Beyond the built-up area of Bracebridge on Hwy. 11, two kilometres north of Muskoka Road 117 is the Bracebridge Resource Management Centre (BRMC), where a corps of volunteers has been maintaining a trail network for more than 40 years.

Much of the area was farmed from the early years of the 20th century but the light, sandy loam soil gave out.

In 1966 the Department of Lands and Forests (now Ministry of Natural Resources or MNR) purchased 1,500 acres, located on both sides of Hwy. 11, from the original homesteaders, the Patterson family, said Mike Walsh MNR stewardship co-ordinator. BRMC is on approximately half of the land and is located on the east side of the highway.

In the early ’70s the depleted fields were planted in red and white pine. Walsh said there were less than 20 acres that were not already forested.

“As they found out everywhere in Muskoka, it was not great farmland,” he said.

The property is classified as multi-use. “It has a sustainable forest licence on it and is being managed by Westwind Forest Stewardship Inc. out of Parry Sound,” said Walsh. “They manage the Crown land in all of Muskoka on our (MNR’s) behalf. So we’ve had horse logging in there by Gerald Cook and forest research plots being managed by our forest and tech division out of North Bay. We’ve done some prescribed burns for red oak and selective logging is done every 15 to 20 years.”

In the fall, the area is popular with grouse and deer hunters, but it is the recreational trail users that utilize the area the most. The trails are used by cross-country skiers in the winter and hikers and cyclists the rest of the year.

The first trail volunteers were involved with the outdoor education school operated on the property by the Muskoka Board of Education. Students came for sessions on outdoor living, camp site preparation, cooking fires and survival.

With the rise in popularity of cross-country skiing came the development of trail grooming in the winter. Almost 30 years later, many of the same people are still working as volunteers.

“John Purchase built the first track setter in the late 1970s,” said Dave Story, another volunteer. Now in his 70s, Purchase is one of the nine trail volunteers who maintain the trail.

Story is a more recent volunteer. In 1993, he was skiing the trails when he met up with Leo Broere who was grooming the trails. Broere is now manager of the Town of Bracebridge culture and recreation department. They agreed to meet over a coffee and talk trails. The trail network has been an important part of Story’s life since.

The volunteers work in pairs on a seven-day schedule, using two wide-track professional model snowmobiles, a Yamaha and a Skandia, that are capable of pulling the heavy track-setting equipment. The Yamaha machine is a four-stroke powerhouse that weighs 900 pounds and is equipped with a winch.

“If you get stuck off the trail, you’re not going to lift it out,” said Story. “The winch comes in handy when the snow is deep and soft.”

The machines pull three kinds of equipment: a roller for packing and flattening the snow, a track setter for carving the grooves for the skis and a drag for flattening the deep snow.

The equipment was acquired by various means. The track setter was donated by the MNR; the roller was donated by Bracebridge Lions Club and the large roller was purchased by funds raised by community cross-country skiers.

“Right now, we’re raising money for a cutter-compacter that will cut the ice and crush it for the track setter,” he said.

Each snowmobile is equipped with a pruning saw, a shovel and long snips to deal with obstacles across the trail.

The two volunteers take separate routes along the trail network. One goes around the perimeter while the other grooms the interior trails. They meet at a prearranged spot to talk about conditions and as a safety measure. “It takes two and a half hours to finish the grooming,” said Story.

The grooming is a lot of work but is it being utilized by the community?

“Four years ago during the month of February we set up an electronic counter in the parking lot,” said Story. “In one week we got 800 hits.”

Visit www.bracebridge­examiner.com and see Dave Story in action in the Grooming the Trails at the BRMC video.