ONCE UPON A TIME
In the late 60s snowmobiling was very different. Families, hung out riding their sleds on lakes, portages, trap lines, and hiking routes, giving themselves club names just for fun. In Donald, the Donald Windegos. At Canning Lake, The Canning Lake Shirttails, little clubs and groups all over the county. There were no TOP (Trans Ontario Provincial Trails) that would come, much later. A ride from Donald to Haliburton (8kms/5miles) was a real adventure ! Going to Eagle Lake or Minden was unheard of! Groups in those places were busy doing their own thing. Such was snowmobiling in the late 60s with at least 30 snowmobile dealers in the county!
Fast forward to July 1971, R. Carman Wright, President of the Haliburton Highlands Chamber of Commerce understood how deadly quiet Haliburton was during the winter and thought organized snowmobiling might bring some life to the area. He likely knew some of the different groups like the Shirttails and Windigos because of his marina on Lake Kashagawigamog (where Harper Marine is located today). A meeting organized, people from all over attended, and someone said, “let‘s call ourselves The Haliburton County Snowmobile Association“. We were born !
In the early 70s trails galore, nearly 600 plus kilometers; Cardiff to Muskoka, Dorset to Kinmount, Norland and beyond. The HCSA was one of Ontario‘s first “organized“ snowmobile areas. Word got out and we were overwhelmed, snowmobilers from all over Ontario. Grooming could not keep up, not enough trail signs, people got lost, it was unsustainable.
Fast forward to the years that followed the HCSA had ups and downs as most groups do. Half a century later, we are 370 kilometers, we are better organized, a volunteer owned and managed not for profit. We are a proud partner in the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs (183 clubs) as well our as regional association OFSC District 6, Snow Country Snowmobile Region.
Many years and thousands of volunteer hours later, puts the HCSA at season 53. Volunteers make it happen, the landowners allow it to happen. Without their kind and generous permission to cross their properties we would all be doing something else in the winter.
We promise to continue #groomingfortourism in #myhaliburtonhighlands. Enjoy winter on your HCSA trails.
We are a volunteer-owned and operated not-for-profit organization under the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010. As members of the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs (OFSC), which includes 178 member clubs, we proudly partner with the Snow Country Snowmobile Region, OFSC District 6.
