PATR President Gerry Doleszar takes a well earned break after doing some work on the organization's newly built shop. (paNOW Staff/Nick Nielsen)

By Nick Nielsen

Snowmobiling season coming soon

Prince Albert Trail Riders waiting for first snowfall

Oct 15, 2025 | 12:31 PM

Although the first snowfall of 2025 has already melted away, the Prince Albert Trail Riders (PATR) have already started their preparations for the 2025 snowmobiling season.

Some of the trails that the PATR manage cross over fields where farmers are yet to finish their harvest, but once the crop is out of the field then the process of marking trails will begin.

Because of the wait for harvest to finish, there is no specific date set for when the 225 km worth of trails PATR manages will be marked out, but according to President Gerry Doleszar, work on grooming the passages through the trees has already begun.

“Some of our guys are out right now doing some of the rough cut work and some of the trails that need to be trimmed up. About a third of our trails go across farmers fields and so of course we can’t do anything out there until they finish their finish the harvest and finish their field work, and then we go to work and mark those trails and sign them so people know where to go and so they’re not all over the place. That’s going to be coming up here probably within the next month.”

The big news for the PATR is their new shop they’ve built near the Wildlife Federation building on the north side of Prince Albert. Since the PATR’s inception eight years ago, they have been storing their trail grooming equipment out at Doleszar’s farm.

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For a volunteer organization that is run purely on donations, Doleszar is happy to see what his volunteers and corporate sponsors have been able to put together.

“I’ve been storing everything at my place for the last number of years but as I told the club, it was time we need a home other than mine. So we put this all together with the help of some of our good corporate sponsors to make it happen and here it is. We’re just putting the finishing touches on now and when we get enough snow, we’ll be moving our snow cat and groomer and so on into here and all our signs and other equipment that we have.”

Members of the PATR working on the inside of their new shop located out by the PA Wildlife Federation Banquet and Events Centre. (Facebook/Prince Albert Trail Riders)

Doleszar said there will be some small changes to the trails around the Prince Albert area, but those changes will have signage that should direct snowmobilers in the right direction. While work needs to be done on the ground before the snow falls to make sure the trails stay smooth all year, they’re hoping that the first few snowfalls allow them to groom the snow before the Christmas rush hits.

“We hope to get out there and make that first pass on the trails before Christmas because we know people are coming home, they’re bringing their sleds, and they’d love to go for a ride if they can. We can’t always do that, but that’s our goal. We’d like to get that 14-15 weeks of season in if we can. The weatherman’s got a lot to do with what happens. We really need it to, and I hate to say this, get cold first so that everything freezes up so that we can go across some of those sloughs and soft spots with our grooming equipment because it doesn’t work well when it gets stuck in the mud.”

The PATR is planning to be out in the public including the Snow Show going on at Prairieland Park in Saskatoon on November 1-2. They are also going to be hosting a barbecue Oct. 25 as part of celebrations put on by International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association at the True North Arctic Cat dealer in Prince Albert.

They are putting on these events to bring in more members to be active in the Trail Riders because even though they already have about 35 members, having more unique skills available to their organization is something they want.

“We have probably a third of the guys that are actually really active in the club and help with the building of this unit, and we’ve got four people I think that are qualified to run our groomer and so on. So it’s a lot of people come with different talents so they’ve got different jobs.”

The PATR is also planning on hosting barbecues throughout the season at some of the warmup shacks on their trails. For more information on when and a map of the trails managed by the PATR, click here.