Greetings and welcome!
This has been the craziest snowmobiling season that I have ever seen. It is March 17 and the lakes are all open and the ground is thawed in all but really sheltered areas. The gates have been closed for a while now.
Some years people are worried that the ice won’t be off of the lakes in time for the first weekend of May when fishing season opens. Last week we got up into the 60s a couple of days and one day hit 69. We don’t have to worry about ice at the boat landings this year, all of the lakes are already open.
Now we are finally going back to normal and below normal temperatures. The warmest day in the next week is Tuesday at 44.
It would be a real kick in the pants if we got the first big storm of the year. There are a couple of storms possible in the 16 day outlook but at the moment they look like rain. It would not surprise me if the worst winter in my 25 years here came around with a huge snowstorm as one final insult. It is hard to believe that our biggest storm was 6 or 9 inches.
As far as ATV trails opening early I don’t know. Our little cold wave will set us back getting the frost out of the ground. Now there is another challenge, very high fire danger. There is always a wildfire season between last snow and when things green up in early May where last year’s vegetation is tinder dry. That wildfire season is here. There was a wildfire by Tower Rd & Hwy C yesterday, and fighting that fire in the strong winds had to be a real bear.
If I hear one more news buddy prattle on about climate change I will just scream. It was a moderately strong El Nino conspiring with a series of other teleconnections (AO, NAO, PDO, etc) to bring us an unusual winter. Was it climate change five or eight winters ago when we had so much snow that 100 year old barn roofs were caving in right and left? How about a couple of winters before that when we had six plus feet of frost in the ground and people’s wells and septic tanks were freezing up? Climate trends start at 30 years or longer. Anything shorter is just weather.
I want to thank Joel Trowbridge for his donation this year. A long time benefactor, and sometimes the first, he remembered my PayPal and sent me some green. Thank you very much!!
I stopped taking donations and ads to free me from any possible entanglements. I’m a crabby old man headed for retirement and I am going to tell it like it is, like it or not. Now get off of my lawn.
I was planning on giving this up after this year. I made it 25 years and I just don’t ride as much as I used to. There is no way that I can go out on a year like this. If my health holds out I will be back next year.
One last item, a salute to John Dee. An unexpected heart failure took him this year. He was a tremendous resource for the snowmobiling community and will be sorely missed. He started his web site the same year that I started mine, 1998. Thank you for all of the years that you helped hundreds of thousands of snowmobilers. Rest in peace you will be missed, and best wishes for your family.
Thank you to everyone that visited this year. We will have a better winter next year.
RJB
PS- I will continue my blogging over at https://Northerndestinations.com/scindex in a week or two.