Sure, we have some snow, but still not enough to open snowmobile trails in central Wisconsin. The National Weather Service estimates Clark County received around 9 inches of snow, but it blew around a lot, leaving some areas bare.
“We got a long ways to go.” notes Clark County Trails Coordinator Brian Duell, “If nothing else, it definitely helped get everyone’s spirits up, sparked a lot of interest and helped get a lot of work done. But, as far as snow amounts, we have quite a ways to go yet.” Even if there was enough snow, the trails would still be closed through the weekend because of the state’s antlerless deer season, Duell says.
The exact amount of snow needed to open the trails varies. “It all depends on the type of snow. From one field to the next, a plowed field compared to a corn field, it really depends. If you get 8 inches of good, packed snow, you have the start of the base,” he says. There’s still plenty of standing corn in the fields. Duell says that could be an issue as trail segments come on line, and individual groups are going to have hammer out agreements with land owners. Clark County has around 365 miles of snowmobile trails. About 2/3s is on private land, the rest is in the county forest.
Paul Knoff, WCCN