We left the house early and hit the trails. There was a fine snow falling, but no significant accumulation. Trail 6 east had enough snow to ride, but not enough to groom. We took trail 1 north out of Presque Isle to the Gogebic Lodge. It was in good shape (for early season conditions) with a few mud holes here and there. After warming up at the lodge we headed south on trail 1 to trail 100 over to trail 13 south. We stopped in at Rogers bar and had a delicious raspberry chicken sandwich from their new food menu. Trail 2 was in excellent shape as usual. We gassed up in Marenisco, then headed south on trail 1 back to Presque Isle.
Overall it was a good day of early season riding. The Michigan trails were fantastic while the Wisconsin trails are horrible!
Overall Trail Rating: 7 out of 10
Distance: 109
Previous: 0
Season Total: 109
Today was another quick trip. We started at 8:30 and were done by 1pm. We rode trail 6 west to trail 11 north. Once again after we crossed into Michigan trail 11 was in perfect shape. We cruised up to trail 2 and took it east. Then we rode trail 1 north to lake Goegibic and took trail 101 to the south end of the lake. We ran the lake up to the ski-doo dealer and had some minor work done. After getting the repairs done we headed for home. This time we took trail 1 all the way to Presque Isle.
To be honest I was pretty shocked how good of shape the trails were in today. I would estimate at least 90-95% snow coverage (very little dirt). In the next 3 days it is supposed to remain warm and possibly rain 🙁 Hopefully that doesn’t happen or the trails won’t be rideable.
Overall Trail Rating: 8 out of 10
Distance: 103
Previous: 705
Season Total: 808
Posted in Trail Reports | Comments Off on Snowmobile Trail Conditions Presque Isle, WI Wakefield, MI Marenisco, MI Bergland, MI
We headed out today to try and meet up with the SnowBallCancer.org group. They were doing a 500 mile valentines day run. Unfortunately our paths never crossed, but they ended up reaching their goal of 500+ miles in 1 day! We left Presque Isle and took trail 1 north to Marenisco. After a quick breakfast at the wild river we headed west on trail 2 towards Wakefield. Both trail 1 and trail 2 were in great shape. We hooked up with trail 8 east and rode that into Bergland. Then we gassed up at nordines and headed out of town on trail 13 to Rockland. We grabbed a bit to eat at Henrys Never Inn then made our way down trail 3 to trail 8 west back into Bergland.
It was really warm out today and things have started to thaw. The trails have held up really well, but after crossing lake Gogebic and getting back on trail 1, the snow started to thin out. There is definitely more snow from Wakefield to Bergland than from Marenisco to Presque Isle.
Overall Trail Rating: 8 out of 10
Distance: 177
Previous: 528
Season Total: 705
Posted in Trail Reports | Comments Off on Snowmobile Trail Conditions Presque Isle, WI Wakefield, MI Marenisco, MI Bergland, MI Rockland, MI
Most of my high school buddies came up to ride this weekend. We spent some time last night installing the Bergstrom tripple point carbides on 3 sleds.
Everything was ready to go this morning when we ran into a problem with the heat at my buddys place. We had to call a guy out to fix it, so that got us off to a slow start. We rolled out of here around 2pm and made our way on trail 6 into Presque Isle for gas and then trail 1 North. Trail 6 could use some work, but trail 1 was decent. At one point we were behind the groomer, so that was great! We got on trail 2 and headed East.
It was in great shape as usual, that club does a fantastic job! We dropped into Rogers Bar for a pizza and drink then headed to Bents Camp for dinner. The food was fantastic as usual. Then we took trail 6 West back to Presque Isle for gas and stopped at Skyview for a drink.
Overall Trail Rating: 8 out of 10
Distance: 92
Previous: 377
Season Total: 469
Posted in Trail Reports | Comments Off on Snowmobile Trail Conditions Presque Isle, WI Watersmeet, MI Land O Lakes, WI
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
Posted in Trail Reports | Comments Off on Snowmobile Trail Conditions Bergland, MI Silver City, MI White Pine, MI
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
Posted in Trail Reports | Comments Off on Snowmobile Trail Conditions Presque Isle, WI Marenisco, MI Bergland, MI Bruce Crossing, MI Watersmeet, MI Land O Lakes, WI
Wow, this season is really off to a rocky start! We celebrated the holiday and planned to ride the next day but we had a family member end up going to the hospital and going home the next day 🙁 He will be ok (it was not a snowmobile related injury). To make the best of the situation my brother Brian and I trailered the sleds to the dealer to get some work done on one of the machines and we took a ride to get some lunch. We rode trail 8 East out of Bergland to trail 13 South.
Both were in excellent shape the entire way! We stopped at the Root Cellar for lunch and made our way back the same way. I’ll be adding the videos to this post very soon!
Overall Trail Rating: 9 out of 10
Distance: 47
Previous: 50
Season Total: 97
Posted in Trail Reports | Comments Off on Snowmobile Trail Conditions Bergland, MI
This season got off to a slow start. We only rode 50 miles today. My buddy Shane and his dad Dale stopped by and we made a quick run up to Marenisco to grab a sandwich at Bam Bam’s. After we got back we took the kids out on the lake to ride around and have some fun. I planned to shoot a few videos today, but forgot to put the sd card in the camera!
Overall Trail Rating: 10 out of 10
Distance: 50
Previous: 0
Season Total: 50
Posted in Trail Reports | Comments Off on Snowmobile Trail Conditions Marenisco, MI Winchester, WI
Well, this is always a sad day for me. My last ride of the season! I’ll be busy during the month of March and unable to get any riding in. In my opinion early season and late season riding are by far the best. You get some very large snowfalls late in the season, and there is hardly any traffic. You pretty much have the trails to yourself and there is rarely a wait any place you stop. We decided to go against the grain today and start on the trails that are off the “beaten trail”. We took 6 West to 11 North and made our way into Wakefield.
Both trails were in excellent shape and we passed a groomer on trail 11. We got breakfast and then gassed up. It looked like the town was having an ice fishing derby and there were people everywhere (lots of fun!). We made our way past the ski hills and ran into our roughest section of trail for the day. Once we got past the rough spots we were on the park road and cruised into Silver City. We made our way through town and took trail 1 South to White Pine. This trail had some bumps in it also, but nothing too bad. We grabbed lunch at Konteka and then continued towards Bergland. Once we arrived in Bergland we gassed up again and headed down the East shore of Lake Gogebic to the Root Cellar. We got off the lake there and continued down trail 13 South to trail 2 East. Trail 13 was in surprisingly good shape and trail 2 was in great condition. We made a short stop at Rogers Bar and then hopped back on the sleds to Marenisco on trail 2 West. Then we stopped at Bambams in Marenisco for a pizza and a drink. After dinner we took trail 2 West (this part of trail 2 was a bit rough) and then we hooked up with trail 11 South. Trail 11 was still in great shape and made for a nice end to our long day.
Overall Trail Rating: 8 out of 10
Distance: 230
Previous: 1,770
Season Total: 2,000
Posted in Trail Reports | Comments Off on Snowmobile Trail Conditions Marenisco, MI Bergland, MI Winchester, WI, Wakefield, MI Silver City, MI White Pine, MI