Greetings and welcome!
I am going to stick to my words and say that the warm weather and heavy rains have been absolutely devastating for the trail system. What remains is either mud or crazy slippery glare ice with water on it. The second storm won’t even make it to Green Bay with snow so there is no hope there.
Because of all of the crazy slippery ice base and mud the Marinette County Alliance has made the unusual move of closing all trails in the county. Normally the trails on County land in the Iron Snowshoe, Near North, and Dun-Good systems only close for spring thaw. Because the ice made it so dangerous they did a temporary closure. From Facebook..
Marinette County Alliance Snowmobile and Atv/Utv Trails is feeling depressed.
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TRAILS ARE CLOSING! FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY DO NOT RIDE ON CLOSED TRAILS! All of the Marinette County clubs have closed their trails. Hope for better news soon.
As of 2/15/23 the following Marinette County trails are CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE: Near North, Ranger City Riders, Dun-Good Riders, Pemenee River Riders, Iron Snow Shoe, Kumalong and River Road Riders. If/when I get any any updates and reopening info, I will post that here on this page ASAP.
As far as our friends in Oconto Co like the Paul Bunyan and Red Arrow I have not heard updated information. The last word was that the town roads and railroad grade were shot but there were trails in the woods worth riding. That was before the rain. I am not sure what the heavy rain did to the woods trails. My guess is that they turned to ice like they did here but I have nothing to base that on.
There is a chance of a couple of light snows early next week and a bigger storm later next week. The GFS model is showing the big storm going too far north to be snow, the Euro model has us getting a real good hit from a snowstorm. Being 8 days out I have no faith in either one.
After over a week of 40+ and 50+ temperatures the lakes bring little refuge and are likely a mess after the heavy rains. Along that line the Glen Lake Fish-a-rama got moved off of the lake and to the Amberg Pub. I suspect that they will do that on Wheeler Lake too but I haven’t heard anything yet.
We got up to 42 again today. After sunset the temperatures dropped and as of 9:15pm we are down to 26. Thursday and Friday we are looking at highs in the mid-20s and a low of 9 Thursday night. Saturday and Sunday are again expected to be around 40 for high temps and in the 20s for low temperatures.
It is depressing enough having our snowmobile season crushed like this. Adding insult to injury is the bone crushing ice left behind where there was snow. It has been a long time since I did college physics but the friction coefficient of water on ice is pretty low. Just walking to the mailbox without ice cleats (crampons) or a sanded path is a dicey play.
This isn’t my first experience with this. I use cheap stretch-ons like these. I learned the hard way to get the ones with stars on the heels too. My first pair didn’t have them. They were ok until you put some weight on the heel and it was off to the races. Not helpful.
Link- https://www.amazon.com/ZUXNZUX-Crampons-Silicone-Stainless-Grippers/dp/B0BK7S7H13
I am going to slip & slide my way out of here. Have a good night and thank you for visiting!
RJB