Future bright for Acadia winter trails Ginzugroomer just latest piece of equipment funded by endowment

Elizabeth R. (Leila) Bright loved skiing on the carriage roads in Acadia National Park. She skied until late in her life and after she died her family gave a generous gift to the Friends of Acadia in 2005, to greatly expand the trail grooming capacity in the park.

The gift of $250,000 in her memory established the Elizabeth R. Bright Endowment.

Most of the money ensures that support for the grooming operations will continue in perpetuity by funding annual grants. The remaining amount was set aside to underwrite all the equipment purchases, fuel, safety training and equipment, volunteer and staff training and support or any other annual needs of cross-country trail grooming in the park.

The groomers make up the Acadia Winter Trails Association, now a committee of Friends of Acadia. If the volunteers need anything in terms of support, they propose it to the Friends and thanks to this funding, they respond, according to Terry Begley, projects coordinator for the Friends of Acadia.

I had heard through the outdoor grapevine that they had purchased a new piece of grooming equipment called a Ginzugroomer. I wanted to see this thing so I called Terry. After it arrived, she and I and two volunteer groomers met this past week to look over their new equipment.

While we were waiting for the groomers to join us we talked about the role of Friends of Acadia in getting the grooming job done.

“We help coordinate the program. If the groomers have needs, we get together with them, decide on what’s the best use for where the funds go for that year as a group, then, we pretty much step out of it and let the groomers do their job,” Begley said. “There are 16 volunteer groomers and all we ask is that they check in with us and let us know what has been groomed. Then we inform the park, and put it on our Web site so visitors have updated information.”

Soon, Mike Gilfillan and Dave Kief, two of the groomers, arrived at the parking lot to take Terry and me, by snowmobile, to the location of the Ginzugroomer, a short ride away on a carriage path. Once there, Mike and Dave showed me how the Ginzugroomer works. The concept is pretty simple really and it only took a few minutes for Dave to attach it to the snowmobile.

It’s basically a drag that you pull behind that churns up snow and ice, compacts it and sets tracks in one pass. However, this is not a conventional drag setter. It’s quite impressive in that it’s hydraulically powered from a snowmobile electric actuator that is operated by a switch on the handlebars once it’s plugged in.

The company that makes it, Yellowstone Track, is located not in Japan, as the name would have you think, but in West Yellowstone, Mont., on the border of Yellowstone National Park. The pressure to set the tracks on the aluminum and stainless steel groomer is determined by the operator. He can adjust the settings depending on terrain and conditions, which in Acadia can be varied, as anyone who skis there can attest.

I asked Mike about what the addition of this equipment means to the grooming effort.

“We don’t need to make six passes, like with the old track-setter,” he said. “This thing will do it in one or two. We’ll be able to groom in a lot more conditions than we were able to before. Like last year when we had six inches of packed crust, it took a lot of times back and forth, just to do anything. Now we can do it in less time.”

There are limits to any one piece of equipment’s capability. Mike and Dave both ski the carriage paths and their knowledge is obvious after talking with them.

“If we get 12-plus inches, you can’t take it out until we pound it down with the snowmobiles, because of the crowning built into the carriage paths,” Kief said. “If you got too close to the side of the road with the old four-foot wide drag, and that much snow, it would haul your snowmobile right into the ditch.”

That’s not the machinery’s fault, but more a reflection of the unique conditions in Acadia.

Saving grooming time is important because it means that new areas can be opened up providing more skiing. Originally the trails around Brown Mountain and Parkman Mountain were the only trails that were groomed by machine. Now Witch Hole Pond, Eagle Lake and Aunt Betty Pond carriage paths have been added with the arrival of the new Ginzugroomer.

The equipment is impressive, but it’s the dedication of the people who volunteer their effort to the grooming that really makes it happen. They all devote their labor and time so everyone who skis in Acadia can enjoy winter on the trails. I could tell, after talking with Mike and Dave, just how committed they, and all the other groomers are to the effort.

Their job, thankfully, has just been made a lot easier through the immense generosity of one woman, Leila Bright. Her family’s gift is a perfect example of leaving a place better off than you found it. With her thoughtfulness everyone who skis in Acadia for generations to come will be enjoying freshly groomed tracks. That is quite a legacy. We should all be grateful.

sourball@gwi.net