They’re digging deep into garages and sheds, pulling out the chainsaws and shovels, the pulaskis and pry bars, the loppers and limbers and weed whackers.
Because on Sunday, Oct. 14, everyone is invited to brush out a winding course of free cross-country ski trails near Blacktail Mountain.
“We’ve always groomed three areas right around Bigfork,” Hadden said - the Foothills area, Bug Creek Road and the popular River Trail.
At least, that was the idea. “But in the past couple years, the snow’s been kind of hit and miss,” Hadden said, especially down by the river.
So last year, the volunteers kicked and glided over to Somers, to Blacktail, where Flathead County keeps a quiet, wooded community park, carved through with old logging roads turned trails.
“The county’s been grooming that area intermittently for, I don’t know, 10 years or more,” Hadden said. “We just stepped in to help.“
His club now grooms some 30 kilometers there, adding new terrain and more frequent trail maintenance.
In the past, Hadden said, work days have brought out 40 or 50 people, all set to clear brush, pick rocks and smooth tread in anticipation of winter’s white. At Blacktail, they’ll focus on two areas - the “Z-Descent,” and the approach to that descent.
“The alders tend to creep in from the edges,” Hayden said of the trails. “We’ll cut everything back so nothing is sticking out into the trail.“
He said past trail days have proved to be “mostly work, but people tend to be in pretty good spirits, for some reason. I’d actually call it fun. You know how it is n the more hands, the lighter the work.“
The Northshore Nordic Club now has one high-end groomer and a retired mechanic to drive it, Hadden said, and they’re looking to raise money for a second machine, if not a second mechanic. All the cross-country ski trails they groom are open to the public, and Hadden predicts the new Blacktail site will soon be recognized as “one of the best Nordic ski venues in northwest Montana,” what with its terrain and views and good snow.
“The only service we provide is good skiing,” Hadden said of his club, “and it’s free.”
Except, of course, for the sweat equity, this one day per year, before you put away the pruners and pull out the poles.
Working for the winter
Kick and glide and cut and saw: Join the Northshore Nordic Club for a work day, clearing cross-country ski trails near Blacktail Mountain, on Sunday, Oct. 14. The group meets at the “upper parking lot,” outside Somers, at 9 a.m. Once cleared, the trails will be groomed for free public use. For information, call 837-0783, or 837-2142.
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