Snowmobiling in Wells-Barkerville
After all the confusion last winter, I would like to explain the rules and regulations as they apply in this province. If you operate a snowmobile on Crown Land (off-road) you have to have a yellow decal mounted to your snowmobile. They can be purchased for $10 at any government agent. This yellow “ATV” decal allows you to legally operate your snowmobile on Crown Land and is the only necessary legal document required by every snowmobile. There is no limit on the operator’s age. Your snowmobile is now registered but “unlicensed”. If you come to Wells or Barkerville and unload your snowmobile at the trail head and take off on our groomed trails, you’ll be fine. The District of Wells has also created an “licensed snowmobile corridor” to the town of Wells, so you can easily reach the hotels, motels and other services. There are also trails for unlicensed snowmobiles that will take you near to all the services. Things are more difficult if you want to use your machine on roadways, which means public roads. First you need a drivers’ license and your snowmobile needs to be insured (for example by ICBC). With this insurance comes a license plate which has to be mounted to the rear of your machine. The cost is less than $100. The procedure is very simple. Contact the RCMP officer in Wells to get an “operation permit”. The easiest way is to fax your driver’s license and your snowmobile registration papers to 250-994-3418. The officer in charge will mail your operation permit back to you, or you can pick it up when you come to Wells, no cost involved. Second is to bring the permit to one of the insurance brokers and get licensed. Now you can use the roads which are open for licensed snowmobiles in the Wells-Barkerville area. It is a BC law that snowmobiles can not be operated on any plowed forest service road, even if licensed. As you know this applies to the 3100 Road as well. As long as there is not too much snow, you can drive your vehicle to the X-Road and unload there. You can unload in Barkerville, use our groomed trail to Yanks Peak by using the 3100 Road from Devil’s Eyebrow to the X-Road. There seems to be some confusion as to the 3100 road being plowed this year, we hope to have clarification on this matter soon. I hope I have clarified things with this message. If you have any questions, phone 250-994-3224 or 250-994-3202 to talk to one of our members. The Wells-Barkerville Snowmobile club decided to keep the groomer for this winter and pay the lease of $25,000 again. This is a lot of money for a volunteer organization. As everyone can imagine we need lots of paying snowmobilers in order to keep going. Please support our area and enjoy your sport, but don’t forget to pay your user fee. Our little “Toll Booth” is located on the main highway through Wells, between Hubs Motel and the Service Station. Day user fee is $12 per person.