For over five decades, the Northland Trailblazers Snowmobile Club has been at the heart of northern snowmobiling, creating a strong community of riders, volunteers, and outdoor enthusiasts. With a mission to maintain trails, support safety education, and host events that bring people together, the club has grown into a vital part of the region’s winter recreation.
The Trailblazers continue to expand their reach—maintaining 500 kilometres of trails, managing remote-access cabins, and advocating for public land access. Through dedicated volunteers and a passion for the sport, the club ensures that snowmobiling remains accessible, enjoyable, and sustainable for future generations. We had a chance to chat with vice-president Brian McBrearty to learn more.
How long has your club been active?
The Northland Trailblazers Snowmobile Club has been active for 51 years. We have gone through several name changes over the years to reflect upon the changes in our constitution.
What are your primary goals and objectives?
- To promote the use and enjoyment of snowmobiles, and to teach and train persons in the use, operation and safety of snowmobiles.
- To acquire and manage real property for the purpose of establishing and maintaining trails, and facilities for the promotion and enjoyment of the use of snowmobiles.
- To raise funds from time to time as required for maintaining the existing or future facilities to the advancement and enhancement of the snowmobile activity.
Do you organize trail maintenance, safety courses, family rides or other events?
Yes. We operate and maintain six remote access facilities. These include cabins, warm-up shelters/fire-pits,and outhouses. Every year every facility requires some upkeep. It may only be minor cleaning/ garbage collection/ new signage etc, or a major (renovation) such as a new roof. This provides lots of opportunity for members to help out to keep these facilities in good, safe, usable condition.
We are in contract with R.S.T.BC and BC Parks for approx. 500 kilometres of ungroomed trails that we maintain. As with our facilities, these trails require work every year. Mostly minor tree removal, and signage replacement, but we may also require equipment to keep the trails safe and rideable.
Throughout the year we also organise multiple social events such as Show-and-Shine, Poker Rides, Christmas parade floats, and impromptu events such as Saturday evening rides across the lake to our chalet for a marshmallow roast.
How does your club contribute to the local community?
We feel that one of primary contributions to the local community is simply by increasing the quality of life in a remote northern community. The winters can be long and the community needs things to do. We understand that not everyone owns or rides a snowmobile, but a lot do. For those that don't, we do try to offer events such as the show-and-shine and Christmas parade that are open to the public.
Over the years we have been active in the Snowarama fundraising event which helps out the Easter Seals Program. This helps everyone.
What are the biggest challenges facing your club today?
The biggest challenge that we face today is the loss of public land access. This is a threat to all backcountry users regardless of the sport they are participating in.
The next biggest threat to our club is “time”. Society has everyone so busy that there is little time for recreation.
Vandalism on facilities that are open to the public is always an issue. People who have invested time and money into something always look after it better than those that haven’t.
What are you most proud of achieving?
We are proud of our members—we have remained strong for over 50 years. This is only achievable with a strong leadership team with good mentorship and the support of our members and the community.
We are also proud of our remote access cabins and the work that goes into maintaining them. We are an all-inclusive family orientated organization. Every single member identifies as a “snowmobiler”.
What are your goals for the future?
We plan to continue to grow our social events, which includes stronger brand recognition. We have applications in to the government for several new cabins to be constructed in areas that people still ride, but due to the remoteness we need an emergency shelter, and also have plans to get another 500 kilometres of trails registered (Section 56) to connect a couple of our remote cabins.
Our biggest plan, which is still in the very preliminary stages, is to reactivate the original RCMP trail from Fort St John to Fort Nelson.
