Snowmobiling biggest winter draw, but no snow yet

The Lakeland area thrives on up-north fun year-round. During the warmer months, the streets are bustling with out-of-towners exploring downtown shops or dining at local restaurants, and the lakes are teeming with activity. But when winter arrives, the local economy depends on winter sport enthusiasts: ice fishermen, fat tire bikers, snowshoers, and, most notably, snowmobilers.

Snowmobiling is a tradition in the Northwoods. Sayner is home to the modern snowmobile, and the sport’s hall of fame is in St. Germain. 

But what happens when an area renowned for snowmobiling doesn’t have any snow? Residents and visitors got a taste of that last year when scant snowfall and unusually warm temperatures meant the trail systems in Oneida and Vilas counties never opened.

Initially, business owners remained cautiously optimistic, but as the warm winter weather persisted, their optimism turned to panic.

A group of state lawmakers, urged by a coalition of Northwoods economic and tourism entities, lobbied Gov. Tony Evers to collaborate with the federal government to bring relief to tourism-dependent businesses. Specifically, they asked Evers to work with the federal government to “properly declare an economic injury disaster area” so small businesses in the state’s central and northern communities could qualify for federal loan funding.

This year, some are worried the season could repeat last year's challenges.

Let’s Minocqua Visitors Bureau president and CEO Krystal Westfahl said area business owners are once again cautiously optimistic.

“Everybody I have spoken with so far is still kind of optimistic, which I’m shocked a little bit about, to be honest … after last year,” she said. “But the folks that I’ve spoken with have said emphatically that you have to be optimistic because you live in the North.”

While there hasn’t been much snow this season yet, there has been freezing temperatures. That, Westfahl said she thinks, has fortified some people’s nerves. 

So far this season, she said, conditions have been solid for ice skating, and ice fishing numbers have been good, but snowmobiling is still the biggest winter tourism draw and all the area needs now is the snow.

“If you look back historically, there have been years where we’ve had to wait a little bit longer and still had a really impactful snowmobiling season, so it really is a waiting game at this point to see what happens with snowfall,” Westfahl said. “But, like I said, the numbers for ice fishing are really strong. We didn’t have that last year.”

Still, though, she said, “the big daddy is snowmobiling.”

Westfahl referenced a Facebook post by the Hodag Sno-Trails, a non-profit snowmobile club, which encouraged others to remain hopeful yet about snowmobiling this year.

The average opening date for snowmobile trails in Oneida County, the post said, is Dec. 24. 

“Rhinelander received 13.5 inches of snow in November and December, but several warm spells have left us with little to show for it on the ground,” the Hodag Sno-Trails said in its post. “Unfortunately, we can’t control the weather. Sit tight and stay hopeful.”

The post also listed a few statistics, such as the longest snowmobile season on record occurring from 2007 to 2008 at 100 days and the shortest from 2020 to 2021 at 43 days. The average length of a snowmobile season, the Sno-Trails post said, is 85 days, with an average opening date of Dec. 24 and average closing date of March 20.

Westfahl said many snowmobile clubs shared that post and added she thinks it may have calmed some people’s nerves. 

She continued to compare the difference between silent sports in the winter and snowmobiling with regard to the economic impact both have. 

“The silent sports silently bring in income — you don’t see it, it’s not a big blustery thing where you got groups of people traveling from business to business to business,” Westfahl said. “I mean, you still definitely have the ice fisherman … yeah they’re going out at night, but they’re not traveling all day long from business to business to business potentially buying stuff. It’s a slow trickle instead of an open faucet stream of money.”

Ultimately, she said: “We do, we need the snowmobilers.”

Westfahl admitted she’s nervous herself after what happened last year and what the start of this year has looked like for the snowmobile season.

She said she’s trying to be “cautiously optimistic like everybody else” at this point.

“It’s nice to hear there are businesses that are still like ‘OK, we still have time, everything’s OK,’” Westfahl said.

As of Jan. 7, the National Weather Service is predicting a 30 percent chance of snow before noon today, but no snow the rest of the weekend, though frigid cold temperatures were expected to persist.

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].