There are three new pieces of grooming equipment plowing around Fernie’s non-motorized trails this winter thanks to a federal grant secured by Tourism Fernie.
As part of the Winter Trails and Grooming Collaborative, Tourism Fernie applied for, and was successful in being granted $45,000 from PacifiCan’s Tourism Relief Fund.
The money has gone towards purchasing three pieces of equipment, two snowmobiles and a ‘trail tamer’, to improve the grooming of winter trails around Fernie, with each to be operated by the various trails groups already providing the experience, structure, and volunteers to do the work. An additional $5,000 from Fernie’s local Canadian Tire store owner Angus McDonald helped secured final purchase of the trail tamer.
The trail tamer is a unique piece of singletrack grooming equipment that trained volunteers can operate more easily than snowmobile grooming equipment. The trail tamer will be a shared tool between local trail groups, the Fernie Trails Alliance (FTA), the Coal Creek Heritage Society (CCHS) that manage the trails in Montane and Fernie Ridge (aka Ridgemont), and the Fernie Fatbiker’s group to groom more trails, faster.