Last season was the best season snowmobiling has seen in Michigan for more than 20 years!
Trails opened on Dec. 1, and remained open in both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, everywhere, for nearly the entire season. We also had the safest season we have had in years.
An interesting note: the trails in southern Lower Michigan were open for seven straight weeks. That has not happened for more than 20 years.
The total number of miles groomed by Michigan’s grant sponsors was just over a half of million miles — 585,258 miles to be exact!
If you divide the number of snowmobile trails in Michigan (6,500 miles) into that amount, it comes out to each mile of trail being groomed more than 90 times during the 2013-14. What a season!
Your Trail Permit Dollars at Work
People who hadn’t participated in snowmobiling for years got out and hit the trails last season. Because of the great snow and increased participation, all grooming dollars from the Michigan Trail Improvement Fund were spent. We actually went over our equipment maintenance dollars because of the increase in usage. In fact we spent $1.1 million repairing equipment.
Your trail permit dollars paid for all the trails to be brushed in the fall, signed per the DNR specifications, and groomed all winter long. The total cost for all 64 grant sponsors was a whopping $4.5 million.
Other costs involved in the program include brushing and signing, which came in at $578,686.50 last season.
The cost for insurance, trail leasing, and snowplowing the staging areas was $788,115. Most of that went to insurance.
