Rochester Active Sports Club

Over the last couple weeks, we've taken delivery of RASC's new 4-stroke SkiDoo Skandic and received the Ginzu groomer from Yellowstone track. The additions for wiring and worklights have now been taken care of. Our thanks go out to both Rochester Cycle and Fitness and Bowman's Lock and Safe who helped out with the Ginzu delivery. We were able to have the Ginzu delivered to Rochester Cycle and Fitness and unloaded with the help of Bowman's forklift

truck. This saved us a ride to Owatonna to pickup the groomer from the Conway Freight terminal. Thank you!

The new Skandic should be quieter and use less gas than our first snowmobile. It also has a wider 24" track to handle the hillier terrain at Essex. We should be ready as soon as the first major snowstorm comes our way!

Wow - the donations keep coming. We have now managed to raise over $2300 for the Essex Park project. That combined with the Rochester Area foundation funds and existing club funds will enable to complete a large portion of the trail, AND purchase the necessary grooming equipment for this winter. Many thanks to donations from the following club members:

Bartucz, John
Berg, Kevin
Counselman, Eric
Hiawatha Ski Patrol
Keillor, Jon
Luetmer, Lisa and Pat
Nelson, Roger
O'Brien, Lisa
Peter, Rich and Shirley
Pitot, Henry
Rieder, Mark
Shonyo, John
Torchia, Mike and Tish
Walk, Bruce
Weglinski, Margaret
Wollan, Peter
Zumbrunnen, Laura

Full details of work on the new trails can be found on the Essex Park page. Check out the photo gallery for more pictures. We also have a new trail map that shows the new trail system and distances of each section.

The last of the grass seed has been sown and the trails are now starting to green up as the new grass comes in. We'll have approximately 7 km of trails for skiing at Essex Park this winter. Check out the latest news and photos on the Essex Park Trail page.  Next we'll focus on getting the necessary grooming equipment delivered and setup before the snow comes.

We've been working with the Park and Recreation Department over the past several months on a plan to upgrade and expand the trails at Essex Park to support cross country skiing in the winter and running and walking during the spring, summer, and fall. The overwhelming popularity of the trails on the east side of Quarry Hill indicated to us that a similar arrangement on the northwest side of the city would be welcomed and provide variety as well as distribute the user traffic. The Park Board approved RASC's proposal at it's May meeting and we completed the paper work with the City last week and are now cleared to start work.

Over the next couple weeks, we'll organize work evenings to begin cleanup and trimming of the existing trails prior to re-grading. One very nice aspect of the project is that there is already an existing network of wide trails that only need minor clearing along the edges. There is also very little buckthorne in Essex Park so the work should be a bit more pleasant than what we experienced at Quarry Hill.

For those interested in the longterm plan, the proposal is attached below. Please watch the RASC News emails and the bulletin board for opportunities to come out and help for a couple hours!

We have been working on a proposal for a new trail system in Essex Park that was recently submitted on behalf of RASC to the Park and Recreation Department. This would be a 4-season trail that would support Nordic skiing in winter and walking/running events the rest of the season. This trail development would be somewhat similar to that in Quarry Hill with the plan to provide similar grooming to that in Quarry Hill. The advantages of Essex Park are a) the ability to hold running/skiing events (something which is not possible in Quarry Hill), b) the availability of a warming hut in wintertime and c) storage capacity for much of our equipment. Essex Park has a similar mix of trail and bike paths to Quarry Hill, along with one monster hill which will be a challenge for skiers and runners alike. The proposal is for development of the trail system over the next 3-4 years and will be discussed at an upcoming Board meeting. We will provide more details of the plans and ideas for this once we get feedback from the Park and Recreation Department on this initial proposal.