Courtesy Photo Rick Adas and Dave Adams, both members of the Presque Isle Sno-Trails Snowmobile Club, set up signs on Snowmobile Trail 998, which opens on Dec. 1.

PRESQUE ISLE — The Presque Isle Sno-Trails Snowmobile Club, with the help of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Michigan Department of Transportation, cleared off a new snowmobile trail stretching from Trail 992 in Posen to the U.S.-23 Sunoco gas station near Rogers City.

The new trail, Trail 998, has been under development for eight years but was MDOT-approved a few weeks ago after the club received a permit to put signage up.

Dave Campo, president of the Presque Isle Sno-Trails Snowmobile Club, said Trail 998 uses an already existing railroad grade that branches off of Trail 992.

“It’s been eight years that we’ve been working on this thing, and we finally got it,” Campo said. “A lot of towns in northern Michigan have access trails through their town and cities for snowmobilers so that they can come through and utilize the businesses and spend money.”

Campo said a key aspect of building a route for snowmobilers is to get them closer to food and fuel, so giving them access to the Sunoco station on U.S.-23 was important to the club.

According to Campo, the existing railroad grade goes to the Carmeuse quarry in Rogers City and there have been efforts to get a trail through the quarry.

After DNR, Carmeuse, and club officials met to discuss the idea, Campo thought it would be difficult to achieve, so he came up with an alternative route.

“I started looking at using the MDOT’s right-of-way from the existing railroad grade that goes all the way to U.S.-23,” Campo said. “Just before you get to U.S-23 on the railroad grade, there was an old railroad bridge that needed to be rebuilt. And so, the DNR told me that they’re holding off on rebuilding it.

“So I thought,” Campo continued, “‘Well, that’s going to be a while before they get to that. So that’s when I thought if we get to County Road 638, then we can use 638 and some other side roads.”

Trail 998 goes through County Roads 638 and 441, which currently does not have snowmobile signage set up on both roads because the Presque Isle Road Commission has not given the club permission.

Campo said he hopes to approach the commission again to gain permission and put signs up so “the snowmobilers will know exactly where they need to go.

“Right now, the DNR has invested close to $50,000 into this stretch,” Campo said. “The DNR hired a company out of Hillman to do some more clearing for us and between what they did, what we did,and then we had a local company in Rogers city do some work — there’s close to 50 grand invested into the trail.”

About 12 club members helped out through the eight years of trail development, according to Campo and other members.

Campo hopes to add an additional trail that would connect Trail 998 to Trail 996, a northern route that connects to trails that can lead all the way to Mackinaw City.

Trail 998 is open to snowmobilers starting on Dec. 1 through March 31 when there is enough snow on the ground.