Fat Bike Grooming? Perhaps not well suited to Great Falls trails.
Good day everyone, I wanted to update you all on the winter trail grooming question that was raised at the last meeting. Being new to the area, I have to rely on my peers that have more experience with local winter weather than myself. So, I have discussed the topic with my staff/other managing agencies and I was advised not to allow. The big concern voiced was the dynamic winters in Great Falls where there is not consistent enough snow to make grooming feasible and there is a worry that grooming will lead to negative impacts to the trails. This is not a permanent no for State managed lands, but it will have to wait for now.
I would also like to be involved in the trail maintenance schedule. It would greatly benefit State Parks (and I’m sure the City) to know how much work is being done on the trails and where that work is being done. Being able to quantify volunteer hours will help us apply for outside funding and inform us where to focus our internal efforts. It would be great to develop a tracking mechanism to go along with the maintenance schedule and I’d be happy to work on developing this unless someone has something already or has ideas on this.
