Kelly Snowshoes Snowmobile Club
Kelly Snowshoes News (updated 4/7/2025):
April Club Meeting:
The next club meeting will be held on Tue, April 8 at the Club Shed. Pot Luck starts at 6:00 PM and the meeting at 7:00 PM. Please join us for the meeting and to enjoy some camaraderie! We will announce the results of the election for a board member, treasurer, and president. Club Members, look for an email in your inbox from Mary Poplawski, and reply to submit your choice for each postion by 4:00 PM on Tue, April 8.
Kelly Snowshoes "Winter" Cash Raffle was held Sat, April 5
The Kelly Snowshoes “Winter” Raffle was held Saturday, April 5 at Trailside Bar and Grill in Weston. This is our biggest fund raiser of the year and we were so happy to see so many show up to support our club. Thank you to all who participated! We sincerely appreciate your time, dollars, and donations! As always, thank you to our landowners! Below are the winners for the cash raffle drawing:
1st - Benny & Bri Antoniewicz
2nd - Ted Poplawski
3rd - Laena Klinger
4th - Tim Dorpat
5th - Sandra Shorey
6th - Bianca Olson
7th - Lisa Abel
8th - Tony Martino
9th - Dan & Patty Marlenga
10th - Lee Page
11th - Nate Bartz
12th - Melinda Thompson
13th - Stacy Holt
14th - Mark Bauer
15th - Pat Drechsler
16th - Elroy Laska
17th - Drake Cantrell
18th - Drake Hagenbucher
19th - John Juedes
20th - Steve Johnson
Club News:
Kelly Snowshoes club members are busy! Are you ready for this update, because there is a lot?! Below you will find a recap of recent activities and further below some photographs of our trails. Please keep thinking “cold and snow” because there is a bit of warm weather in the forecast for the week of 2/24 that we’d like to avoid.
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MARATHON COUNTY TRAILS: All 6 zones opened on 2/14, but due to warm temperatures, they are all closed again.
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SIGNAGE: We have added a lot more signs to our trail system to make it easier for snowmobilers to navigate, find fuel, and find food and beverages. New signs are throughout the trail system now with the telephone number for the Marathon County Sheriff’s office. Please utilize this number to report off-trail riding, someone causing damage to the trails, or someone causing damage to landowner property.
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INTERSECTION INFORMATION SIGNS: Intersection 404 has an intersection information sign, which holds a bunch of trail information as well as a full Marathon County map. There is also one of these information signs in Bevent. These boards were designed and created a few years ago by our club member Nick Polak and Warrior Manufacturing at Wausau West!
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TRAIL ROLLER: This year Nick and the high school kids are working to create a 9’6” trail roller with tires. Kelly Snowshoes will pull this behind our Tucker Sno-Cat when there isn’t quite enough snow for the drag. The trail roller can be used to pack the snow deep into the grass and dirt. Thank you to Nick and Warrior Manufacturing! Thank you to Epiroc for donating steel and painting. Thank you to Schierl Tire for donating tires.
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JASON ELLIOT MEMORIAL FOUNDATION: In the Fall we received a generous donation of $4,000 from this foundation because Jason loved to ride snowmobile. Thank you to Dale and Joyce Elliott.
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NEW Q TRAIL: Jason and Brian Witzeling found the route of our new Q Trail from Timber Ridge Road to Weston Ave and Hwy Q. We are so excited about this trail because it allows us to bypass the swamp. They worked to get this trail ready to roll, along with other club members! Thank you to Jason, Brian, and all who contributed.
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TRAIL WORK: Randy Worden, Worden Enterprises LLC in Ringle, has been so generous to Kelly Snowshoes over the years in donating time and equipment to make our trails smoother and safer. This year he donated all the brush cutter time and the excavator work on our new Q Trail! Thank you, Randy!
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TRAIL WORK: Jarrod Zilisch, from Zilisch Asphalt Paving & Maintenance in Ringle, completed excavator work this season at a discounted rate. Kevin Hertel did this work to clean up stumps and rocks south of Timber Ridge as well as on the trail between Hwy J and East Nick Ave. Thank you to Jarrod and Kevin!
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TRAIL VANDALISM REPAIRS: Unfortunately, after trail work was completed, our Hwy J/Nick Ave trail was damaged by some people that thought it was okay to move the rocks blocking the trail and go mudding on our trail! Ugh. Once again, Zilisch Asphalt assisted by fixing up the trail then by hauling and placing cement barriers from County Concrete.
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HAULING SNOW: Dan Esker and Jeremy King hauled three dump truck loads of snow and drove the end-loader to where our trail goes across Hwy Q just east of Hwy J. Adding this snow makes this crossing much safer for our groomer and for snowmobiles. Thank you to Dan and Jeremy!
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HAULING MORE SNOW: Zilisch Asphalt dumped one load of snow on each side of Schofield Ave by Kluck’s Callon Saloon and two loads of snow south of Weston Ave. Nick Polak, Dave Zastrow, and Matt Hable smoothed them out with the Sur Trac/Tucker. Thank you to Jarrod, Nick, Dave and Matt!
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KUDOS: Dennis (President) works frequently with Daniel Schmid, the Marathon County Recreation (Snowmobile) Coordinator, as well as Joe Tucker, logging operations. Thank you to Daniel and Joe for working closely with the club.
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GROOMER MAINTENANCE: Thank you to Dave Zastrow and Marv Hoffmann for maintaining our groomers
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DECEMBER LANDOWNER PARTY: There were 87 attendees at Dale’s Weston Lanes. Thank you to our landowners!!
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SNOWMOBILE SAFETY CLASS: A class was held for 20 students on 12/14 at our club shed. Thank you to Nick Polak, Dan Roloff, Tony Martino and Allison Polak for teaching this class!
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NOVEMBER CALENDAR RAFFLE: Thank you to Josh and Melinda for getting our tickets, drawing daily, and delivering cash. Mary Poplawski posted the winners daily on Facebook and this website.
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THANK YOU TO OUR BOARD: Thank you to our president, Dennis Klemen, for his countless hours doing club work and to our board members, Melinda, Josh, Ben, Caleb, Robb, and Randy, for keeping things rolling along for Kelly Snowshoes!
2024-2025 Trail Photographs
With the trails open now, following are some photographs from the Kelly Snowshoes trails over the last week or so.
October 2024 Trail Work: New Q Trail and Important 2024 Notices!
RINGLE SWAMP REROUTE:
During a club meeting last Spring, Jason and Brian Witzeling suggested a big trail project to reroute around the Ringle swamp. They followed through with the planning for this 3.5-4 miles of trail, which runs from Timer Ridge Road to Weston Ave/Hwy Q. Early October club members were able to complete the brushing planned for this new section of trail, which is now known as the “Q Trail”. Thank you to Jason and Brian as well as the other club members that assisted in making this happen. They hit the trail with chain saws, pole saws, ATVs, etc. to complete the brushing in the wooded sections and clear the edges of the main logging road. Signing for the Q Trail is about 1/3 done and will be finished after the upcoming excavation work is completed to clear portions of the trail, fill drainage areas (caused by the rain this year), as well as remove a large tree, 39 stumps, and several rocks.
I’m quite certain there isn’t a snowmobiler who has ridden our trail system that will miss riding that swamp, especially during those times where lack of cold weather wouldn’t allow our groomer to safely travel through that area. No grooming caused some seriously slow riding over those huge speed bumps! I will be a pleasure to ride our brand-new Q Trail so thank you to all for your hard work!
Please see the pics below from this new section of trail, including a map showing where the old trail was and where the new trail is now located. The Q Trail runs from Intersection 405, now at the end of Timber Ridge to Intersection 406, now at Weston Ave and Hwy Q.
Important notes regarding the Kelly Snowshoes Trail System:
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The Bevent Store is closed with no gas being offered so until it reopens (if ever), please plan your ride.
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Our section of trail from Intersection 419 to I-420 is temporarily closed.
Trail work January 20, 2024!
It's amazing what a week of subzero temperatures can do for the problem areas of our trails. Our Little Eau Claire River crossings by Bevent Drive and west of intersection 419 are both solid ice now so Dennis is glad he waited a week to groom them. He took the Sur-Trac out today, which he said still does a great job (especially after Marv & Dave did some work on the pan this fall) and it lays down beautiful ribbon. Please see the trail photographs below as proof of the newly frozen areas and the beautiful ribbon! Dennis remembers when Kelly Snowshoes bought the Sur-Trac new in 2001 and he commented that it's just a reliable old groomer.
Think cold and snow to see if we can change Mother Nature's mind about the upcoming warm weather because, per Dennis, "3-4 inches or more of snow would do wonders" for the Kelly Snowshoes trails!!
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Trail work January 13-14, 2024!
We finally received some snow so there was grooming taking place over the weekend!! Dennis Kleman took the Tucker and double groomed the South Loop on Sat, Jan 13 as well as from Intersection 416 to 450. On 1/14/2023 Dennis groomed the trail from the Club Shed at Intersection 451 to Intersection 419. On Saturday Matt Hable took the Sur-Trac north from the Club Shed to the Mountain Bay and to Yellow Banks Golf Disc Park then left the groomer with Caleb & Lindsey Loveless. On Sunday (1/14) Caleb groomed to the end of Misquote Road then back on the west loop to the Club Shed.
On Jan 12, Dennis asked Sid King of the Hatley Snowmobile Club to go through "Josh's Swamp" from Intersection 406 to Misquote Rd. After a board vote, they assisted us by packing down the trail. In return they will log those hours for doing our trail work. Thank you to the Hatley Snowmobile Club!
Included below are some pictures/video from this weekend.
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Videos from Trail work Jan 13-14, 2024!
Above are a couple videos from the weekend grooming with the Tucker. One shows how slow going the first time out with the groomers can be (less than 5 mph).
