March 4, 2024
While planning to head out Grooming I got a call requesting assistance and a pretty scary situation. Here's a rough version of what I've put together-hopefully we can all learn something from this. It's common to want to armchair quarterback situations when we hear about them and we know every situation is different-my personal take is I feel strongly everyone should join their local snowmobile clubs and the Oregon State snowmobile association. Show up
for some rides or work parties, make acquaintances and grow your network. That way when we all find ourselves in an unplanned situation we have a few good buddies we can call.
Late Saturday evening one snow bike and one snowmobile went to the high country to break trail and the fresh bottomless powder around Summit Lake. The snowmobiler with approximately three years experience began to get stuck repeatedly and I'm sure fatigued and probably sweating to get the snowmobile unstuck. At some point the decision was made to leave the snowmobile and the snow Bike would ride out alone to get a snowmobile and come back and pick rider #2 up (approximately 20 miles one-way)
Rider #1 got back to the crescent Lake area and grabbed the snowmobile to head back up, unfortunately the snowmobile experienced a throttle cable problem resulting in a call to 911 knowing rider #2 was now stranded with no ride out.
It sounds like some quick work was performed and rider #1 got the snowmobile functioning and headed back up (20 miles alone) to pick up rider #2. 911 was called off
While rider #2 was waiting he began hiking over 3 miles in deep snow that most snowmobilers couldn't ride in. It sounds like pretty strong effects of hypothermia started to set in before rider #1 was able to return. This group got lucky and was able to get everyone back down to the snow park but a lot of things had to go right in order to make that happen.
When I heard about this a few hours later and was told they left a sled in the middle of the trail but there is heavy snow predicted all week. I decided to go up and move it and make sure conditions wouldn't leave anyone else stranded. Before I could get up there the snow had already begun to bury the sled and visibility went from nonexistent to clear minute by minute.
In our high elevation area at Crescent Lake, a 911 call to search and rescue in the past has averaged around 5 hours response time. If you are hypothermic and have already hiked for 3 miles through the snow soaking wet you probably don't have 5 hours to wait around. If you find yourself in one of these situations stop and try to make a fail-safe plan immediately. I'm sure Search and Rescue would rather be called off instead of arriving too late.
You can always reach out to snowmobile clubs and friends hopefully before it becomes an emergency level crisis. 
The following are some pictures when I went back up-after this last storm the snow cat was having a hard time pushing snow in these conditions. This sled still ran fine but due to exhaustion and conditions they chose to leave it. A simple part failure could strand any of us though-Keep that in mind when planning your rides.
I'm a firm believer in two things: Several forms of heat, and communication-we carry a Garmin inreach in this snow cat that so far has proven very reliable.
Grooming Report for March 3, 2024
11 hrs grooming
After an absolute dumping from the storm I went out and groomed partially around crescent Lake and then Windigo-Kelsey-diamond Way-Summit Lake Road.
I have to say I'm pretty disappointed.... after an epic day of sledding on a Saturday no less, not a single sled had made it to Kelsey loop or past the tip shelter. It felt downright disgusting Grooming untouched powder! I expected better. Grooming is a lot more fulfilling when sleds have
ripped the trail to pieces and thoroughly enjoyed every inch before we come along and fix it, the acclaimed hard-core sledders need to step it up a bit. Cough cough.... two rivers north...
But I was treated to a pretty epic sunrise coming back down Summit Lake Road.
Grooming Report for March 1, 2024
Headed out to groom around all the snow parks and local trails, got quite the entertainment from someone thinking it was a good idea to drive their truck up and over the forest service gate at the 60 road-then proceeded to bury it on the snowmobile trail! It would've been courteous if they removed all the junk along with sticks and limbs they brought into the trail to get unstuck. This is a good reminder that snowmobile trails are 100% volunteer labor and
being a jerk driving your vehicle down them and tearing up the trails will not make you any friends. Also got to work on some logging techniques which are always fun
The snow has been coming in quickly with all the storms so we're going to wait until the storms recede before resuming Grooming.
Grooming Report for February 27, 2024
After receiving reports of a SAR callout from some snowmobilers that ran into difficulty I decided to run up and groom the big loop and make sure it was cleared of some fresh downed trees. Ran into the Forest Service doing some training and certifying a new snowmobile ranger-always entertaining watching new snowmobilers get the hang of it, I even got to assist with some ski pulls. See the included pictures for Grooming route and entertainment
With
safety in mind make sure you pack accordingly for every ride - communication is normally the most important tool, after that make sure you have redundant options to stay warm
Grooming Report for February 17, 2024
Grooming report: 2/16 & 2/17
Yesterday we ran up Windigo pass and back around Crescent lake
Today I ran into some people asking for help as they were trying to get around a loop and had become blocked in unable to turn around due to several trees and downfall, the loop is now cleared and everyone home safely-see the screenshots from yesterday and today below. The last picture captures a hint of the fun we have while out grooming
Grooming Report for February 12, 2024
Another day out knocking off bumps, thinking I should pick up a couple trail sleds and take advantage of these spring like snow conditions we have! 
Grooming Report for February 9, 2024
Did a short local clean up run to warm up fluids and do Cat maintenance and full greasing. Snowparks and trail to Odell lake lodge are fresh corduroy.
With all the crazy windstorms early season and an unusually high number of downed trees blocking trails the chainsaws have been taking a beating! Today was spent catching up on saw maintenance and sharpening. If
anyone has some top-secret ideas on how to make chains last longer cutting dirty, frozen logs covered in ice please let me know! I'm on the verge of trying carbon and tungsten tipped chains to see how they'll do in this environment but not looking forward to sharpening those.
Grooming Report for February 5, 2024
88 miles at "blistering" snowcat speed...
To give you an idea of how long that takes to groom, I could've jumped in my truck and driven to Lake Tahoe AND back Or driven to McCall Idaho AND back in the same amount of time!
Heres the report: Finally got time to head north and lay some eyes on the trail for our Elk Lake ride this weekend, did some trail clearing/logging and pushed through to the Waldo Lake Snopark. Conditions are pretty good but snowmobiling
to the east of Davis lake is definitely not gonna happen unless we get more snow.
Interesting detail: this is the first time we've gotten the new snow cat to Waldo lake since the Forest Service had the area shut down last year due to the forest fire. I didn't run all the loops up north like I normally do as I wanted to conserve fuel and see if the new cat had the fuel range in order to make it back safely.
Below you'll find the screenshot of the Grooming route in black using the Avenza app which by now everyone should have downloaded-it's free.
Grooming Report for February 4, 2024
After spending the day on Cat maintenance we headed out to do local clean up to trailheads and local subdivisions. After filling in several deep ruts and mud holes from SXS, it's a good time to remind everyone that SXS are not legal to operate on a groomed trail system in the Crescent lake area. Also they are still finishing some logging operations near the Black Rock Cinder cone. It's a popular destination for sledding families. They have plowed the
road down to gravel so I wouldn't recommend heading that way 
See below for a screenshot of the grooming route last night.
Grooming Report for January 26, 2024
This week the Walker Rim club groomed over 300 miles in preparation for the annual OSSA convention that travels to a different location in the state each year. This year we were able to co-host the event with Lapine Lodgepole Dodgers taking the lead and the TRAC Club in two Rivers north assisting as well. With the weather looking poor leading up to the event we'll admit to having some doubts but
we got very lucky with how well the conditions turned out!
We're already looking
forward to next year's event!
Grooming Report for January 21, 2024
Finished grooming up Windigo pass to connect with Cascade connection clubs Grooming of Kelsey loop. Still pretty warm and wet conditions but there is now a trail bed that will hopefully hold the rest of the season. 
Grooming Report for January 20, 2024
Help and assistance needed: We are gearing up for our annual candlelighter event being held this year on February the 25th (Sunday)
For those that don't know, Candlelighters is an organization that helps children that have been affected by childhood cancer and their families-every year the Walker rim snowmobile club with amazing assistance from other clubs : Lodgepole Dodgers, Mt. Jeff, Mt. Hood. And creates a day out on the snow with several fun events planned. We could use
assistance from anyone that could bring and operate a 2-up snowmobile to either provide rides or tow a passenger sleigh. We will graciously accept any help that can be provided as well.
Please send a note to our messenger inbox if you're able to participate or if you're getting this in email please email back to us so we can plan a headcount accordingly. THANK YOU!
Grooming Report for January 19, 2024
It's wet and warm out there! I've began prepping the trails in anticipation for the OSSA convention rides next week, they are NOT pretty! Generally it takes a few passes after we first get snow to have a decent trail, this time is much worse than normal- I lost count but it was either 102 trees or 105 trees between crescent Lake and the Timpanogos shelter. It looks like a few snowmobiles tried to ride it and turned back. I was trying to groom down to the
Kelsey loop trail which the cascade connection club recently groomed but removing the trees used far more DEF than normal and I was forced to turn back. The trail is pretty rough and we'll clean it up as soon as we get time.
Several people have also reached out to the Grooming team for assistance this week either being stuck or stranded, we're always willing to lend a hand if we're able but if you experience an actual emergency don't hesitate to call 911
The white line on the map screenshot was groomed today, Lemolo lake to Kelsey loop and up to Windigo was also groomed but not connected to Crescent Lake yet
Grooming Report for January 16, 2024
Grooming Report for January 14, 2024
60 miles
Cleared downed trees and groomed around Crescent lake, into the subdivisions and around Royce Mtn (including goat hill) and back by Cascade lakes hwy. to North Royce loop
Grooming Report for January 13, 2024
Here's an update on road conditions headed up the pass.... plan accordingly
Grooming Report for January 11, 2024
Grooming Report for January 10, 2024
Due to heavy snows this Saturdays ride at Waldo lake has been canceled
Grooming Report for January 9, 2024
Grooming Report for January 8, 2024
Nothing to report as of yet. Please come back.
Report January 2024
Report January 2024
