There’s lots of snow in northern Michigan and the U.P. and many are ready to hit the trails with their snowmobiles. However, there’s a word of caution from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

DNR Upper Peninsula Trails Coordinator Ron Yesney wants people to ride safely.

“Sometimes the excitement and the adrenaline of going snowmobiling can kind of overwhelm somebody’s ability to ride, and so we want people to ride at their ability level,” Yesney said. “Also early in the season, there’s more obstacle sticks, rock, culvert, things like that, that would be exposed. We don’t get a chance to put a good base down initially. So it’s important to ride defensively and to ride slow.”

Yesney says if you’re the lead rider, you should ride at the ability of your least capable rider to avoid accidents. He says there have been crashes when a novice rider was trying to keep up.

Yesney e also says ride sober.