HOLLAND — The Drift Dusters Snowmobile Club, in cooperation with US Border Patrol, recently repaired a bridge on the international boundary in Holland.
In 2018, Drift Dusters opened the nation’s first internationally shared snowmobile trail in Holland.
This is the only known trail that is shared by two separate snowmobile clubs in different countries.
Since then the trail has grown to a length of over four miles running parallel to the Canadian Snowmobile trail maintained by Club Motoneige Les Trois Village along what locals refer to as the “Border Cut”.
This trail has allowed riders to experience extreme northern Vermont with views of Lake Memphremagog and the Green Mountains while providing USBP with a trail that allows them to easily patrol the border, increase their presence, and further their mission.
In the Fall of 2019, it was brought to the attention of Drift Dusters Snowmobile Club that there was a bridge, East of the trail, on the international boundary that was dilapidated to the point that it was unsafe and unusable.
This bridge runs parallel along the boundary and was no longer being used.
Because of the relationship Drift Dusters has created with USBP and the US Boundary Commission, they were asked to rebuild the bridge to give them better access along the boundary.
Drift Dusters recruited the 20 volunteers needed and the 40-foot-long bridge was rebuilt in a day with lumber supplied by USBP.
The bridge will be used by USBP to patrol the boundary and will not be used as a trail at this time.
The club says they have always been and always will be supportive of the community and of the local law enforcement officers that patrol the area.
Drift Dusters Snowmobile Club is a family-friendly club based out of Derby that maintains 70 miles of trail throughout the towns of Derby, Holland, Morgan, Charleston, and Norton.
Snowmobiling contributes 500 million dollars to Vermont’s economy each year with much of that ending up in the Northeast Kingdom.
