Chad Newell of Albany and Matt and Mike Voorhees of Utica. Photo by Dana Armington
With a steady stream of winter adventurers coming to the area over the past week, snowmobile permit sales have reached high numbers in both the Town of Webb and Inlet.
“This past weekend they were out the door, they were out on the sidewalk when we opened first thing in the morning,” said Town of Webb Publicity Director Mike Farmer.
Farmer said of the hundreds of permits sold from Friday through Monday over the
The Bourdons of Syracuse and Alder Creek
Presidents holiday weekend, over 300 of them were purchased by individuals who had never snowmobiled in the area before.
“Finally—the word is out,” he said.
Mitch Lee, of the Inlet Information Office, was equally as elated over the spike in the weekend’s permit sales.“I think the fact that other areas have not had much of a winter, it has taken some time for people to realize that we have snow here. But we are open and trail conditions are good. Once that was made known, it transferred over to real high numbers,” Lee said.
And according to Farmer, riders from all over have been arriving throughout the week to get out on the trails.
“They come back in [from riding] and they are all amazed at how good the conditions are. We’ve heard that from people from the Southern Tier, Western New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont,” he said.
Two such riders were Jim Bourdon and his son, Matthew of Syracuse and Alder Creek.
“We are having a blast.
Everything is well-groomed and well taken care of and there are lots of places to eat. It’s been great, just fabulous,” said the elder Bourdon.
With lake effect snow in the forecast, both Farmer and Lee agreed that the influx of riders could continue throughout this weekend.
“Of course we do rely on Mother Nature, and she can be unkind, but we’re still doing our snow dance, and we’re still hopeful,” Lee said.
