Les Cheneaux Snowmobile Club Marks 40 Years
Public Is Invited to Picnic Saturday
By Amy Polk

Les Cheneaux Snowmobile Club members in 1974 cook hot dogs on the trail en route to Paradise, during one of the club's first long trips. (Les Cheneaux Snowmobile Club photograph)

Les Cheneaux Snowmobile Club will celebrate its 40th anniversary this weekend at its annual picnic Saturday, October 13. The event will be at the Snowmobile Clubhouse on Blind Line Road in Cedarville at 10 a.m. The public is invited to attend and participate in games and activities.

The club will also launch its first swap meet and sale of used snowmobile equipment or sleds. Items can be sold or swapped. Spaces are $10 each and will be large enough to accommodate a trailer. Proceeds from the rental of spaces will help offset the cost of the club's winter snowmobile trail grooming and year-around brush work and trail maintenance.

"Bring down whatever you have that you think others could use," said swap meet organizer Stu Volkers of DeTour.

Suggested items include snowmobile gear and clothing for all ages. People can register by calling Mr. Volkers at (906) 297-3060. Swap meet participants should plan to set up at 9 a.m., before activities start.

Trail permits for the 2007-2008 winter season will be sold Saturday at the clubhouse, and are $25 each. Permits are required for riding Michigan trails during snowmobile season.

The club is planning to display antique snowmobiles at the picnic. U.P. in Smoke Barbecue of Cedarville will offer concessions at the clubhouse.

Childrens' games, Yooper horseshoes, a pie-eating contest, pumpkin carving, and tales of the snowmobile club's 40-year history will be highlights of the picnic.

The Les Cheneaux Snowmobile Club was launched November 9, 1967 with 35 members at Clark Township Hall. They started as a group of friends who wanted to travel by snowmobile together, develop trails, and promote snowmobiling in the Les Cheneaux Islands, said member Jeri Griffin. By the end of the first season, their numbers swelled to 100, she added.

"The group used to get together and ride through the woods from Cedarville to Hessel," said Tony Autore, one of the charter members. "Back then, that was a big deal because there were no trails at the time. No one cleared. We broke our own trails."

Mr. Autore said the adventurous group used to take 60-year-old logging roads through the woods. They navigated a crude, 20-mile crude trail from Cedarville to "Taylor's Pit" north of M-134, west to Linderman Road, and around Bay City Lake north of Hessel.

Snowmobile riders dressed in thickly layered hunting clothes back then, Mr. Autore said, because there really were no snowmobile suits until the popularity of snowmobiling exploded over the next 20 years.

When the club took its first long trip from Cedarville to Raco in the 1970s, Mr. Autore recalls how surprised people were by the length of the trip they took.

"No one traveled by snowmobile that much back then," he added. "Nowadays, people go on 300-mile trips without any problem."

Mrs. Griffin concurred.

"If they went 20 miles back then, it was a good day," she said. "Now, traveling 220 miles is a good day."

When members started clearing trails, grooming, and performing maintenance, Mr. Autore said, volunteers always tried to make the work bees fun by hosting trail-side hot dog roasts and later recognizing the volunteers at the annual picnic. Among its later activities, the club has hosted Independence Day snowmobile grass drag races, participated in the Les Cheneaux Independence Day parade, and hosts an annual Christmas party. The club sponsors and staffs an annual Special Needs Ride for mentally and physically disabled children to introduce them to the thrill of trail riding. They have also helped teach local school children snowmobile safety in cooperation with the Mackinac County Sheriff's Department, Department of Natural Resources, and local schools. A group of women riders have raised thousands of dollars through the annual For Women Only Ride for Easter Seals by selling baked goods, and riding for donations each February.

This year's picnic will recognize the contributions of four decades of service that has added recreational opportunity, a boost to the economy, and a vital link in the Eastern Upper Peninsula snowmobile trail system.

Charter members included Tony and Ethel Autore, Jack and Marilyn Bickham, Jeanette Hilton, Gene and Connie Waybrant, Larry Simonsen, Mike McLeod, Bud Schaedig, Alice Huff Honnila, and Winnie Visnaw Brennan.

New members are always welcome, and volunteers can help by grooming trails in the winter, clearing brush, and maintaining equipment.