SRSC January 2026 Meeting Minutes

January 15th, 2026
Snowy Range Snowmobile Club Meeting Minutes
Secretary Update: 179 members in total. This breaks down to: 13 premium business memberships, 12 associate business memberships, 70 families, and 84 individual memberships. This is far and away our biggest season! Thank you for the support.
We need logos from many of our business members, especially new members this season, to put logos on our website and Facebook page.
Treasurer Update: $18,783.52 in checking account. Wyoming Trail Alliance has pledged $500 to go towards a beacon check station (note: these will be restricted funds, to be used exclusively for this purpose). Additional ~$1667 transfer in progress from PayPal to checking initiated 14Jan2026 from recent memberships.
How much should we contribute to WSSA scholarship fund? Local Search and Rescue donations? We will vote on this next month.
Beacon Check Signs: All are in place on the mountain and working. Albany, Green Rock, Chains End, Lake Marie. Third antenna on Green Rock beacon check station is broken. It is currently functioning but will need repaired in the off season.
Safety Shelters: All in place with plenty of wood. Please be sure to pack out all trash and encourage others to do the same. Bring an armful of wood in if you stop by. Two of us stocked Quealy on the 4th, it was nearly empty of wood inside.
Trails: are really solid and well groomed. Not a lot of sled traffic this season with the warm weather means less whoops too. Truck that got stuck above Albany was removed, no lasting trail impact from that.
Cameron recently talked to Stan (grooming contract holder). He said things are going well. They have added a cat based out of the Ehlin Road trailhead outside Centennial.
Access: Sand Lake Road is closed to riding with the logging operation off of Fallen Pines. They have been busy up there running logging trucks so please give them space.
Cameron checked with State Trails on the plowing contractor for the Ehlin Road trailhead as there were some issues with keeping the road open/plowed. Contractor was checking the webcam, which showed a dry parking lot, not realizing the road in the trees was blowing/drifting and needed plowed.
Heads up: the normal plowing above the State’s winter maintenance end point at Green Rock has ceased. If you park above the skier lot, beware it could blow in while you ride and may not be cleared for some time. It is getting cleared but not with the same regularity.
Snowpack: Snow has some bad ice layers in it with degrading interfaces. Decent total depth at higher elevations. Most riders report surprisingly good conditions (valley weather has been ridiculous & skews perception, but thankfully up high winter is still happening). Eastern Wyoming Avy Observation team has
reported better snowpack structure in the Snowies than in the Sierras, but neither are good. You should expect reactivity especially when a new snow load is added & travel with caution in all avalanche terrain.
Projects: Wyoming Trail Alliance voted to donate $500 towards a beacon check station to be installed at the Green Rock nonmotorized access point (primarily used to access Libby Creek backcountry ski terrain). Medicine Bow Nordic Ski Patrol wants to partner with us for this and Ken Cramer attended this meeting to discuss details. We need to work on finding out project cost and how to fit this in with permitting. Some additional funding sources were discussed, one being Albany County Rec Board grants.
Curtis with Wyoming Trail Alliance had a proposal for snow updates. Monthly video to be posted on social media outlets with digging a snow pit. Cameron was supportive and said he and Clyde would be open to filming their pits when they dig them as part of their guiding work. This could also be a collaborative effort with Med Bow Nordic Ski Patrol.
WSSA Updates: February 1st is the WSSA scholarship deadline. https://snowmobilewyoming.org/scholarship/
Fun Days is in Cody this year. Registration is open on the WSSA site: https://snowmobilewyoming.org/wssa-events/#!event-list
Safety: Article in Cowboy State Daily: snowmobile crash near Cody. Snowmobiler hit bridge, sled ended up in creek. Rider was hurt. There was some safety equipment stored in a nearby safety shelter that local rescuers were able to use to help the rider and eventually get him evacuated via helicopter. We may partner with Albany County Search and Rescue to cache some rescue equipment in a similar way in our safety shelters (several club members are involved SAR members). https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/01/13/snowmobiler-plunges-15-feet-off-bridge-and-survives/
Two avy deaths in Wyoming so far this winter. Snowmobiler southeast of Afton, WY in Labarge Creek. https://avalanche.state.co.us/report/62184da5-20ab-4158-8c93-eaee91b4f7d7
A skier south of Teton Pass. https://avalanche.state.co.us/report/5346271e-ce29-4c36-b2a6-09e21db1c9ed
Education Opportunities: Cameron reports there are 3 remaining openings in the upcoming Motorized Level 1 avy course, and several openings in the Level 2 avy course. They are at the end of this month, January 29 & 30th for Level 1, January 31st and February 1st for Level 2. Reach out to Cameron at 3C Guiding if interested. https://www.3cguiding.com/avalanche-classes/aiare-level-1/ and https://www.3cguiding.com/avalanche-classes/aiare-level-2/
Post Meeting Note: Apologies for those that had issues with Zoom tonight. Thanks for the emails bringing this to our attention.

December 2025 Meeting Minutes

December 18 2025, 6:00 PM MST

Snowy Range Snowmobile Club Meeting Minutes

Westgate Sports in Laramie.

Attendance: Mitch, Cameron, Justin, Sunny (officers) plus about 10-15 more in person. Good number of folks online. 

Secretary Update: 76 current/paid members. 13 are businesses (7 premium, 6 associate), 33 families, 30 singles. Cameron’s video call for membership was effective last time, and brought in a dozen or more members shortly after the Facebook video was posted. 

This is lower than our usual total, but the season hasn’t really even started, and it is considered really good compared to other clubs throughout the state. 

Snow Update: one good storm early in the month, but not much since. Ice layer has formed from sun + wind, about 2 inch icy layer on the surface now. Will be a nasty bed surface for future slabs in terms of avalanches.

Safety Shelters: Chimney is installed on Lake Marie shelter. Solar panels are installed. Matt is heading up Sunday to finish wiring up lights. Other shelters are in place by the time you’re reading this. 

Grooming Update: Grooming starts soon. Trails are being packed in and marked with shelters going in shortly. 

Treasurer Update: $16384.07 in checking. Additional funds pending transfer from PayPal from recent memberships: approximately $3200 in transit.

Beacon check signs: 

Beacon Check stations going up soon. Cameron will put the GreenRock beacon check station up soon. Keith will put the Chains End sign up. Matt will put the batteries in the Lake Marie sign when he’s up there. 

Discussion to have them at Ehlin Road trailhead, GreenRock skier parking area, and one for the Sierras. The current Sierra’s beacon check sign has marginal reliability (solar powered), so we are interested in replacing it with the fully battery powered Ortovox model like we have elsewhere. The Ortovox uses D cell batteries and has been solid for us over the years. These need to be ordered ahead of time, so it will not occur until next fall. Justin put this up for a vote: to purchase 3 beacon check signs next season. This is to help the whole community of area backcountry travelers and better unite us, which would be impactful for garnering support of future development projects (e.g., parking lot, permanent Quealy shelter, etc.). 

Discussion ensued: can we get some financial support from the ski community? Medicine Bow Nordic Ski Patrol: could we arrange with them to help manage the skier area beacon check sign? Store & maintain. 

How about the Sierra side: Carbon County Avy Observation folks may be interested in supporting or maintaining a sign in the Sierras? 

Whatever is done, will not be soon as the signs take time to get ordered and constructed. 

If we pay for these signs, we need to make it clear the Club paid for them (this can be done in the sponsors section of the signs). The signs are permitted under the USFS grooming permit, but the face design was approved by USFS. So if we change it, we must update the permit. The design at the Lake Marie shelter is approved: likely makes most sense to stick with that design so not required to update the permit. The sponsor section of the signs is where we can denote who funded the signs. 

Justin reached out to Jordy about putting a State Trails beacon check sign up at GreenRock skier area for this season. They’re going to check if there is one available and get back to us. This would be a good pilot program of no cost to see if the sign get used at that location. 

Parking Lots: Keep using Ehlin Road this season. 

Albany USFS lot will be plowed (though the lodge parking spots will not be to our knowledge). 

Sand Lake Road is being plowed this season for a logging operation. The road is plowed for haul trucks: not for public access. The logging operation is primarily off Fallen Pines Road (about 1.5 miles up Sand Lake Road from WY-130) but there will be heavy traffic on Sand Lake Road. Don’t drive a truck up there. The forest is still open but beware of hazards. See USFS announcement for additional info: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/mbrtb/newsroom/releases/safety-announcement-sand-lake-road-plowed-timber-hauling-not-public?fbclid=IwY2xjawPBknBleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE4SE5qRmRTYzRoQlZwcVI0c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHthgaoWO5zdu-PYSgopqMXiKI3G1qt1hdKTFwimhILMMA_dX9hEWV1QEgVt3_aem_e3nssdCHq6NI_CnRsMe8Wg 

WSSA Updates: Scholarship applications are due February 1st. Get your snowmobiling kid involved and they are likely to be awarded a scholarship if they write an essay. See WSSA website for more information.

WSSA Fun Days registration is online. First full weekend in March 2026 in Cody Wyoming.

Discussion of How to Increase Membership: 

Next year idea: $5 single $10 family memberships? Low cost to boost numbers? It was noted that Dubois only charges the WSSA rate, and they still struggle with membership numbers, suggesting that membership cost is not the primary driver of low club membership.

The Wyoming State Trails meeting and the WSSA fall meeting overlap with Hay Days, this hurts attendance at these local meetings and it hurts our state’s representation at Hay Days. There has been discussion about moving these meetings to not interfere. 

Could we sponsor State snowmobile maps printing in exchange for putting our name/QR code on it for more exposure? 

This is an ongoing topic nationwide: how to increase snowmobile club participation. 

Avy Class opportunities: 3C Guiding is hosting an avy class end of January 30th & 31st for Level 1, then February 1st and 2nd for Level 2. Level 1 is almost full (3 spots left), Level 2 is very open. Bringing in DJ Osborne of Mountain Slayerz to teach these (AIARE instructor). Connect with Cameron if you’re interested in these.

Next Meeting: As usual, 3rd Thursday evening of the month: January 15th, 2025 at 6:00 PM at Westgate Sports in Laramie, WY and on Zoom. Additional reminder email will go out the week of the meeting with the Zoom link.

Post Meeting Notes: in the weeks after this meeting, there was an influx of memberships, bringing total membership to 139 members (business, families, and singles combined). Keep encouraging your friends to join/renew! 

Wyoming Trail Alliance has initiated discussions between SRSC & the ski community about a beacon check sign, which has been met with interest and willingness to help support this project. 

Grooming is in full swing with trails marked and safety shelters in place. New light in Lake Marie shelter is installed. Quealy shelter was stocked with wood Sunday afternoon.

Several small storms have buried the ice layer in the snow, and the base has firmed up. 

SRSC November 2023 Meeting Minutes

November 2023 SRSC Meeting Minutes

16NOV23, 1800 hours.

Secretary: Need to set up auto emails to remind people of monthly club meetings. Next one is December 21st. Emails a week out & day of will be coordinated.

New safety shelter work has been going well. State Trails would like to bring the trailer up end of next week (Friday). Tipple Trailhead lot is a no go, needs to be right next to the bathrooms at the Lake Marie trailhead. They’re going to keep the bathrooms open this year. Cameron & Justin pulled the reefer off the front of the trailer. AD Martin is donating windows, doors, and materials to wall off the wood area from the shelter area. 3 windows going in. Need a first aid kit to go in it. Fill the hole from the reefer unit. Need a job box. Cody is about half done with the new wood stove, and he built the last one. Big thanks to him!

Work day this Saturday 11-18-23. Meet at 9:00 am Saturday to work on the hut. Materials will be rounded up Friday so everything’s ready to go Saturday for construction. They’ll install the center wall first, so that folks that come to help without construction skills can simply load firewood into it. Locations: Behind Gateway Fuels (the Shell Station), off Cleveland Road. Tools are welcomed but mostly we need hands. We’ll feed those that help; likely burgers and hot dogs, but TBD.

The other two huts need swept out, and traction tape in the entryways. Ropes that people hang gloves on needs replaced; a cable would work well. Keith will bring stuff on Saturday for this, and plans to head up to knock those jobs out. Also need to install the donation box in the second hut (only one was installed last year before snow hit).

State Trails will be printing maps this year.

Cameron has a promotional OnX Offroad maps code. 1 month free; hit him up if interested.

Scholarship info just came out from WSSA, keep an eye out for that. I’ll send out details soon. If interested reach out to Cameron, as the club has to verify the applicants are participating club members (or the student’s parent parent is, as per WSSA rules).

Treasurer Update: $17451.60 in our accounts. We will have some expenses soon, and some additional money coming in. Planning to donate more to the local SAR teams this winter (who will greatly appreciate it!).

Fundraiser grand opening idea for the new hut. We could likely get food donated towards it, do this once trails are in and we’re out riding. To be discussed further next meeting.

Cameron has been talking with Ray at Elway Powersports about a season kickoff party at the dealership. Bringing in food trucks could be a good way to go to feed people. Proposed December 16th, need to check in with Ray. Cameron will also check with Brian Lundstedt at TBA to see if he can do another beacon search park like at a prior kickoff we had.  

WyoColo and Albany are the only places with food on the trail system this year. No restaurants in Ryan Park this season (maybe a frozen pizza at 10 Mile, but not a full restaurant).

Parking lot: the Sand Lake area had a gravel quarry active; their permit just ended. There was an expansion on parking in that area (summer parking). This is good news for winter parking, but much to be done on the bureaucratic side. For the parking near the USFS visitor center above Centennial, State Trails would groom to the old waste station site; along Ehlin Road and tie into T trail up top. Importantly, December 7th at 4pm, the SWORC group is going to discuss the parking situation again. https://wyooutdoorrecreation.wyo.gov/index.php/outdoor-recreation-collaboratives/southeast-wyoming-outdoor-recreation-collaborative-sworc

Centennial USFS Visitor Center will be open this winter 8am -4pm Friday through Monday and they’ll be staffed. Christmas tree permits will be sold in there. Sled permits will be available there too.

Side note; the SWORC group is doing a Roger’s Canyon cleanup. https://wyooutdoorrecreation.wyo.gov/index.php/outdoor-recreation-collaboratives/southeast-wyoming-outdoor-recreation-collaborative-sworc

Wind River youth snowmobile racing starting in December near Pinedale. Additional info on back of November Wrangler.

Fun Days first week of March 2024 in Dubois. WSSA is working on online registration for this.

Sunny wants to do a Holiday Parade float in Laramie this year. Cameron is doing one for 3C Guiding so he’s not able to help day of. Justin willing to provide trailer & generator to run lights: thinking a few sleds parked on a trailer with Christmas lights strewn over them. Theme is Santa’s Toy Shop. Friday December 8th at 6:30 PM. Meet Thursday the night before to prep; details to follow.

Zach is working on printing banners. We need to continue to round up logos from the business sponsors for these. Related: we also will do a permanent plaque for the new trailer/shelter to thank everyone that helped make it happen.

SRSC October 2023 Meeting Minutes

October 2023 SRSC Meeting Minutes:

October 19th 2023 at 3C Guiding

New Safety Shelter: In early October Wyoming State Trails program asked us what it would take for us to get a safety shelter at Lake Marie. Our officers told them we needed assurance that if we bought a trailer to use that it would be cleared to be used. We didn’t want to have a big outlay of cash to then be told we can’t use a trailer or it would otherwise not work. They checked with WY-DOT and got everything cleared. The trailer will be parked on WY-DOT land, not USFS, and as a trailer it will be towed in & out each season.

Two officers were brainstorming how to pay for this, and both thought they’d be happy to donate cash from their own businesses to support the cause and get some advertising. They realized others may feel the same way, and reached out to several businesses and many stepped forward to help out with cash donations, purchasing, trailer tires, materials to build it out as a shelter, and transporting it. Huge thanks to Frontier Cycles, Borderline Powersports, Front Range Powersports, A.D. Martin, Fremont Electric, Albany Lodge, 3C Guiding, Madden Contract Pumping, HyAltitude Contracting, Elway Powersports, and Elite Oil Field Services.

Special thanks to Elite for buying the trailer and committing to transporting it. The club will reimburse them for the purchase price less their donation. They’ve also brought it to Laramie from Cheyenne, and replaced the tires.

This past Saturday club members gathered in town then went up the mountain with trailers to load & haul firewood to town for the new shelter. Since the new shelter is going to be located on a Scenic Byway we can’t cut wood on site: it will be loaded up in town with a season’s worth then hauled in place ready to go. Thanks to everyone that came out & lended a hand loading, hauling, cutting and splitting.

Next up for the new trailer is to turn it into a safety shelter. We need to build interior walls, add an entry door, add a fireplace (Cody Schlager is building another bomber wood burner for us!), add benches and windows. We would also like to include 307-Aware signage, a donation box, and first aid kit. There’s a little more firewood prep left to do as well. Saturday November 18th is reserved for this work, 10am, meet at 3C Guiding shop.

Nelson and Quealy shelters: a little maintenance is needed. Refresh supplies. Add grip tape in the entry of one. Damaged window in another. These two safety shelters had wood cutting events already this fall. Thanks for all the help to those that pitched in their time & muscle!

Parking Lot update: Several Centennial local businesses are excited about the idea. No news from USFS at this time.

Treasurer Update: $11,007 in our account. $400 came in from the Denver Snow Show as memberships and donations.

Assorted:

Wyoming State Snowmobile Association website is set up to enable people to join clubs throughout the state.

There’s a push to shut down substantial public access to public BLM lands in the Sweetwater County area. Our neighbors out west need your support! More details in attachments.

General reminder about our Facebook “group” page: paid business members are free to advertise, no other advertisements allowed. We try to keep track of this but if you suspect a problem speak up.

Future Meetings:

Next Meeting: November 16th, 2023 at 6:00 PM. 3C Guiding shop in Laramie or on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81761499579 Meeting ID: 817 6149 9579

All monthly meetings are the 3rd Thursday of the month at 6PM. Same Zoom link as above.

March 2023 SRSC Meeting Minutes

Snowy Range Snowmobile Club

March 2023 Meeting Minutes

Started at: 6:05 PM 

Adjourned at: 6:49 PM. 

Attendance (in person/online): 13 in person. 6 online.

Membership Update: 124 total. Still working through differentiating the types and tabulating everyone. I have all new members in our contacts but working on the list for WSSA.

Spring BBQ: Lake Marie BBQ on April 1st, 2023. Meet at 9:00 AM at the 3C Guide shop. We can go for a morning ride, then meet at Lake Marie around noon for food. Come out, eat food (we’ll provide this) and ride sleds. Planning this will ensure it DUMPS snow! I’ll email this out separately. Keith is willing to haul stuff in for this with his tracked SxS the day before.

Assorted: Couple people have had issues with getting the beacon check sign to work. Batteries getting low? We need to get the signs out before they start opening the road. We may want to start pulling them at the BBQ on the 1st of April. 

Keith proposed buying an “Owl” device for our meetings: to help audio for those joining online. Meeting Owl 3 is $1049 (ouch!). Sunny & Justin have something similar we could use at future meetings.

For cutting wood in the fall, could we split the group between both sites [Nelson & Quealy] if there’s good turn out? Would save time. 

April Meeting? Tentatively have a BBQ for it. Shannon from WSSA will compile the ideas from the scholarship applicants about boosting memberships. We can go over this stuff at our April meeting.

We could update the Club’s logo? Maybe do a logo contest? WSSA had no luck trying this idea. Otherwise we can pay someone to do this. A new member works in this world, we could see if they’d be interested.

Apple Watches & Phones, be aware of the new “Crash Alert” system. Albany County SAR has had a few call outs for false alarms with these. Please make sure you’ve got the latest update (reduced sensitivity) and better yet turn it off while you’re out riding. If your watch triggers a crash alert SAR [all volunteers] has to deploy to check it out even if you’re fine.

Widow Maker slid sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 AM today (3/16/23). Expect an active weekend up there & be careful. 

Cameron proposed joining the SE WY OHV club. They have a bunch of members that run tracked SxS and ride the Range.

The Colorado Blizzards club does a lot in our area. They’re having a ride in the Range sometime in April. They have a website: http://www.coloradoblizzards.com/ But seem to be more active on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColoradoBlizzards 

They have more group rides than we do, you might consider joining them in addition to us. Perhaps we can coordinate joint events in the future? New officer position: event coordinator?

Business Matter:

We do not have a valid tax ID for the club. Paypal is now withholding all funds that come to us as memberships (donations are excepted) until we provide a valid tax ID number. We need to re-establish our non-profit status for this to be resolved. Currently, $2625 is being held and ultimately 24% of that will be sent to the IRS as backup withholding if we don’t address this.

At the federal level we need to be a non-profit organization to avoid having dues paid through online services like Paypal or Venmo charged as income and taxed as such. 

Sunny said she can work on this; how’s it going, and can we be of help? Hasn’t had a chance to dig into yet, Mitch is willing to help.

WSSA Update: Fun Days 2023 was in Alpine. 9 scholarships were awarded for the ‘22/’23 season. For next year, approximately $19,000 was raised for the fund at Fun Days auction, and $7,000 was raised for the ACCESS Wyoming program. 

$16558 generated by the raffle ticket sales, and half ($8292) went back to clubs that sold the tickets. 

Elections went through, and a new secretary was voted in. Sunny will work with them to ensure a smooth transition.

Next WSSA Meeting: Saratoga September 16th will be the Fall meeting for WSSA. 

Some folks at Fun Days spent the night on the mountain, and reiterated the importance of being prepared. InReach, radios, extra base layers, fire starters, etc. etc. 

Future WSSA Fun Days: 

2024 in Dubois first weekend in March and 2025 in Rock Springs.

Hill Climb Championship is coming up next weekend in Jackson. This is a big fundraiser for snowmobiling in Wyoming.

State Trails Update:

Job Opportunity: State Trails has been having a hard time getting down here with the roads. They’re looking for people that would be interested in working for State Trails Program in our region & based here. 

State Trails is restructuring: Jordy is going to handle the trails systems for the whole state (instead of just the West) while Josh moves to more paperwork/admin side. They’ve been having issues hiring and retention, and have restructured hierarchy in the Program to provide better opportunities for people to advance their careers within the Program. Please reach out to State Trails for specifics and/or if you’re interested in working with them.

Look for another snowmobile permit fee increase in 2025 due to the increased fuel costs, equipment, etc. 

State Trails has a pamphlet on their site for economic impact in Wyoming. I’ll try to locate it and share it. No luck, just a highly detailed report: https://wyoparks.wyo.gov/index.php/program-information-trails

Treasurer Update: Were donations made to ACSSAR and Carbon County SAR? Yes. After those payments and other expenses (WSSA ACCESS Wyoming & scholarship donations, and WSSA membership fees for our members), we have $9953.74 in checking, and we’ve got $2625 held in PayPal jail. 

Parking Update: Cameron filmed on his drive up during a “slow” weekend to illustrate how many people are on the mountain. Josh has had counters up on the mtn this season to get user numbers. This is good data for parking update support.

State Trails reinforced what our USFS Liaison officer gave us for a parking lot update in February. Things are looking good on this front but continued support of the parking lot improvements directed at the USFS would be a good move.

Grooming Update: Huts will be going out April 3rd. Grooming ends April 1st. Straight from State Trails. 

Next Meeting: April 20th at 6:00 PM. 

Topics: 

The WSSA scholarship topic was something along the lines of “how to get more young riders involved with clubs to advocate for snowmobiling”. Shannon (WSSA) summarizes the submitted essays as a sort of free research. We’ll talk about those ideas. 

We need to decide when to hold elections.

Touch base on non-profit status.

February 2023 Meeting Minutes

Snowy Range Snowmobile Club

6:00 PM at 3C Guiding shop

Membership Update: 

72 total members as of 2/21/23. 28 single memberships, 26 families, 8 associate businesses, 10 premium businesses. 

Beacon Check Stations:

All beacon check signs are in. Let us know if you notice any of them not working or needing attention. 

The Lake Marie beacon checkpoint needs raised up after these heavier storms. The snow level is rising up on it, will be buried if not addressed.

Safety shelters:

State Trails moved the Quealy safety shelter to try to level it out and raise it as the snowpack gets deeper. Keep stocking with firewood if you drop by. Shoot us a message if they need fire starter or matches.

Does anyone know how we’re doing on fire starter at Nelson Safety Shelter? Zach dropped a bunch of stuff off there after the previous club meeting (thanks!).

Business Matter:

We do not have a valid tax ID for the club. Paypal is now withholding 24% of all funds that come to us as income tax backup withholding. We need to re-establish our non-profit status for this to be resolved. Currently, $300 is being held and will ultimately be sent to the IRS.

At the federal level we need to be a non-profit organization to avoid having dues paid through online services like Paypal or Venmo sent in as income tax. 

Sunny said she can work on this.

Spring BBQ: Lake Marie BBQ on April 1st, 2023. Come out, eat food and ride sleds. Planning this will ensure it DUMPS snow!

WSSA Update: 

-Fun days is coming up! First weekend in March.

-Can join most clubs in the state through the new WSSA website.

-They’re working on a change to the ROP’s & Bylaws to allow people to join multiple clubs in the state with only paying the WSSA fee once.

-Everyone that’s a paid/current member, let us know if you’re not receiving the WSSA Wrangler in the mail. 

-Scholarship fund with WSSA, what should we donate? 75% goes to scholarship, 25% goes to the ACCESS Program. Last year we donated $1000. 

-WSSA website has links to State Trails maps. 

Treasurer Update: 

$10450.23 in checking. 

$500 each to be donated to Albany County SAR and Carbon County SAR.

We should be mindful of the costs associated with another safety shelter on the Range and keep some funds reserved.

USFS Liaison Update: 

State Trails is grooming 1000 miles total per week in the Snowies. Actively working with the Brush Creek Ranger District to get a permanent safety shelter at Quealy and then open up the existing mobile shelter to move elsewhere on the mountain (Lake Marie, possibly). 

All the “ologists” at USFS are staffed, so USFS can move forward on the parking lot evaluation. There’s a gravel pit with an active permit in the proposed lot location through summer 2023. Once that’s wrapped up, can move forward. The trail to link the new lot will be planned in cooperation with the SE WY Outdoor Recreation Collaborative.Proximity to Little Laramie trail system is considered. The Snowmobile lot going in, may motivate the plowing of the Little Laramie trailhead lot, as the plan is to have the new lot be only for OSV users. Currently, non motorized recreationists are parking along the highway across from the Little Laramie lot, not much room there. State Trails may be willing to get that plowed, to keep access available to all & keep non-sledders in their own parking area to minimize potential for user conflicts.

USFS & UWyo are doing some parking surveys on both sides of the Range to get area use numbers. So if you see some college kids at Greenrock taking notes feel free to chat with them. 

The lower lot across the street from the USFS visitor center on WY-130 is still being considered. This would be a great thing for Centennial businesses as people could sled right into town. The SE WY Outdoor Recreation Collaborative will have input on this. There are some concerns about snow cover in this area.

Assorted:

There’s a guy in Centennial that is continuing to film people as they drive through town. While this is odd, please remember to drive safely through town and obey the speed limit. Occasionally WY Highway Patrol will have a speed trap setup. 

Discussions between our club members and riders on the mountain indicated there’s positive feedback about an additional safety shelter and an actual parking lot. Some of these people follow us on Facebook, but had no idea there was an actual snowmobile Club with dues to pay that is working to make those things happen. Cameron will work on a quick PSA for our Facebook audience to clarify the situation.

SRSC coozie’s could be some good marketing. Can send them to members and hand them out at Snow Shows (Denver, Hay Days). They’re less than $1 each if we order over 100 at a time. Mitch will send Cory our logo and Cory will work on this.

January 2023 Snowy Range Snowmobile Club Meeting Minutes

January 19th, 2023. 6:00 PM MST.

Location: 3C Guiding shop

Minutes recorded by secretary: Mitch Helling

Treasurer: Sunny Madden

President: Cameron Chimenti

Vice President: Justin Madden

USFS Liason: Matt Burkhart

Business Liason: Keith Tupper

Social Media Director: Heather Tupper

Attendance: 13 people in person, a few online. Thanks for coming out!

Membership Update: 22 single members, 24 family members, 7 premium business members, 7 associate business members for a total of 59 as of January 19th, 2023. 

Treasurer Update: $9207.60 in checking, $704.74 inbound from Paypal (paid membership dues), and outstanding check for WSSA dues of $1200. For a net total of $9212.34 assets.

WSSA Awards: We’ll donate the awards money to the ACCESS program to support public access.

State Trails Update: 

Grooming has been ongoing, along with safety shelters in place. 

The State’s snow cats have new GPS trackers on them, and State Trails has had issues linking them to their website, so current grooming status that we’ve had in years passed was not operational until recently. Josh Millek told us they’re working on fixing this earlier this season, and it now appears to be working: https://wyoparks.wyo.gov/index.php/home-trails 

Safety Shelters: 

Safety shelters need more fire starter. Nelson specifically. Cameron has some at the shop, Zach said he’ll bring it up this weekend. 

Josh & Forrest are talking with the USFS Brush Creek Ranger District about getting a safety shelter at Lake Marie. Reefer trailer would be sensible, since we can fill part of it with firewood offsite, and it’s on the highway (easy to tow). We would need to coordinate with WY-DOT on the timing of pulling a trailer like this in place just before the road shuts down. If USFS won’t go for a reefer, could do one like the Nelson & Quealy on a skid. The Club would need to provide the skid frame & framing (either pay to have it built or build it ourselves–we have several fabricators in the group). One complication with this option is that we can’t cut firewood on-site, since WY-130 is a scenic byway and that means firewood must be cut 300’ or farther away. Not a huge deal, a few pickup loads will do it. 

Keith brought up the idea to add a hut in the Sierra’s. Something to bring to State Trails attention. With no club over there, we’d likely need to step up to maintain it.

Updated vinyl (with current business memberships) for inside the safety shelters is in progress. Hasn’t been printed yet, Cameron will check on this and ensure it happens.

Label the donation boxes inside the huts as donation boxes. Sharpie would work to label for now. 

Beacon Check Signs: 

Chains End, Albany, and Lake Marie signs are up. Mitch will take Greenrock sign up Friday or Saturday morning.

WSSA Update: 

Fun Days is March 3rd, 2023 in Alpine, WY. All the hotel rooms are booked out. 

WSSA Scholarships are due February 1st to Shannon Glandt. https://snowmobilewyoming.org/scholorship/

WSSA website now provides a central place to join all the state clubs: https://snowmobilewyoming.org/join/ 

Still looking for a secretary + treasurer to take over. Pays $500/month year round if you’re approved & hired on. If interested, reach out to Sunny Madden: wssasunny@gmail.com    

Miscellaneous: 

Black 2004 Skidoo Rev broke down December 11th near NO trail. Owner attempted to retrieve the machine but it was gone (or buried?). They probed the spot it was left but were unable to locate it. Anyone know anything? No one had any intel at the meeting, group figured it’s buried. Cameron said there’s approximately 6’ on the mountain on average and that it would be very tough to find a buried sled.

WY-DOT camera at Green Rock is currently not working. 

Parking Lot: State Trails has been working with the Denver (Region 2) Recreation folks for a parking lot, trying to go over the Laramie District since we’ve tried that angle for 20+ years and gotten effectively no where. We may consider reaching out to state legislature, let them know USFS is stonewalling us on an issue rooted in supporting the local economy & recreation. 

Facebook: 

Advertisements on the club’s group page from businesses will be deleted if they are made by non member businesses. This is only fair to the businesses that are active, paying members.

We have 7400+ followers of our Facebook page, with 5500+ of them “members” of our Facebook group. Cameron’s going to make a quick video to inform the group that being a member of our Facebook group doesn’t constitute actual membership of the club. Joining the club & paying dues constitutes club membership, and this is what matters from an organizational perspective for things like working towards having a parking lot put in & interacting with governmental entities like USFS. If even 1% of the Facebook group members actually joined, we would double our actual club membership!

Next Meeting: 

Thursday, February 16th, 2023 at 6:00 PM MST. The plan is to be in the 3C Guiding shop again, and online via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84967175275

I’ll email out a reminder the week of. This event is also posted on our Facebook page.

December 2022 Meeting Minutes

Both safety shelters are in. Quealy has a donation box mounted. Striker plate was loose (door was stripped). Keith got some bigger screws and got it secured. Members Kevin & Mitch stocked Quealy with firewood (12/15/22) with help of 3 riders from Cheyenne. The locked Job Box in there is low on fire starter and matches (for replenishing the ammo can).

We need to get the beacon check signs out at Albany and Greenrock. The Chains End sign is up, as is the one at the base of Lake Marie. The business names on them are outdated: Cameron will work with the vinyl shop to create updated banners with the current partnerships named. 

Safety Shelter at Lake Marie would be great. Permanent one at Quealy would be great too, but maybe a third portable one would be more feasible. Upkeep could be an issue for a permanent structure. Justin will touch base with Forrest (at State Trails). One idea for a relatively cheap/simple portable safety shelter for Lake Marie location is a reefer trailer. State Trails is not confident that USFS would go for us putting a reefer trailer at Lake Marie. This should be discussed with WY-DOT as they’re another interested party (with respect to opening the highway in the spring). 

Note there’s no where in Centennial that sells trail stickers. Make sure to grab your permits in Laramie or Albany before heading up. 

State Trails has all the trails marked and has been grooming. It’s been thin, creating some challenges for trails (especially leaving Greenrock on U trail and going around Brown’s Peak on O Trail), but this recent storm cycle has helped with coverage. Note that State Trails put new GPS devices on their Snow Cats this year, and they’re having issues linking them to their website that shows grooming status. They’re working on it. 

Treasurer’s Update: $10985 in checking. Cameron (president) is correcting our account at the bank to make Sunny Madden the treasurer. Sunny hasn’t been elected but will serve in this role until we hold elections again. Big thanks to Sunny for doing this!

WSSA is looking for a secretary & treasurer (1 role), and a VP. The secretary/treasurer position is paid, $500/month. Sunny is hoping to transition out of that role by Fun Days 2024. 

WSSA Scholarships due Feb. 1st to Shannon Glandt at WSSA. Emails sent out previously (10/26/22). Reach out if you need it again or didn’t receive the information. This is for active club members or their dependents, for attending higher education. 

Fun Days first weekend in March, 3rd-5th. Top or the Rockies club is hosting in Alpine. Can register online on that club’s site (https://ridealpine.com/). There’s also a link off the WSSA site. Meet & greet Friday night, rides Saturday (along with XC skiing & an art thing). Rev it Up Girls are hosting a ladies ride Friday. Saturday night is the banquet. Sunday is the WSSA business meeting. 

Sunny updated the WSSA website so you can join most of the clubs in the state through the WSSA website. One current issue with this is if you join a bunch of clubs you’ll pay the WSSA fee each time. They’re working on fixing that so a person can pay the state-level fee once, and then pay only the club portion of the membership fee to join additional clubs. 

Charity reports: track charitable hours & donations. This gets sent to American Council of Snowmobilers so we know how much snowmobilers contribute to the community. Makes for great PR for the motorized/snowmobile community.

We’re thinking of doing a spring ride & bbq again this year. We’ll discuss specifics at future meetings. Usually held on a spring day, during a snowstorm(ha!). 

November 2022 Meeting

Meeting Minutes

11/17/22

6:05 PM start

             Good attendance. ~20 people in person. A handful online (Zoom).

Wyoming State Snowmobile Association (WSSA) Updates: 

Scholarship applications are open for WSSA.

WSSA dues have increased (website currently lists $20 for non-business members). We will need to consider raising SRSC membership dues to keep pace.

WSSA Fun Days is in Alpine WY this year, March 3rd-5th, 2023.

Assorted:

Cameron now has equipment to print T-shirts. We could print club shirts and sell them to raise some funds. Need to supply shirts & come up with a design.

Off trail riding is open! Please pay attention to the 12” snow depth rule to avoid resource damage (and a bad image for snowmobilers) as well as a ticket.

We’ve got a cooler for a giveaway. (big thanks to Jed @ Borderline Powersports for the continued support!). We’re going to use this to do a membership drive: join by January 1st 2023 to be eligible to win this cooler. It will be a drawing among all current/paid members. 

Current membership counts: 16 single memberships, 17 family memberships, and 7 business members that are paid/current. Please remind your fellow riding buddies to join or renew.  

New banners are going into the huts to explain who keeps them maintained, and provide a way for people to donate (Paypal/Venmo QR code system). Business member’s names should be added. Separate “No-Smoking” signs should be put in the shelters too. The “Be 307 Aware” program should have signs in each shelter as well. One had it last year but both should have it. Will reach out to the “Be 307 Aware” program person to see if they have signage we could put in them.

Side Note: The “Be 307 Aware” program is to use radio channel 3-07 if you’re in trouble. SAR Teams will monitor that if there’s an active search for you. SAR teams do not continually monitor this frequency. Please don’t use this for your regular comms. Consider this a backup plan for when your InReach battery is dead (you do carry a satellite communicator, right?) and as a way to communicate with SAR while they’re working to locate you. 

From the program’s Facebook page: “The 307 Channel on FRS and GRMS capable radios can help search and rescue teams get you home safely if you are lost or injured.

Program the radio to UHF 462.6125 Privacy Code 85.4 or Channel 3 and Privacy code 07 (307).”

Donation boxes for the safety shelters are ready. Need to install them. This is so people can slip cash into a secure location to help us cover expenses on hut upkeep.

Beacon signs need updated with current business memberships. Jed at Borderline wanted his sign on the East side of the range if it ever became available, and with TNT changing hands that’s an option now. Let’s make that happen.

State Trails Updates:

No trail maps printed by State Trails this year. Costs shot up for this. If you have old ones, keep them. Also note you can download a geo-referenced PDF map from the State Trails website, and upload that into various mapping apps on your phone, which will work without cell service as long you have location (GPS) on. This can show exactly where on the mountain you are located. Apps like CalTopo (my personal preference) & Avenza work for this. https://wyoparks.wyo.gov/index.php/snowmobile/snowmobile-maps-trails

State Trails meeting was 1st Friday in November. Talked a lot about parking at Green Rock. State Trails took it to USFS regional recreation supervisor in Denver: they’ve said it looks like there’s a need for a parking lot, but it has to come from our district supervisor (Laramie District). Laramie district has been less than enthusiastic about moving on this (for over 20 years). There’s a regional Great Divide Outdoor Collaborative (note Dave Wright, owner of Albany Lodge, is the motorized representative for our region) that our USFS District Supervisor has said needs to make a recommendation to put a parking lot in. WY-DOT is on board: they want parking off the highway. Note that the USFS re-permitted the existing gravel pit off Sand Lake Road (location of proposed new lot), so that spot will be enlarged as people pull gravel out during summer: this could be good to help establish it as winter parking. WY-Highway Patrol and Sheriff’s office are on board with a lot too.

The contract for Tic’s Parking was renewed, so that lot will continue to be plowed (paid for by State Trails).

State Trails could apply for a permit to put signage in for parking directions at Greenrock. Try to maximize what we’ve got (busy weekends are a mess, largely due to high traffic volume, partly due to poor parking choices).

There’s a lot of grant money available for Recreation. Land Managers haven’t done much with this so it’s being made available for groups like ours. Maybe a permanent safety shelter @ Quealy? 

State Trails is going to do electronic sticker sales for OSV registration (next year?). This will be significantly faster to get the data in the State’s hands about how many stickers were sold, where they’re coming from, etc. etc. It will also be possible to buy online (like Colorado), but still go inside retailers to do it.

Snowmobiling Survey results are in, there’s hundreds of millions of dollars generated. State Trails recently did this. Big Horns & Snowies flip flop year to year on which attracts the most money. There’s an OHV survey as well.

Treasurer Update: 

$8858.39 as of October 31st, 2022 in our checking account, $394.77 in Paypal from recent memberships & donations (transfer to checking in progress) for a total of $9253.16. 

Next Meeting Items:

Next Meeting is December 15th, 2022 at 6:00 PM at the 3C Guiding shop in Laramie, WY and on Zoom (use this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84967175275)

Current officers. When are elections? Should we pursue a 501.C(3) non-profit status? Need an FEIN for filing taxes (now that PayPal reports our transactions (membership dues) above $600 to IRS). Need officer info to re-register with Secretary of State (WY).