Although the season's peak is a couple of months off, Upper Peninsula snowmobilers already are checking out gear and planning where to go in a winter wonderland of 6,000 miles of trails in Michigan. Those in the industry are encouraged by a snowy winter forecast and lower gas prices than last year.

Everything's dependent on snowfall, but two respected forecasters, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Old Farmer's Almanac, predict a below-normal cold winter for Michigan, and that usually means snow.

What's encouraging this year is lower gasoline prices, said Jim Duke, president of the Michigan Snowmobilers Association.

In all, about $1.2 billion is generated by snowmobiling in Michigan, and perhaps $400 million of that goes to the Upper Peninsula, estimates Ed Klim of the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association.

"The only tourist industry that's bigger than snowmobiling in Michigan," he said, "is golf."

A snowmobiling couple will spend at least $500 on fuel, food, and lodging during a weekend. Snowmobilers are typically of above average income, ranking above recreational vehicle campers but below yachters.

There are about 350,000 snowmobilers in Michigan, and 1.7 million nationwide.

As of now, all predictions point to a season at least as good as last year's in the Upper Peninsula, when 199,000 snowmobile trail permits were sold (at $25 for one year) by the Michigan Secretary of State through the Department of Natural Resources. A three-year registration costs $22.

That permit number was up from 2007's 184,000.

The fees keep snowmobiling in Michigan entirely self-funded, including the grooming of trails by local volunteers in large tractors hauling grooming equipment called drags that pack snow as they move.

The Straits Area Snowmobile Club, headed by Jim DeKeyser in St. Ignace, for example, grooms the 101-mile looping trail system between US-2 West in St. Ignace to beyond Trout Lake and the Cut River.

Many trails are abandoned railroad beds stripped of rails.

"And they're beautiful trails," said Mr. Klim. "They're wide and flat and they take you to towns you'd normally never see."

There are four major manufacturers - Yamaha, Arctic Cat, BRP (Ski-doo), and Polaris, all with products in varying styles and power levels, with prices averaging $7,800 and ranging from $5,000 to $9,000 for sleds used in Michigan. For machines appropriate to mountains like the Rockies, prices hit $12,000.

All new snowmobilers must take a safety course. The rules are simple: Keep to the right, and don't outspeed your skill level. Don't drink and sled. The same blood alcohol limit, .08, enforced on highways, applies to snowmobile trails, enforced by county deputy sheriffs on snowmobiles.

Mike Soder of the Fish and Hunt Shop in Curtis, a Ski-doo dealer, says new snowmobile sales are about even with last year, with used machines doing about the same. Most of his customers are people in their 30s from out of the area, about 150 miles distant.

Sales have been declining slowly for the last six years because of shifting demographics, he said, so he doesn't expect any big drop-off this year. Michigan's economic slump doesn't seem to have dampened enthusiasm for snowmobiling, Mr. Soder said.

Said Mr. Duke: "Die hard members and snowmobilers will still recreate."

For information about safety classes in the E.U.P., call Martin Cottle of the Michigan Snowmobile Association at (906) 632-1751, or call the Mackinac County Sheriff's Office at 643- 1911.