Greetings and welcome!
The pain continues today with no end in sight. Now Florence County has closed all trails.
Thanks to the rain last night both River Road Riders and the Ranger City Riders have closed trails. The RCR club has said that it is for the season.
Last night we were supposed to maybe get a few sprinkles or snowflakes from a storm that was mostly focused from Green Bat and points south. That didn’t work out. The storm moved farther north and west than expected and it rained hard enough to hear it on the roof for much of the night. Some of it was actually yellow and orange on the radar. Too bad the last big storm didn’t do that.
Yesterday I headed to Crivitz late afternoon. The trails between here and there were just plain ugly. There were good spots with long stretches of mud in high traffic areas. It was only a high of 36 yesterday, but between the fog and warm air it was a mean 36. Then we had last night’s rain, and as of 1pm it is 36 again.
I saw yesterday the Thermal Chaos up in Dunbar is going to very limited hours until the trails open back up. They are open Wednesday for bar only, and Friday and Saturday for bar and food until the trails open back up. While that sucks for everyone involved, it is just plain smart. It is hard for a business to survive running on red ink for 1/4 of the year. I have run bars before and I understand how fast that the money pours out when there is no business. How many people can survive 3 months with 10% of their income and all of the bills? Ouch.
I saw that Vilas County put out a letter asking people to come on their snowmobiling vacations anyway and visit their favorite trail stops by car. The businesses up there took a crippling blow when the trails were closed for derby week. Now they are looking at 3 more months of almost no income. As the letter suggested, without your support a lot of your favorite spots won’t be there next year.
I have advocated that for most of my 25 years here. When the trails suck, leave the sleds parked and come anyway. You can tour your favorite spots and have a lot more drinks riding with a designated driver than you could on a snow rocket. The owners and workers are super appreciative and they remember who was there in the hard times, and you might get a little more time with your favorite bartender or owner.
There is not a lot to hope for anymore. The snow is going away, there isn’t much frost in the ground, and the lakes have very little ice compared to normal. If we had a big snowstorm, and I fully expect one, we will still have limited riding between the unsafe lakes and unfrozen swamps.
Looking at the 16 day GFS forecast model it reaches out to February 11th. About the only hope there is a small storm on the 10th or 11th, and we are right on the rain snow line for that one.
A couple of glimmers of hope.. when we had the big fog a while back I was reminded of the old timer’s belief that 90 days after a big fog we get a big snow storm. That has played out a few times.
The other thing is that with an early thaw and not much frost in the ground the ATV trails might open sooner than early May. I have seen that play out in other bad El Nino years too.
Right now things look pretty dark for the rest of the season. It is always darkest before the dawn, as the old saying goes.
Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB