The 9th Annual Hart Winterfest Vintage Snowmobile Show and Swap Meet will be held Saturday, Feb. 7 at the Oceana County Fairgrounds in Hart and is being sponsored this year by The Longwalkers Snowmobile Club. Gates open at 8 a.m. and the show will run until 2 p.m. Admission is free, but donations will be gratefully accepted. Besides accessing the fairgrounds from State Street, riders will also be able to access the show from the Rail Trail and through a gate on the west side of the fairgrounds.
According to event coordinator Kevin Hallack, this year’s featured machine will be Wankel engine sleds, but all vintage makes and models are welcome to attend! Show sleds will be eligible for trophies in seven judged categories as well as the People’s Choice award. Raffle tickets will be available for $5 each for a chance to win a 1974 Alouette Sno-Brute 440 vintage snowmobile. A food truck will be on site, and Winterfest swag will be available for purchase as well.
The vintage snowmobile show first got its start in 2017 when Hallack suggested it as a possible Winterfest event, and since then he’s been the show’s main sponsor. Last year he and buddy, Albert Schram of Custer, decided to take their hobby a step further and formed the Longwalkers Snowmobile Club, an idea they had been tossing around for some time. “Albert has had the club name in the wings for a while, because every ‘long walk’ begins as an epic day of riding,” Hallack quipped.
Club membership is open to any snowmobiler, and interested riders and supporters can join at the show or by contacting Hallack personally. Special rider patches and stickers have been created and will be available with each paid membership. Currently there is no set membership fee.
The club’s mission statement reads, “We are a vintage snowmobile club located in Oceana County, Michigan. We strive to be good ambassadors of the sport of snowmobiling in our area, by volunteering to do trail maintenance, promoting vintage rides and events, and working with other local clubs.”
And as “good ambassadors,” the group’s main activity thus far has been the renovation of the historic Devil Riders Snowmobile Club clubhouse, an A-frame structure that sits on a small plot of land on York Road east of Hart. Constructed decades ago by area snowmobile enthusiasts, and utilized as a warming shelter and for club meetings in the past, the small building has only been used for trail sign storage the past 25 years. This fall the club installed a driveway, and as soon as the weather cooperates, the club is ready to have a new metal roof installed.
This year, one probably won’t find any of the Longwalkers complaining about all of the snow and cold. For years, snow conditions have been minimal at best. While it does require more trail grooming on their part, the snow has been welcome, as it allows them to get out on their sleds and enjoy a hobby they love.
For historical context, the Devil Riders club has seen a couple of name changes over the years. In the 1990s, wanting to sound more family-friendly, the group renamed themselves the Oceana White Knights. Some may remember how that group was instrumental in organizing snowmobile riding competitions that led riders on courses that ended at the Whiskey Creek Resort in northeastern Oceana County. Following the White Knights' tenure, new club membership changed the club’s name to the Oceana Trailblazers. Even though the Trailblazers officially stopped meeting in 2000, the last club president, Pat Tate, remained part of trail operations and caring for the clubhouse property. Now with the formation of the Longwalkers club, the new interest and involvement has re-energized local riders and sets the course for the next group of snowmobile enthusiasts.
Like the snowmobile clubs before them, the Longwalkers Snowmobile Club is part of the West Michigan Snowmobile Council, based in Muskegon. Among other group activities, the council receives funding from Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources for grooming operations in West Michigan. Trail captains and snowmobile clubs from the council, in turn, volunteer their time to groom and maintain various portions of the trail. The Longwalkers are continuing to maintain an approximately 30-mile stretch of trail, known as “191,” which runs from M-20 to the Baldwin trail connector, south of Crystal Valley on 120th Avenue.
“Parts of the state’s snowmobile trail system goes through state land or parks, but for parts that don’t, local clubs meet with private landowners each year to gain permission to have the trail run across their property,” Hallack said.
The Longwalkers wish to thank each private landowner for their continued support and cooperation, without it they wouldn’t be able to offer the extensive trail system they do to snowmobilers. From an economic development perspective, connected trail systems can be a real asset to local municipalities. Local riders benefit from easy access to amenities, and local businesses benefit from the money snowmobile riders spend when they are out on a ride.
For more information or to join the Longwalkers Snowmobile Club, contact Hallack at 231-923-9279 or visit the club’s Facebook page, The-Long-Walkers-Vintage-Snowmobile-Club.
For information about the West Shore Snowmobile Council and the Michigan Snowmobile and ORV Association (MISORVA), visit their Facebook page at WestShore-Snowmobile-Council.
For maps, trail conditions and more information about snowmobile trails in Michigan, visit michigan.gov/snomobiling.
Please note this important information from the MISORVA website, a volunteer organization dedicated to the success of motorized recreation in Michigan: “Our trail system is narrow in many areas, PLEASE stay on your side of the trail and watch for oncoming traffic. Our trail system is unique in that most trails are on private property. PLEASE respect signs and gates so that we don’t lose our riding privileges. If a gate is closed, so is our access. PLEASE stay on the trails and off of newly planted fruit and evergreen saplings that our landowners rely on for their crops. Several landowners have now closed some of the unofficial trails in Shelby/Hart due to loud pipes and sleds running over fruit trees.”
