Mother nature slows down snowmobile season

Rainy weather puts brakes on snowmobile season Just days after more than a thousand kms of snowmobile trails opened across the region, but on Saturday mother nature had other plans.

Wasaga Beach — The Snowmobile season was just underway, but mother nature had other plans as rain moved in overnight, causing havoc on trails across the region.

On Friday, Mid-Ontario Snowmobile Trails manager Kevin Hagen started closing a few trails in Wasaga Beach, mainly because of wet areas

"Just a couple trails had to close, then it moved its way to all of the Barrie area," said Hagen, "now today Blue Mountains has closed temporarily, and Midland Penetanguishene is also closed this morning."

Hagen says closing trails helps to preserve the snow, but it won't take much to get them reopened. This, just days after more than a thousand kilometers of snowmobile trails maintained by the Ontario Federation of Snomobile Clubs (OFSC) opened for the season.

By noon Saturday, more than 600 km of trails around Southern Georgian Bay were closed. A few pockets remained open around Orillia, Creemore, and Osprey.

The season usually gets started by mid-January. So far, trails have been open for ten days.

"All this area it showed all good trails as of Friday, today is only Saturday, and it's starting to look a little iffy all over the place." says snowmobiler Dave Young.

The Boat House in Midland is a favourite pit stop for sledders and saw an immediate increase in sales when trails opened. Owner Kirk McNabb hopes to see sledders six to eight weekends over the winter with February tending to be the busiest.

"There is some cold weather in the forecast coming up on Wednesday," says McNabb, "and that should help keep the season going."