The Esterhazy Super Sledders renamed a trail to honor Randy Abdai, who was the long-term president that sadly passed away in 2020. Mark Franklin from the Super Sledders said, “This past year we named our trail that runs on the old railbed through the Kaposvar and Qu’Appelle Valley to Tantallon the Randy Abdai Memorial Trail. It was his vision to purchase the railbed and turn it into a recreation trail.”
Over the years much work has been done to permanently sign it and maintain it as a continuous trail. It runs approximately 30 kilometers from Esterhazy to Tantallon.
Mark continued, “As we have no other source of funding for the trail, we ask all users to buy a membership or donate towards trail costs to keep it maintained and ultimately open. We spend over 300 hours each year maintaining this trail and our three shelters in the summer.”
Some of the warm up shacks have also gotten some updates. “Last year we relocated our Cookshack Shelter to the edge of the Qu’Appelle Valley above Round Lake. We want to thank the Bergstrom family for letting us locate the shelter on their land.”
This spring they did some major upgrades including a new roof and metal sliding. “In the winter as a member of the SSA we have 168 kilometers of groomed and signed snowmobile trails. We spend over 350 hours on average each winter to get the snowmobile trail ready, sign, groom, maintain and then take down signs.”
The Esterhazy Super Sledders are always looking for new members that enjoy the outdoors and want to help with maintaining the trail systems.
By: Mallory Johnson