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The first meeting was held in December of that year
with 13 active snowmobilers attending.
At that meeting an
executive was elected and it was decided to run a contest through the
local school for an official club name. The Archerwill Drift
Riders were born!
 Here
we were, a snowmobile club with no designated trails, grooming equipment
or signage and worst of all, no operating funds.
Since
that first meeting, our club has never looked back.
In early 1997, we decided have drag races, a poker
rally and bike/ATV rally, one right after the other.
All three
events were a success and gave us some operating funds to work with, but
we still had a long way to go.
 As the summer
progressed,
our club members were already talking of purchasing a groomer for the
upcoming season.
After looking at several machines and maybe not
knowing ourselves what we needed or wanted, we found one of two machines
at the Battlefords Ski Resort.
After some discussion and two
members willing to co-sign a loan at the Archerwill Credit Union, we
purchased not only one groomer, but both of them. We were on a
roll.
 At the same time that we were purchasing groomers,
other things were happening in our club.
At
one time Rose Valley had a club and we approached them to see if they
wanted to join our club, which they did.
We were in the process of
building our first warm-up shelter and we were in discussions within our
club whether or not we should become a member of the Saskatchewan
Snowmobile Association (SSA).
 When the groomers finally arrived,
we knew we had our work cut out for us.
All the windows were basically smashed from vandalism
and the machines looked like rust buckets inside and out.
Luckily
as apart of the deal, the previous owner supplied us with all new glass.
The
club decided to immediately refurbish one machine for the upcoming
season, and refurbish the other machine the following year.
It is
not uncommon for volunteer clubs to rely on local businesses in the are
for support. We are fortunate to have DuWayne Lupien as a member
of club and owner of Double L Welding. We were able to use his
shop and equipment to recondition the groomer and at the same time build
a drag to pull behind.
Within a short couple of weeks, our groomer
looked like a new machine, we had built a drag, we were ready to groom.
The members from Rose Valley decided that they would
take on the challenge to recondition the other groomer the following
year, and club member Melvin Halvorson offered his shop in Rose Valley
for this purpose.
Within two short years we went from no groomers
to two excellent groomers, complete with drags.
 The
building of our first warm-up shelter was made possible by businesses in
the Archerwill, Rose Valley and surrounding areas purchasing block
advertising on our shelter.
Our first set of trail signs were hand
painted by club members, and endless task. A trail was designated
and trail maps were developed and printed.
After being a club for
a little over a year, we felt we had a winter recreation activity that
could be enjoyed by snowmobilers across the province and the economic
benefits to our local business that went along with it.
 In 1998 our club applied for, and became, an
incorporated non-profit organization. We joined the Saskatchewan
Snowmobile Association and the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool in Archerwill
donated us an office building to use as a club house.
We also
decided that we should purchase some professional trail signage working
towards having all reflective trail signs in the future.
In
1999 our club decided that our two groomers had done the tasks they were
intended to do and it was time to sell these and upgrade to a single
newer groomer.
We ended up purchasing a 1987 Bombardier BR 400 in
excellent shape from 100 Mile House in BC, which we still use to this
present day.
 The
UGG in Archerwill donated an office building, which we put out on the
trail as our second warm-up shelter.
Since becoming a snowmobile club, we have had our
usual fundraisers such as poker rallies, ATV rallies, selling tickets on
sides of beef or pork, etc. But our longest fundraising was about
to happen. We were going farming.
Local
area farmer and club member Ed Bernauer offered us 50 acres of land if
we wanted to plant a crop. We of course accepted. Ed also
offered his farm equipment to work the land and plant the crop.
Proven Seed and Aventis supplied the seed and Monsanto supplied the
Round-up. Archerwill Co-op supplies custom spraying and all the
diesel fuel requirements from start to finish. Club member Gerry
Lupien supplied his tractor and rock picker, and North Star Custom
Combining combined and trucked the canola.
The
summer of 2001 saw our total trail signage revamped. All of our
signs are now reflective with painted stakes and our club name on every
stake.
As of today, we groom and sign 160 km of trail. Our
trail from Archerwill can take you west to hook up with Naicam Snow
Blasters Trails or east
right into Greenwater
Provincial Park or take the loop around through Rose Valley.
Our trails also access Barrier Lake Resort, Revoy's Marina, Barrier
Ford Resort, Marean Lake Resort and the scenic Barrier Valley Lake
and River system.
Groomed
trails do come at a cost. Our clubs insurance costs are in excess
of $1000 this year, and are due whether it snows or not, and this does
not include any additional insurance we have to purchase. Insurance costs have
increased approximately 400% from last year (the insurance companies say
this is due to September 11).
 Groomers can cost anywhere between
10 and 135 thousand dollars, depending on the year and condition of the
groomer.
It
takes our club approximately 24 hours to groom our trails once, at a
machine operating cost of $20/hour or $480/trip, barring any
breakdowns.
Generally there are two operators in the groomer at
all times and this is done on a volunteer basis.
Our volunteers
also do all the signage, trail and warm-up shelter maintenance.
 Every
season brings new challenges such as high or low water levels and
farmers adding additional fencing while looking for additional feed or
increasing their herds.
We feel our club has a good working relationship
with the farmers in our area and we are confident all concerns will be
addressed and resolved.
Good
sledding, and we will see you on the trails!
For
more information on any of our rallys, the trail conditions, accommodations
or directions, contact the Drift Riders by mail at:
 Archerwill Drift
Riders
Box 310
Archerwill, SK
S0E 0B0
or phone
Wayne at 306-278-2424
Daryl at 306-323-4473
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