Snowmobile trails in the southeast are still open. That, according to Dave Boutang, President of South East Sno-Riders. But, Boutang says the recent mild weather is not helping the situation.

"It's taken its toll," says Boutang. "Anywhere that we travel along the highways, ditches are full of water."

Boutang says there is water in ditches between Steinbach and Marchand, while trails east of Piney are in poor condition.

"We haven't closed the trails because we haven't really had a chance to go over them and have a look and see what we have," explains Boutang. "By week's end we should be able to give you a better update."

Boutang says right now they need more snow. He says colder weather would help, but it would just turn the trails into ice. Boutang says there are a lot of ruts on the trails because of all the weekend traffic, but until daytime highs stay below the freezing point they won't attempt to groom any trails.

"It's got to be below zero at the warmest part of the day because you really can't do anything with the snow when it's soft like that." he says.

According to Boutang, the snowmobile club should break even this year. He says they have not had a groomer breakdown this year and have done six complete passes with their groomer this winter, which is more than the minimum required to receive their provincial funding.

Meanwhile, Boutang says it has been an interesting season. He says first we got all that snow which kept the ground from freezing and allowed water to run underneath. Then came the January thaw and now the February melt.