Thursday 12-5-19
Greetings and welcome!
I was thinking today that it has been a really tough year for the trails and clubs. In summer we had 100mph straight line winds that leveled hundreds of square miles of forest in Forest, Langlade, and Oconto Counties. It literally took months and hundreds of volunteers to clean up. The day before Thanksgiving a storm came with a rain mix with heavy snow that coated branches and brought down trees and branches all over the Northwoods. Now Sunday’s storm has done the same thing.
Some of the pictures of the trees across the trails are just crazy. This one is along a road right in my neighborhood but it shows how the trees are being weighed down by the snow.
That is one of a variety of reasons that some trails are not ready to open yet. So far Iron Snowshoe is open north of Hwy C, Dun-Good is open and some of the Pemenee River trails are open. They are in various stages of grooming and brushing trails, so be careful. Oconto and Forest counties remain closed.
I know that the Red Arrow club in Townsend is welcoming volunteers to help to brush the trails. Contact them through Facebook and they will welcome the help.
A couple of people have asked what all of the snow did to lakes. I am not sure yet. My guess right now is that it probably weighed down the ice and flooded it or broke through it since there wasn’t that much ice yet. I will try to see what I can find out tomorrow.
Hwy A between here and Crivitz got a lot better Wednesday as another pass of the plows came and they sprinkled another 3′ of sand, this time in the northbound lane. Parkway Rd got a lot better but is still ice & snow covered with a lot of loose snow. The county roads in Silver Cliff are still covered with snow and ice. Maybe if we put snowmobile route signs up they would find our roads with the plows and salt.
Anyway.. we are getting there. The clubs are working hard on brushing and packing trails. There is plenty of snow and some riding opportunities, but it is very early in the season and the weather has issued us some huge setbacks. I love that when people start coming around there will be a nice base. The Thanksgiving 2-4 has frozen hard and made a nice base, and now there is a good foot plus on top of it.
So many seasons start with minimal snow and thin trails. Unless we suddenly get a tropical vortex (just made that up..) and very warm weather, we will have a great start to the season. Even road trails will be runnable with the rain that came before both storms. The fuse is lit on a great season.
Have a good Thursday and thank you for visiting!
RJB
PS.. Don’t forget about the antique snowmobile show in Middle Inlet this Saturday!