Donald Teuma-Castelletti
MUNCICPALITY OF PONTIAC Nov. 24, 2018
Volunteers from the Pontiac Snowmobile Drivers Association (PSDA) had the chance to hit their trails early on Saturday, but it wasn’t for the thrill of feeling the wind on their helmets.
With a healthy layer of snow on the ground, those volunteers were marking out the path club members will be following this winter, as they set out to put up over 1,200 pickets along it.

PSDA President Alain Goulet said it’s a big job for the club, especially as they often see so few volunteers step up to help.
Starting at 9 a.m. and meeting at Gavan’s Hotel in Quyon, the six volunteers loaded up a trailer with the pickets and set out. They’d be working to picket the sector of their trails that includes Bristol Mines through to Quyon and Luskville.
Another volunteer, Jason Lamothe, explained that the maintenance of the pickets themselves is a lot of work for the club. Every year new ones are cut and painted, because many are broken or stolen the previous winter.
In total, Goulet said, the club puts in 10,000 pickets every year.
Saturday morning saw the devoted crew of Goulet, Olivier Goulet, Lamothe, Vincent Lamothe, Gilles Emond and Rock Carrière tackling the Municipality of Pontiac area trails.
Olivier, the youngest of the bunch, is just five years-old, but has been helping with the picket set-up for three years running. When not keeping a watchful eye on the crew from the back of his dad’s ATV, he’d be found right in the thick of things, tossing out pickets from the trailer.