ESSEX CENTER, VT -
The Vermont Association of Snow Travelers (VAST) kicked off the trail season Sunday and thousands of Snowmobilers across the state are excited to get started.
"Get out there and you feel like a kid," Snowmobile rider Daniel Airoldi said.
"It's go go go."
Airoldi has been riding for more than 40 years. He's hoping for a better snow fall than last season when there wasn't enough in Chittenden county to ride on.
"(It's) contingent on the amount snow on the trail whether the trials are actually open. But we're really excited. We hope a little bit of this keeps on coming," Airoldi said.
More snow means more work for Airoldi. As part of the Saxon Hill Riders he helps maintain and mark snowmobile trails free of charge.
"There's a great deal of pride in terms of maintaining grooming equipment marking the trails and basically maintaining what we have today," fellow rider Andy Doe said.
The trails they help maintain deliver customers to local businesses across Vermont, like Simon's in Essex Center.
"We welcome it all. Just like everybody else in the community loves the snowmobilers we love the snowmobilers in our community too," Simon's manager Joe Pratt said.
A VAST study estimated that snowmobiling brings close to half a billion dollars to Vermont's economy annually. So there's good reason to accommodate the riders.
"Everything they could need we try and help them out with," Pratt said.
Like fuel, but some stops are about more than filling up with gas.
"Snowmobiling out on the trails you just stop some places to enjoy where you are that you wouldn't ever be able to get there, basically, any other way," Airoldi said.
