Club History
History of the Toad Hollow Trail Riders
The Toad Hollow Trail Riders Snowmobile club was formed in July 1973 by 3 snowmobilers who wanted to “encourage and promote the sport of snowmobiling and to promote friendship, sociability, and physical recreation among it members”. The original directors were Bill Beaudin, Gary Grome and Dick Flood. Gary Grome was the first president. Other presidents of note are Artie Eipp (12 years), Tim Taylor (20 years) and our current president Jennifer Simmons. Almost 50 years later, Dick Flood is still an active member.
Our meetings started at Tanner Valley Golf Course, moved to the Old Rock Inn, then to the Kart Lounge, then to Orchard Vali Golf Course, and we have now come full circle back to Tanner Valley. At first membership was in the 20-30 bracket. In 2003 the New York State legislature passed the “Snowmobiler’s Rights and Responsibilities Act”. This act gave a registration discount to members of any snowmobile club. This gave our (and all clubs) membership a big boost. Our highest membership was 350. With the winters of late not being so hot, our membership runs around 200. Of these 200, we usually get 50 or so members to our meetings which are the first Wednesday of the month from September through April. We are constantly maintaining and improving our 19 miles of funded trails.
The Toads have lots of stuff going on. For the last 35 or so years, past president Artie Eipp has been hosting an annual hot dog roast at his house in February. Artie also started a Poker Run in February and we just had our 18th run. We started a Chicken BBQ in August and we are coming up to our 21st one. We have a golf tournament in September and had our 13th one so far. Last but not least, we had our 14th Vintage Snowmobile show and Chicken BBQ in January.
In April of 2018 we achieved 501c3 Charitable Organization status. We educate future and existing riders through the NYS Parks Snowmobile Safety Course we put on twice a year at no charge. Our main goal is to foster safe riders, rider courtesy to everybody, and landowner and environmental respect.