Snowmobilers praise trail from Empire Airport to Maple City.

Tony Sterly of Thompsonville and Kristen Weber of Kingsley enjoy snowmobiling. They were in their glory over the holiday weekend.

“I’d rather be out riding a trail on my snowmobile than just about anything else this time of year,” Sterly said.

Sterly and Weber spent a good part of New Year’s Day riding their snow machines with family and friends from Thompsonville to Maple City. They were able to reach Maple City via the only official established snowmobile trail in Leelanau County, which connects the Empire Airport to the west side parking lot at Benchwarmers in Maple City.

“It’s about an hour’s ride up from Thompsonville. It was a great ride today with all the snow and the trail groomer had just been through. Just a great day to be out,” Sterly said as snow kept falling.

Tuesday was Weber’s first time on the trail, and she said she was impressed. “It’s well marked, we hit it at the right time with it being groomed and all. You couldn’t ask for much more,” she said.

Sterly and Weber’s group wasn’t the only one at the popular restaurant and sports bar in Maple City Tuesday afternoon. There were at least two other groups of snowmobiles in Benchwarmers’ parking lot during one point in the day. Down at the Maple City Short Stop gas station and convenience store, at least two more riders were filling up the gas tanks on their machines.

The Cedar Hilltoppers Snowmobile Club established the trail in 2000. Florian Czerniak of Cedar is a long-time club member and helped the club secure agreements with many private property owners to establish the trail.

“The trail is in good shape. When the first snows fell this season it was the wet heavy stuff. We were able to get our groomer out on it, and it’s good and packed down,” Czerniak said.

Czerniak said the club was able to secure more easements over private property, and trail riders may now use Benchwarmers as a staging area. Having the restaurant and bar as the starting or stopping point for a day’s riding is a great benefit, he said.

However, Czerniak and his fellow club members said anyone who uses the trail needs to respect its boundaries.

“We’ve got a lot of private property owners who were kind enough to let us do this. We’re hearing about way too many riders going off the trail and trespassing on people’s property. Please stay on the trail, don’t abuse it,” Czerniak said.

Czerniak said having the Maple City-Empire trail as part of a network of trails overseen by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is a nice feature for snowmobilers. “If you want you can ride from Maple City all the way to Manistee. If you follow the right trails you can make it all the way to Kalkaska and Grayling, if you have a mind to,” he said.

Sterly said he was happy to see all the snow on the ground at New Years this year. At this time in 2007, there was little to no snow.

“I’m just glad we’ve got so much right now. You’ve got to get out in it when it’s there,” he said.

Another popular snowmobile fill-up spot is Bunting’s Market in Cedar. On New Year’s afternoon, Dottie Bunting manned the cash register. While there were no snowmobilers filling up at the time, Bunting said the white stuff always brings people in.

“When it’s snowing, like it is now, we get the snowmobilers. It’s always good for business to have snow,” she said.

As to whether business was better this New Year’s Day as compared to last, Bunting said it’s about the same. “Business is great today with the snow. Overall, though, I’d say we’re doing about the same amount of business as we did last year,” she said.