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Regional trail 324 in Notre-Dame de-Pontmain - closed?


doubler
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Had a quick look around on club sites no info that I could find. Been a long time since I was there, but is that part of the trail cross a reservoir? I remember crossing one in that ares that they had lowered the water level a lot and we had to weave amongst big boulders with rings of ice on them looking like Saturn. 

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The club that took care of that section, Les Panaches of Lac-du-Cerf, no longer exists.  It's membership slowly diminished, it's Board members became elderly, and, with no replacements, they were forced to close.  Club Amico of Notre-Dame-du-Laus was approached to take over that stretch of trail but, with its resources already stretched to the limit, their Board was forced to decline for the time being. Too bad, because the new owners of the Auberge Presqu'ile are doing their best to make a go of it, and that was a really good alternate route into Mont-Laurier.

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6 hours ago, Gullyrider said:

The club that took care of that section, Les Panaches of Lac-du-Cerf, no longer exists.  It's membership slowly diminished, it's Board members became elderly, and, with no replacements, they were forced to close.  Club Amico of Notre-Dame-du-Laus was approached to take over that stretch of trail but, with its resources already stretched to the limit, their Board was forced to decline for the time being. Too bad, because the new owners of the Auberge Presqu'ile are doing their best to make a go of it, and that was a really good alternate route into Mont-Laurier.

Just curious, is it a funding issue or human resource issue.  I've always been impressed with how FCMQ operates when compared to how snowmobiling is governed down here in the US.

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Québec clubs currently enjoy a fair degree of autonomy, but rely on the FCMQ, comprising their elected volunteer representatives, as well as a staff of paid specialists,  for technical support and to coordinate their activities provincially.  If a club fails, or ceases to exist (and that does happen from time to time for various reasons), the remaining neighbouring clubs may work with the FCMQ to reestablish lost trail links.   I know of one instance where the Federation actually stepped in to temporarily manage a club which had fallen into disarray and needed to re-group.

In the case of Les Panaches of Lac du Cerf, a depressed local economy and aging population simply led that club to fold.  It's probably the availability of local volunteer resources that will dictate whether or not that area gets up and running again.  I suspect that it will once the dust has settled.

The FCMQ is currently studying various models whereby the individual clubs surrender a measure of their autonomy so that resources can be more evenly distributed throughout the province, and the trail network, the product offered to snowmobilers, becomes more consistent province-wide.  This process, known as Vision 20/20, is currently being formulated through discussions at the regional level.  We've been a party to some of the early discussions and, trust me, there's still a long way to go.  Still,  a lot has been accomplished over the past 45 years, and Quebecers have plenty to be proud of.  And it shows in the way folks plunk down $325 to $400 each year for a trail pass with nary a complaint.

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