This week’s warmer weather may be a relief to many residents of southeastern Manitoba, but is also cause for concern for the South East Sno-Riders.

Club President Mitch Gobeil says they have already been able to open up a few trails but this warm weather may be problematic.

"It is a concern because the trails can get iced up, they form a layer of ice on top of the groomed trail but depending on how warm it gets. I know they are talking about just above freezing and that shouldn’t be too bad. Hopefully it doesn’t get too warm."

Gobeil says they opened up trails from Richer to Woodridge, from Woodridge to Marchand, and two separate trails from Marchand to South Junction. He notes ever since last week’s snowfall their groomers have been hard at work.

"When we got the snow last Wednesday our groomer ran 36 hours straight redoing all of those trails because they had gotten beaten down because we didn’t have that much snow. The guys jumped on the groomers and we ran that sucker 36 hours nonstop and I talked to several snowmobilers at the Coop in South Junction on the weekend and ask them what they think of the trails and everybody was saying they are great."

Gobeil says they have been working on Trail #29, formerly the Tip Pan Trail, and they hope to have it open by this coming weekend. He notes they have a South East Sno-Riders Day Ride coming up on January 27th which will go from Woodridge to South Junction and back.