Zorra-Now-Winter2023

TOWNSHIP DEPARTMENT INFORMATION 26 Zorra Now | Winter 2023 In 2000, Baldwin and Steve Sauder purchased a professional six-foot groomer in Vermont. They pulled it first with the tractor, before eventually buying a tracked utility vehicle that was still in use when they made the decision to cease grooming the trails last spring. Baldwin notes the Sauders, as well as other members of the Wildwood Polecats – which continued as a sanctioned club, switching its home base to Windy Hill Farm – for hours of help in maintaining the trails. The Sauders, especially, handled Polecats administrative duties, including very affordable membership fees and insurance, that have allowed Baldwin to make his trails available on a members- only basis without worrying about non-trail issues. He has certainly done many hours of pruning over the years to keep the trails in good condition. But the Polecats also hosted Pruning Days each fall so all members and friends had the opportunity to help out. High school teachers Mark Dewan (Stratford St. Mikes), Annette Wrigley (St. Marys DCVI) and Janet Thompson (Woodstock CI) also deserve credit, Baldwin says. These three brought dozens of young athletes to Windy Hill Farm to learn and train. Some of those athletes went on to glory at the WOSSAA (western Ontario) and OFSAA (all-Ontario) levels, and represent varsity teams at various universities in subsequent years. The farm even hosted a couple of WOSSAA championship meets. “That was fun. Blowing out the (farm) lane to get all those buses and cars on site at the same time as we needed to be grooming the trails – that was interesting,” he remembers. “I’m not sure if I’ll miss that.” But it’s clear Baldwin is proud of what those young athletes accomplished. Three of them, the Sauders’ three daughters, Marlee, Joanna and Janel, are featured in a photo attached to a tree at the entrance to the trail network off the Windy Hill Farm parking area. That section of the trail was given the name “Green Grove.” Elsewhere on the network, you’ll find signs (and photos) advising that you’re approaching sections of the trail named “Zig Zag”, “Rat Maze”, “Pete’s Peril”, and “Mount Baldwin.” “It was the kids that named those trails. And some of them went on to great things.” Baldwin estimates there were years in the 1990s when area skiers could rely on sufficient snow cover at Windy Hill Farm through most of the weeks from mid-December to mid-March. For the past few years, however, the season has been limited to approximately three weeks. And some of those days the conditions were less than ideal. Two things he refuses to estimate, though, are how many hours he has devoted to providing well-groomed trails for the area’s nordic skiing enthusiasts, and how much of his own money he spent making it all happen. “I don’t even think about it,” he said. “It’s fun grooming. It’s a nice way to spend an evening.” “And it has been so nice having a way of using the farm. It’s hard to think of not doing it.” Despite the loss of cross-country skiing, Pete and his wife Penny will continue offering outdoor sporting activities at their farm. As a “Millennium project” in 2000, Baldwin created a four-hole golf course on the property that two separate groups of golfers utilize on a weekly basis through the summer. And a cyclecross racing club based in Woodstock and London continues to use the trails for training. Pete Baldwin is shown on a sign leading to a tricky downhill section of the trail. He competed in the World Masters Championships in Canmore, Alberta in 1995.