Greetings and welcome!
We have a dusting of fresh snow tonight from a fast moving little line with some attitude. It would be generous to call it a half inch, but it was coming down pretty good for a little while.
Last night surprised me when early in the night we got down to -12. There was a house foundation or ground crack that about scared me out of my shoes around 10pm. Later in the night and toward morning it moderated into mid-single digits. The day continued to warm and it made it up to 25, only a little off of our normal of 32.
People are asking when trails will open. Michigan is already open and lake effect areas have plenty of snow. Around here trails don’t open until at least 12/15 due to the various hunting seasons. Some areas that are not in the hunting zones might open early, but generally it is at least the 15th. That would make the first open weekend the 20th.
The trails around Wausaukee and Crivitz often open later that systems to the west. Their trails are on private land, and much of it is hunted in the late season. This year the weather has been hard on farmers, and there are still corn and even beans in the fields.
I am not sure that hunting or corn or the calendar will be our biggest challenge on kicking off the season. I really don’t like what I see for next week’s forecast. The weekend looks mild and in the low to mid-30s, but the maps that I just checked showed the mild temps ramping up to the mid 40s or maybe even 50s by late next week.
I have about 4-5″ in the yard here near C & F in Silver Cliff. There is a nice layer on the driveway where it was packed down, but I don’t know how it will fare with a warm week.
It is only the second, and the first weekend open will likely be the 13 & 14th or the 20th and 21st. Either way it is a lot of time to have the pendulum swing our way again.
I did take a quick look at the Indy Trail last weekend. The totally neglected three year old AGM battery spun it over willingly and I managed to clean the storage oil out a little. The focus was on the snow plow Sunday, and I don’t want to pull the sled out of storage until I am ready for it in the shop so I didn’t get too far with it.
There are riding opportunities in the UP right now. Locally you could probably get a quick ride in on unplowed roads if you had some land around here, but most of us will be waiting a few weeks before it is legal to ride.
Have a good night and thank you for visiting!
RJB