Snowmobile Trail Conditions

Today started with loading some good sleds on the trailer along with the crashed one and heading to the dealer. We arrived and set up a rental sled and took the other sleds off the trailer. After heading to Bergland for gas, we took trail 8 West to trail 102 North. Both were in excellent shape. Trail 102 was phenomenal as usual, tons of snow and smooth as glass. We caught up with trail 11 North and rode that into Silver City.

Along the way my Renegade chewed up a belt so we swapped that out and took a few pictures by Lake Superior. We stopped for lunch at Konteka and then made our way back to Bergland. Trail 1 was in decent shape, but could use a quick pass with the groomer. We gassed up again and decided to play around in the 1 to 2 ft of fresh powder on the lake. We didn’t even make it to hoop n holler before my last buddy (the one who hasn’t had any problems this trip) had the motor quit on him. It ended up being a blown piston. We towed that sled to the hoop and left it in the parking lot. Then we rode back to the dealer to drop off the rental sled and get the trailer to pick up the sled at the hoop. Another event filled day!

Overall Trail Rating: 8 out of 10
Distance: 87
Previous: 290
Season Total: 377

Todays trip is with some college buddies that now all live in Florida. We headed into Presque Isle on trail 6 East to fuel up. Then we rode north on trail 1 then through Marenisco up to Lake Gogebic. Both trail 1 and trail 2 were in great shape. We got on trail 101 to the bottom of Lake Gogebic, then rode the lake to Fish Tales for the walleye breakfast. Much to our disappointment, they were CLOSED for breakfast! So we headed across the lake to Root Cellar and ate lunch instead. After lunch we rolled into Bergland to gas up.

This is when the day got interesting! My one buddy forgot to tighten the screw in his helmet and it came out. This made for a cold ride because his visor would not stay shut and he was getting blasted in the face with cold air. Fortunately when we went to the dealer they had an extra screw for it. We repaired the visor and were on our way. We took trail 8 east out of town towards Ewen. It was in great shape, but once we reached Ewen the snow got a little thin. A few miles past Ewen the snow got deeper and we were good to go. We got gas in Bruce Crossing and then made our way to UP Chucks in Kenton. We each grabbed a bowl of their delicious soup and then took trail 107 south. 107 was in fantastic shape and it was so amazing riding through the forest with the fresh snow! Then we took trail 2 West into Watersmeet. We gassed up and then rode trail West to trail 13 South and then across the Cisco chain. My buddies were hungry so we planned to eat there. We barely made it across the Cisco chain before it was dark. If you cross that chain of lakes when it’s dark USE CAUTION for deer! We probably saw 30 deer on our way across. After arriving at Bents camp we had strike number two! They were closed too! 🙁 So we decided to head back to Presque Isle and eat at Skyview. I rode out of the parking lot and headed for the road. Assuming the others were following, I waited at the stop sign for a minute or two. No one came. I turned around and went back to the EMPTY (no cars, only our sleds) parking lot and they were all standing around. Some how one of my buddies found a tree to hit in the empty parking lot! (he was ok, only his pride was injured and he had a sore foot) He crunched up a bunch of plastic but fortunately the frame didn’t get bent. I traded sleds with him and we were on our way again. Heading down trail 6 West another buddy dropped off. I went back to see what was going on and he said the sled would not move. We were on a really steep hill in the middle of the trail. I popped the hood and could see the belt was trashed. We moved the sled out of the way and got the belt changed. We were on our way again. I rode the broken sled about 1/2 way back and couldn’t take the fumes any more. The pipe got moved a bit and it was leaking exhaust. My other buddy rode it the other part back. We arrived at Skyview and had a lot of laughs and a great dinner. What a day!

Overall Trail Rating: 9 out of 10
Distance: 193
Previous: 97
Season Total: 290