DRYDEN – Tuesday’s heavy snowfall notwithstanding, this winter has not been kind to snowmobiling enthusiasts – and that’s had ripple effects on restaurant and hospitality businesses.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a snowmobile in our parking lot all winter,” Mike Readman, manager of the Best Western Plus in Dryden, said this week.
The hotel, situated near a snowmobile trail, sees “a pretty consistent traffic” of sledders in the average winter – “I’d say anywhere from 75 to 100 visits,” said Readman, who has been a manager there for more than a decade.
“The weather this year, honestly, has diminished our snowmobiling attendance almost to nothing,” he observed.
A major annual event that brings snowmobilers from out of town, Sled for Eternity, was cancelled this winter, he said.
The Best Western is also a popular stop for snowmobilers from out of town.
“The nice thing about the hotel is that it offers a place for them to be warm,” he said.
“It offers a meal, they can come in and get a coffee. We’re right off the main trail, which is only about four blocks from us.
“So we kind of offer anything that they are looking for and we’re close to fuel stops, etc. So it makes a natural stop.”
There has been a dearth of “snowmobile opportunities” in the area this year, Dryden Mayor Jack Harrison confirmed.
“It’s been a very unusual year,” he said in an interview Monday, just hours before Mother Nature dropped more than 15 centimetres of snow on his city.
In typical winters, he said, “a lot of (snowmobilers) come from Kenora, Sioux Lookout and Ignace passing through, staying in our hotels.”
That hasn’t been the case this year as Dryden’s snowmobile trails have been closed almost the whole time, he said.
Other winter recreation activities have also been slow, he added, noting that the local ski hill “missed the Christmas season” due to December’s unseasonably mild low-snow weather.
Ice fishing was also slow to develop because of the El Niño winter, he said.
“It’s been an incredibly different year, absolutely,” said Harrison.
