16JAN2025 SRSC Meeting Minutes
Attendance: 18 people in person, several online
Pizza courtesy of Elway Powersports of Laramie. Thank you!
Elway Powersports: Ski-Doo offering 0% 60 months financing on sleds. Special savings
on 12-13 600cc sleds (Summit Adrenalines, great for newer riders) with BRP rebates and Elway has discounts above those. Check them out if you’re interested.
Beacon check signs are all deployed. Located at the Y above Green Rock, Lake Marie by the
Safety Shelter, Chains End, and Albany.
Avy Conditions: Still sketchy layer in snowpack. Lot’s more snow than this time last year. Tog has had a sledder caught and a skier killed in slides. 3C Crew is going to continue submitting observations for the avy center, hoping to have enough observations to get a dedicated forecaster down here. Sheriff Bakken’s group out of Rawlins & Saratoga are also submitting observations. You can too, if you see a slide happen or evidence of recent avalanches, snap a picture and post it to the site. If you want to get more formal with pits and have the knowledge to so that is also welcomed. https://ewyoavalanche.org/#/view/observations
Trails: Grooming is in full swing, trails are marked. All safety shelters are in. Little thin to start the year, but things have really turned around since the New Year.
Permits: If your sticker falls off, State Trails will re-issue without charge. Keep the paper
copy/receipt. This is a known problem, new batch of stickers is on order.
House Bill 4 to increase sticker fees $15 for resident and $35 non-resident, and add a vintage sled tag for $25 has been introduced. Higher sticker fees will allow State Trails to continue grooming the trails we currently have into the future. Without a fee increase there is projected funds for only two years of grooming at the current volume but they’ll have to cut back grooming after that. This is rooted in the cost to groom: fuel, equipment, labor have all gone up yet we haven’t seen a fee increase in over a decade. State Trails & WSSA are working together to figure out the best path forward. We would like to hear input from you (yes, you reading this) about this. This is a new bill and input is welcomed. There is an argument to keep resident and non-resident the same amount so as to not discourage tourism, on the other hand the additional funds would go a long way.
New Ehlin Road parking lot is open for use. It is located on the west side of WY-130, just
above Centennial, across the street from the USFS Visitor Center. The road to the lot is plowed with a good turn around in the lot. Trail D is groomed from there up to Trail T, roughly following Ehlin Road (USFS-338). Please use it if you’re up for doing so, as use will help justify additional parking areas. Your feedback is welcomed. State Trails put a webcam up for the new parking lot: https://www.cameraftp.com/Camera/Cameraplayer.aspx?parentID=395112255&shareID=17896506. It has been getting a little use, but not much so far. Sounds like there is a minimal amount of awareness on this. Signage will help. Social media posts will help too.
Safety Shelters: Generally people have been clean in the safety shelters, packing their trash
out. Keep it up! Fire starter supplies are low, and damp, need to check if the lock boxes have
more in them that we can pull out.
WSSA Updates: WSSA: Fun Days March 7-9th. Can ride sleds or SxS (Killpecker sand dunes). WSSA Scholarship due February 1st. This can be used for college or technical schools. This scholarship is second only to Hathaway Scholarship program in the state.
WSSA raffle tickets are available. Raises money for WSSA and the clubs that sell them.
Available until Fun Days.
Treasurer Update: $18209 in our checking account. Next month we’ll figure out donations and Fun Days donations.
Secretary Update: Membership update: 116 memberships as of January 16th 2025.
Firewood for Sierra shelter; we need to check in with State Trails on this. Previously
discussed that if we can get wood to the groomer storage location, groomers will haul it in from there, just need to verify before having a load of firewood dropped off.
Next Meeting: Thursday January 16th, 6 PM, same Zoom link.