About the Owen Sound Cross Country Ski Club

The Owen Sound Cross Country Ski Club is a non-profit organization staffed by volunteers. The Club is dedicated to providing its members with the opportunity to enjoy Nordic cross-country skiing in the beautiful wilderness setting of the Massie Hills Trail.

The Club maintains 11 kilometers of cross country ski trails through a mixed hardwood forest centred on a side trail of the Bruce Trail. We endeavour to groom the trails twice each weekend if warranted and once mid-week. The Club rents portable toilets that are placed near the main and back entrances to the trails.

The Club Executive consists of seven individuals who do all the paperwork required for operating a non-profit organization, groom the trails, maintain the equipment and generally make sure we can all ski at the Massie Hills.

The current Executive line-up is:

Chris Hughes, President
Brent Radbourne, Treasurer
Carl Sadler, Trails
Kelly Rogers, Membership
Gary Shute, Trails
Jim Pappas

As mentioned above the Executive are all volunteers and no-one gets paid or even a free membership. The Executive is acutely aware that the Club needs to collect those annual membership fees in order to survive.

The main cost to the Club are the annual insurance fees paid to Cross Country Ontario, an affiliate of Cross Country Canada. Without proper insurance coverage Grey Sauble Conservation and Grey County would not be able to let the club use the trails. The insurance fees are based on previous year’s membership numbers so we need our members to register every year whether there is a lot of snow or not.

Other costs include fuel and maintenance for the snowmobile that pulls the groomer, licence and insurance for same. We also spend a bit on renting the two portable toilets and office supplies for sending out the stickers and buttons. We also try to put away a bit of money each year towards the eventual replacement of the snowmobile and grooming equipment. A Trillium grant was used to purchase the current snowmobile but there is no guarantee that we will get another grant when this machine needs to be replaced.

Please try to keep your membership up to date.

Thanks,

Chris