Local snowmobile club makes trail safety top priority

BYRON, Minn. (KTTC) – One of the first steps to ensuring snowmobile rider’s safety, is making sure the trail itself is safe. Thats why Byron Snow Bears is out at least once a week grooming its trails.

“Our biggest thing is getting in hundreds of trail signs to mark the trail,” trail administrator Jim Miesbauer said.

The club takes precautions like marking the trail every four to five hundred feet with signs like caution, yield and reminders to ride sober. Even though trails can be intimidating Miesbauer said it’s the safest place to ride.

“If you’re out boon dogging and running in the ditches, you are taking a chance you’re going to get hurt eventually, just a matter of time, stay on the trails,” Miesbauer said.

Along with ensuring the trails are safe, it’s also important to do a check up on your sled. It’s recommended to make sure everything is working properly like the treads, skis, and carbines.

“You should not just get on your sled and take off in the fall, when you get the first five-inch snowfall, you need to do normal maintenance” Miesbauer said.

Anyone born after 1979 is required to have a snowmobile safety certificate, requiring this is one of the biggest things the DNR enforces for safety.

“That’s because a snowmobile is not the same as a normal vehicle and the rules and the regulations is different and so requiring that class is one of the biggest things that we are doing insuring that people are staying safe out on the trails,” DNR conservation officer Annette Kyllo said.

All youth are also required to take a safety course and pass a field test. While the Byron Snow Bears no longer provides safety training the Kasson-Mantorville Snow Drifters does offer classes for anyone in the area interested in learning more.

“We patrol regularly to ensure people are following the laws from the regulations from the safety certificate like I said, speed laws staying on the trail registration for operating any snowmobiles” Kyllo said.

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