Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Snowmobiling in Oulu region

I went snowmobiling on last Sunday. I made a trip from Oulu (Hiukkavaara) to Ylikiiminki and back, althogether about 85 km. 85 km is not much as such but taking into account the bad condition of the trail it was plenty. My muscles are aching a bit after bouncing up and down the moguls on the trail.

This is the standard situation with the snowmobiling trails close to Oulu and I guess all the bigger cities not close to high maintenance trails of skiing resorts. The reason for the bad condition of the trails is simple, way too much traffic compared to the maintenance of the trails. There's no way in the current situation for the maintenance level to be improved...there's just not enough money. I would be ready to pay something like 50-100 €/winter if that would get trails in good enough condition. In my mind good enough trail is something you can drive (quite comfortably) on 45-60 km/h with a touring sled with 2 people on.

Is there any way to collect bigger money from snowmobilers for the maintenance of the trails? If the payment is purely out of freewill, it's not gonna work. Collecting the money as a tax from snowmobile owners is also problematic as it's difficult (read: impossible) to earmark any tax money to certain usage. I have a proposal in mind for this dilemma, but I'll write about that later.

No comments: