Today was our first ride of the 2009-2010 season. As you can see from the prior year blog posts, we got a late start this year (mostly due to how the holidays fell). We had an eventful morning which is somewhat expected for the first ride of the season. After spending last night starting up all the sleds, changing plugs, filling the oil tanks, checking the chain case oil, etc we thought we were good to go. WRONG! About 2 miles from the cabin my cousin stopped to tell me there was a problem with the sled he was riding. He has sleds of his own and knew something didn’t feel right. While walking back to talk to him, I saw flames through the vents in the hood! I started yelling FIRE, FIRE, FIRE and told him to shut it down! We popped the hood and started throwing snow on the flames. It ended up being a small fire and went out quickly, but that will get your heart racing quickly! The only damage was our pull rope was burned a little, so we cut off the burned part and then tied a new knot. The fire was started by the brake disk, it got cherry red hot. We think the pads were rubbing on the disk and not releasing which created a ton of heat and ignited something. After we got that all taken care of we took that machine back to the cabin and swapped it for another.
We finally got on the trail with some solid machines and headed out. Trail 6E into Presque Isle was fairly choppy and I’d rate it a 7 (typical for this time of year). We gassed up and went north on trail 1 to Michigan. Through the woods it got a little better, but still a lot of rocks and branches in the typical locations. After we hit trail 2 into Marenisco things improved dramatically. This trail was a 9.5! We hooked back up with trail 1 and rode that all the way to Fishtales Pub N Grub for lunch. Trail 1 was in fantastic shape the entire ride. While eating lunch, we noticed some VERY large ice heaves that were in the first 200-300 yards from shore. If you are riding on the western shore of lake Gogebic, USE CAUTION! If you hit one of those, it won’t be pretty for you or your machine! After lunch we headed into Bergland for gas and then continued around the lake on trail 13 south.
Normally trail 13 is pretty beat up from all the traffic, but today it was unusually good! Plenty of snow and the groomers have done a fantastic job keeping the trail up.
We got on trail 2 again and took that East to Rogers Bar. We stopped in there and had a pizza and a couple drinks and then headed for home. On the way back home trail 2 was pretty rutted up and that only took 2 hours to happen. We took trail 1 back to Presque Isle and then trail 6 West out of P.I. The worst trails we saw all day were on the Wisconsin side. Once you crossed that state line, there was no comparison. If you are close enough to make it to Michigan, I highly recommend making the trip up there. The trail passes went up another $10 this year ($35 per machine) but it’s well worth it and you’ll probably save that in wear and tear on your machine from the bumps in WI.
Overall Trail Rating: 8 out of 10
Distance: 135
Previous: 0
Season Total: 135
After our short ride yesterday, Dan and Kristen decided to go a little further today. We got breakfast at skyview and then took trail 1 North to Marenisco. We made a stop at Bam Bams and then got gas. Trail 6 East was in great shape again and so was trail 1! You can’t ask for any better trails than we’ve got right now! The temps have been cold and we’ve been getting snow every couple days. If you are thinking about coming up, the mid week riding is unreal!
Overall Trail Rating: 10 out of 10
Distance: 43
Previous: 938
Season Total: 981
We left Winchester, WI this morning and took trail 6 West around Birch Lake and hooked up with trail 11 North. Trail 6 was in great shape and so was trail 11 until we got into the woods. It was pretty obvious that once we were in the woods, the groomer hadn’t been in there. This area is known to be wet until a little later in the season. Trail 11 was also rerouted from last year, so be careful if you think you know this trail. We ended up making a wrong turn and got to stare a locked gate in the face. The snow was pretty deep and we had a rough time getting our sleds out of there. We found the trail again and were on our way. I’d estimate 18-22 miles of bouncing around through the woods. There was also some logging on this trail, which probably explains the reroute. Once we got out of the woods the groomer had done an awesome job! The trail was flat as could be and plenty of fresh powder on top! We got to trail 8 and headed West to Bingos bar and motel. After pizza and a drink we rode into Wakefield to get gas. We fueled up and then headed East on trail 8 then South on trail 11 then East on trail 2. This is where we hit the best trail of the day! It is an old rail road right of way that is flat and long! We cruised this trail all the way into Marenisco and shot some videos along the way.
If you are thinking about coming up, maybe this video will convince you!
Overall Trail Rating: 9 out of 10
Distance: 91
Previous: 104
Season Total: 195
Today had to be one of the nicest riding days I’ve had in a while. The temperature was right around 28 degrees all day and the sun was out too! My Dad and I left the house around 9am on our way to Fish Tales pub and grub for our standard walleye breakfast. We took trail 6 East into Presque Isle and then trail 1 North through Marenisco. Both trail 6 and trail 1 were in excellent shape! They were freshly groomed and we were maybe the 5th or 6th sleds on them. After breakfast (The food was great as usual!) we made our way into Bergland to gas up. We then took trail 8 East to trail 13 North. Both of these trails were in excellent shape as well.
There were a few small bumps on our way out of town, but overall very good! The closer we got to Rockland (A.K.A. Roughland) the trail got a lot more choppy. The last 15 miles into town were just plain ROUGH! We stopped in town at Henry’s Never Inn and had a soda. After that last 15 miles of trail we decided to take a different way back. That meant we’d take trail 3 South from Rockland. Trail 3 was in unbelievably great shape! I think we hit 1, maybe 2 bumps the entire ride. We hooked up with trail 8 East into Bruce Crossing and gassed up again. Then we took trail 8 East out of Bruce Crossing to trail 3 South again and made our way to Da Flowage Pub N Grub. We grabbed another soda there and relaxed a bit.
We hit the trail again and continued South on trail 3 until we hit trail 2 West. We took that into Watersmeet and gassed up. After leaving Watersmeet we took trail 2 West to trail 13 South and made a stop at Rogers Bar. Trail 2 was in decent shape with a few bumps on the bridges, but that was about it. After a pizza and soda at Rogers bar, we headed for home and took trail 2 West to trail 1 South into Presque Isle.
Trail 1 South had just been groomed, but thanks to some “Blair Morgan wanna-bee’s” that like to burn the snow off of every corner, it was already pretty well chewed up. We ran into these “wanna-bee’s” after they had run off the trail and got stuck out in the deep snow (serves them right!). Trail 6 West had also been freshly groomed, but since the “wanna-bee’s” were stuck in the snow, the trail was still in pretty good shape!
Overall Trail Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Distance: 191
Previous: 1,696
Season Total: 1,887
After yesterdays long ride, we took it easy today. We started off by going to Sayner, WI “The Birthplace of the Snowmobile”. We took trail 6 East through Winchester and Presque Isle and hooked up with trail 15 South through Boulder Junction.
The trails were good until we got through Boulder Junction. This was a holiday weekend and there was TONS of traffic in that area. The trails were decent, but not as good as what we had yesterday. After arriving in Sayner, we noticed the snowmobile exhibit was closed, so we just peeked through the window. We then ate lunch at the Sayner pub. After lunch we rode across Plum lake, taking the same path news anchor Randy Salerno and Scott Hirshey took prior to their very publicized crash. After crossing the lake we continued on trail 11 North to trail 7 and then hooked up with trail 6 East again. We ended up at Bents Camp and noticed they were having a radar run. It looked like a lot of fun, so we decided to stop and check it out. After 1/2 hour of watching the sleds run, we headed across the Cisco chain and hooked up with trail 13 North and stopped in to Rogers Bar.
After a couple sodas, we took trail 13 North to trail 2 West and made our way for home.
Overall Trail Rating: 8 out of 10
Distance: 120
Previous: 1,528
Season Total: 1,648