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February 04, 2025
Michigan Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officers patrolled over 385 miles of snowmobile trails during this past weekend, during the 56th annual running of the I-500 snowmobile race in Chippewa County.
Conservation officers have traditionally focused enhanced patrols on this area during the race weekend, tallying statistics of their efforts.
This year, the patrols began on Friday, Jan. 31 and continued through the night of Saturday, Feb. 1, with conservation officers contacting 598 snowmobilers. They issued 24 tickets and 76 verbal warnings for various violations.
Those infractions included careless operation of a snowmobile, unregistered snowmobile, failure to display snowmobile registration decals, no trail permits, failure to attach trail permits. Off-road vehicle violations were also encountered, all of which were discovered on the surrounding trail system.
"Overall activity on the Chippewa County trails was high," said Lt. Eugene "Skip" Hagy, the DNR Law Enforcement Division's District 2 supervisor. "The recent ample snowfall and cold temperatures in the Upper Peninsula made for excellent trail conditions and likely contributed to the large number of snowmobilers in the area."
Temperatures were bitterly cold Saturday, starting off at -16 degrees and only warming into the single digits throughout the day.
Officers met a diversity of out-of-state riders on their patrols who traveled from Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Indiana, Minnesota, Wyoming, Missouri, West Virginia, Florida and the province of Ontario to enjoy the race event and local trails.
Many positive comments were received on the presence of the conservation officers on the trails over the weekend’s events.
"Word travels fast when officers are working the trails, and many riders drive a little more responsibly when they know officers are in the area," Hagy said. "This helps us with our goal of everyone having an enjoyable, safe riding experience and make it home without any accidents or injuries."
During the patrols, conservation officers concentrated their attention on ensuring the safety of everyone who was out enjoying the trails by enforcing provisions of the Ride Right safety campaign, which is a cooperative partnership safety effort aimed at reminding snowmobilers to ride on the right side of the trail, ride sober, ride at a speed within their operating capabilities and, most importantly, ride home safe to their families and friends.
"Some of the operators who were ticketed for careless operation expressed how they didn’t think their violations were really an issue," Hagy said. "They were reminded these types of careless actions are often what lead to snowmobile crashes that cause serious physical injury or death."
Fatal crashes frequently occur when riders are going faster than they should be, particularly in unfamiliar territory, Hagy said.
"They come into a curve too fast and just can’t slow down enough to avoid blowing the curve, and unfortunately, often striking a tree in their path," Hagy said. "There were no major incidents reported on the surrounding trails during the enhanced patrols."
For more information on the Ride Right safety campaign, visit the DNR's webpage.
