Greetings and welcome!
It was 45 and sunny againMonday. It got a little melty, and bare spots got a little bigger. My thought is that we didn’t go too far backward because the easy stuff is gone, and the rest was hardened by the nightly freeze/thaw. Friday it was 43 and sunny. Saturday was 48 and sunny. Sunday hit 54 and sunny.
One thing that has been helping is that we have gotten well below freezing at night. Some of our big thaws have nights in the mid-30s or warmer (usually with fog) and it is just devastating for snow cover. This time each night has gotten well below freezing, and usually into the teens. That is going to ice up slushy spots and harden the rest of the trails, so it definitely isn’t as bad as it could be..
Red Arrow, Paul Bunyan, and Chute Pond all updated club sites Monday. I like the way that Chute Pond put it..
Chute Pond Snowmobile Club trails are open, groomed on a regular basis, and in fair to very good condition. The warm weather has caused some bare/burned out spots, and the melting has caused some slushy/icy areas. Our team of groomers will continue to work the trails to keep them in the best condition possible. The season is not over- there are still many miles of great trails to ride- there are just some ugly spots here and there. Some fresh snow would help our situation, too.
I expect that the other clubs will probably update tomorrow.
I guess that the bottom line is that there are good trails to be found and some ugly stuff too. Pick your trails in typical late season fashion. Avoid plowed roads and road shoulder trails, and look for those nice unplowed forest roads north and west.
Today we are looking at a high of 34, and that is the last of the warm weather until Sunday. That is a one day thaw and then the GFS model shows pretty seasonal weather for the rest of it’s 16 day scope.
If we had 4-6 or more of snow we would be right back into pretty good trails. It just isn’t there. The clippers are shown going north of us, the southern storms are shown staying south. I am a little skeptical that it could happen for the whole 16 days, but I can almost hear Mother Nature snickering too. She has been a bit challenging this year, so it is a little believable.
One passing though this morning is that the lakes have to be ugly with the meltwater and slush. I really don’t know, but that’s my hunch.
The next thought is that hopefully the warm sunny weather relieved some of the snow load on roofs. We were getting critical for a lot of buildings. At my place that varied a lot. The kind of shadowed shed did not lose much snow. The garage has about a foot on the south side roof and two on the north, but it is melted well back from the edges. For right now I am going to see how it goes. If we had more snow predicted I would likely have a couple of roofs to shovel.
A friend sent an e-mail yesterday, and I have gotten tons of these. It was about encountering UTVs out on soft trails on a sunny 45 degree day. They were out of control on the soft trail, rutting up the trails, and rude about it when told not to ride when it is warm. Inconsiderate wheelers riding soft snowmobile trails is a real problem. In the end my friend is going to focus on riding places like Paul Bunyan, Red Arrow, and Chute Pond that do not allow 4 wheelers, instead of Iron Snowshoe, Near North, and Dun-Good that allow wheelers. It was a well written e-mail and I made sure that some of the Iron Snowshoe folks got it. If you want to light up the comment section, go for it. I will print those out and forward them as well.
Anyway…
They did find the Iron Snowshoe bunny last weekend, and I believe that it was by Veteran’s Park. If I recall correctly my friend Reggie, pictured with me yesterday, was part of that group. Congrats you guys and it was great to meet you!
A couple of you gave me donations Saturday night. Thank you very much! I hope to burn some gas tomorrow.
Have a good Tuesday and thank you for visiting!
RJB
Took I ride yesterday from Lakewood to lily over 2 langlade into crandon over to laona and back to Lakewood. Trails were fantastic everywhere.the only bad spot were the roadside trails and the the rail road grade from valley in south.the back trail from valley inn to Lakewood was unbelievable. This might be the last weekend.talked to some riders that came up from suring and they also said the same about the grade.she gets pretty lean Townsend and south
Ok Now, I think this is getting a little out of control. I think that the ATV and UTV community has it’s place in our area, they just don’t belong on the groomed snowmobile trails. I am an avid snowmobiler during the winter months, I am also an avid off road ATV rider and motorcyclist throughout spring, summer, and fall. So, I can appreciate the access we’ve received to the area trail systems, no matter what time of the year it is. The problem I have is with the blatant disregard for the area club rules and basic trail etiquette regarding riding the groomed snowmobile trails with ATV/UTV’s and the ignorance the ‘bad apple’ riders show to the local land owners and club organizers. Closing off land and trail access is not the answer, weeding out the idiots is. When I started riding in the area back in the early 1980’s with my Popp, we could just drive out to the public land, wheel our dirt bikes out of the back of the van or trailer, and ride from sun up until dark without disturbing anyone. Then throughout the 90’s areas slowly started becoming off limits and our access became more limited. Now a days we have advocates for our motorsports that work hard to keep the access we have available to us and to maintain the trails we ride. They’ve worked hard to open up areas that were once off limits to us. I don’t want to see things go in reverse and trails to be closed off to any of us. I just don’t see a place for the ATV/UTV’s on the snowmobile trails throughout the winter.
I havent been back to that area for over 2 years now and wont go back not safe.. the atv/utvs wreck the trails anyway..and how the state and townships are letting these off road utvs take over the roadways just floors me with the kids with no insurance and safety concern for anyone else on the roadway.. damage to the shoulders of the roads, stones being tossed up onto the roadway,damaged to the landscape, Iam sure glad I dont have to live in the dust from the trails in summer.. out of control..
Maybe snowmobilers should stop patronizing the establishments that promote atv/utvs use in the trails in the winter time Jungle Jims, Richards, North Country Inn. Rode from Neenah to Athelstane last week great trails all the way could real tell the difference when hit trails allowing wheelers not saying they where junk just not as good except Near North they are always junk.
I will join another. Club like red arrow . This is ridiculous . It’s flat out dangerous . I belong to iron shoe shoe and so do 3 of my buddies .
I’ve said this in the past—-it’s total BS that some trail systems allow ATV’s, and now UTV’s, to ride on GROOMED SNOWMOBILE trails. I don’t ride much lately, but back in the day, I remember riding trails that were totally trashed by ATV riders….. Now, with these UTVs, I can’t imagine the destruction they cause. It seems Wisc is the only Midwest state that allows this. I don’t ever recall seeing it in the Yoop, or Lower P….or in FIB-land for that matter. Didn’t see it in Ontario either, tho I don’t know about Minny because I’ve never ridden there. And, I might add, not only does it suck to ride on ATV-rutted trails, it’s DANGEROUS. Just imagine coming upon some huge ruts at night at 50 MPH on a curve…… I wish the clubs/counties that allow this would get their heads out of their @r$e$ and ban ALL ATV/UTV riding on ALL groomed SNOWMOBILE trails!!!!!
We were out on our UTV Saturday and got lots of bad looks and comments when we stopped at some bars until we let the snowmobilers know that all roads in Stephenson allow UTVs on them year round and that is all we were riding on, and that we too are snowmobilers and it was way too warm to ride on Saturday. Most people I know that do ride their 4 wheelers on trails are disgruntled ex snowmobilers who got rid of their sleds because we had a bunch of lean years. Now that we have had back to back awesome seasons they get all cranky and want to wreck the trails for snowmoblies. We also do about 90% of our snowmobiling in Oconto and Forest county due to the fact 4 wheelers ain’t allowed. Iron Snowshoe better open their eyes and realize snowmobilers don’t wanna come to the area for that reason. Snowmobilers get, in a great year, 3 months of riding where 4 wheelers are pretty much guaranteed 6. Open up ur eyes.