I had some vacation time I needed to burn up before the new year so I took last week as through Monday (New Years Eve, the wife’s birthday) off. With the new found time off of work my dad, brother, and myself took a 3 day trip to northern Wisconsin for a little snowmobile adventure.

We ended up chasing a snow storm that hit bayfeild county, that had dumped nearly 3+ feet of snow in 2 1/2 days. We got a hotel in Ashland for Wednesday night, Thursday night, and Friday night. We had a late start Wednesday morning and didn’t get onto the road until damn near noon, so by the time we got up to Ashland it was already 4pm and getting dark. We checked in, found our room, unpacked, and headed into town for gas, booze, trail stickers, and a trail map.

We found out there was no easy trail access from the hotel (which btw sucked ass) so we figured instead of driving around at night in an unfamiliar place we would just get dinner and call it an early night. Luckily the hotel had a restaurant within walking distance (crawling if need be) and when we got back, put the booze on ice, and headed next door for dinner.

The restaurant was nice, log cabin style good food, and very good looking wait staff, our waitress was hot as hell and I think my brother had the hots for her, even though he wouldn’t admit it. Any ways we had out dinner, few beers, and called it a night, called the front desk for a 6am wake up call and we were out.

6am rolls around, breakfast is done and we were out the door heading to down town Ashland to the gas station where there was easy trail access. We gassed up our sleds, unloaded and headed out of town, west towards bayfeild peninsula. We rode the Tri County Corridor which is an old rail road bed turned 4 wheeler/Snowmobile trail, so basically your riding a straight, wide open, trail that combined with no speed limit is a fun place to “sew your oats” and let the speed demon out.

So the day was starting out to be a great day, lots of snow, well groomed trails, great scenery. We finally get to the trail head to that leads us into the peninsula and into the abyss that is bayfeild county. We rode good and hard right off the bat, you couldn’t ask for better conditions, the trails we pure bliss. The entire day we only came across 9 sleds, and 2 groomers, we basically had the trails to our selves.

The only down side of the day was the lack of good trail signs, but other than the occasional stop to find our way, it was probably one of the best, if not the best snowmobile trips I have had to date. Also we did have a little issue trying to find gas. We were at the very northern tip and running low on gas, so we consulted the map and headed to a town called cornucopia (Corny for short), once we got there we quickly found out the gas station was closed and the closest town (by trail) was 18 miles away. So other than lack of good directions and lack of gas in Corny the day was awesome.

That first day we put on over 175 miles and it was probably the best 175 miles I’ve ever done! Day two started out a little slower than day one, we didn’t getup at the ass crack of dawn, but instead got up at 9am and didn’t head out until 11am to ride. Day two instead of trailering to Ashland we went west and trailered to a small town called Ino, where there is a cool little bar with the most friendly people around. They let us dump our sleds and park our vehicles there and head up from there. We stopped and had a beer before we left and stopped and had a few more on the way back. Needless to say we didn’t ride all day like we did the previous day but we still managed to put on another 90 - 100 miles of good riding.

Day two we didn’t head as far north, and made more pit stops to take pictures and look at the sights. We also stopped at the Valhalla Pub and Grub. Was a great pit stop, nice bar, had snowmobiling videos going, and was packed with everyone talking about how great the conditions were. It was just a great atmosphere, I’ll definitely be going back that way again soon.

So after day two ended, we packed up our gear, headed back to the hotel, had dinner, did the hot tub thing, and went to bed. We got up around 7am, head breakfast, and headed on the road which was a great thing because the number of sleds going up north were mind blowing. I think everyone and their mothers, mothers, were heading up north that weekend. The trails were getting a little “snirty” (snow dirt) and getting tore up pretty well on Friday, so I couldn’t imagine how the trials would be after a weekend of all those sleds being up that way. I am just glad we went when we did as the conditions were pure epic!

Here are some more pictures of our weekend up in Ashland/Bayfeild…. enjoy!

Snowmobiling Wisconsin 2007

So we get back home Saturday afternoon, and my dumb ass packs right back up and turns around and heads back up north to my In Laws home for the remainder of the holiday/new years weekend. Sunday rolls around and I get up and go out for a ride. I rode from the In Laws to Mille Lacs Lake, through to Isle, MN where Red Top OHV/ATV trails are. In the winter they use Red Top for snowmobiles and it makes for a great trip. So Sunday I put on another 125 - 150 miles on the sled.

Monday rolls around and Jody and I head over to her cousin’s place and we go out for another ride. We rode from Hillman/Lake Sullivan area, west into harding and then south south west into Lastrup and made a loop back into Hillman. Was a good little trip, trails weren’t in the greatest condition but it was still fun to see Jody back out on a sled. Total we put on maybe 50 miles but only because the trails weren’t in that great of condition but still riding is riding.

All in all last week/weekend was a great time off, getting to go out snowmobiling and not having to worry about a thing. I need to to these kind of trips more often, makes for a great stress reliever.

- Josh

Well its been a while since I’ve last posted and figured I’d better get back to a regular schedule here. Not much has happened since the last time on here other than the fact winter is finally back here in good ol Minnesota! Last Saturday (December 1st) the official opening day of snowmobiling, was also the first official day of winter here, we got a Colorado clipper that came in from the South West and dumped anywhere from 6 - 8″ around the twin cities metro area, and all the way up to 20+ inches on the north shore between Two Harbors/Duluth all the way up past Lutsen, Finland, and Grand Marias.

Saturday morning I got up and the flakes were flying, nothing was really accumulating yet. I got up and headed over to my folks place to help my dad work on the snowmobile trailer he had bought earlier that week. We re-wired the lights, added a new tongue jack, replaced the hitch, and added a dome light in the enclosed cover. After a few hours of working on the sled we had to make a trip to Ace Hardware (which turned out to be several trips) we opened the garage door to find over 3 inches already on the ground.

Man was that a spectacle to see, went into the garage with the grass still bare, and the streets still clear. Then a few hours later get out and see it nothing but white, and damn near blizzard conditions. I was just what I needed to see to lift my spirits. Nothing like a Minnesota snow storm to make all your stress go away.

So through out the day the snow fell, accumulating more and more. Saturday comes and goes, Sunday I wake up itching to go for a snowmobile ride, however my dad wasn’t up for such a ride, he is one of those wary guys that has to let everyone else test out the conditions before he will get out and ride, and now that he has a new sled I think it’ll be even worse this year. Anyways Sunday comes and goes no snowmobile ride yet. Now Tuesday rolls around with news of a Canadian clipper coming down and bringing us more snow.

Tuesday I get to work, no snow, Spend all day in the office (one with no windows) and lunch time rolls around, finally it is snowing, but not very hard at all. I’m like “great another disappointers”, however later in the afternoon it starts to pick up and really dump on us. So 3pm rolls around and a good helping of snow is on the ground, traffic is backed up and and it is now really coming down.

3:30pm rolls around, finally time to “get out of dodge” and head home. Sure enough, traffic worse than ever, it took me 3 1/2 hours to get from the Airport to Coon Rapids, Roughly 25 - 30 miles, which that same trip any other day would normally take me 45 minutes even in “bad” rush hour traffic. Gotta love Minnesota Drivers, you’d think that they had never driven in snow before. The first sign of bad weather and the roads turn into parking lots. The ONLY thing I hate about winter/snow is how it affects the traffic, other than that I absolutely LOVE it! So I get to my folks place, get Abbee ready to go home, and I get back out on the roads for Ramsey. I found myself taking the back roads which eased the ride and was relatively traffic free, which was great considering the crap I had just driven through earlier that night. By the time I got home, it was already Abbee’s bed time, Jody wasn’t too happy, and hadn’t eaten dinner yet, generally she wants to have a sit down dinner every night but last night I was on a mission. I put Abbee to bed, then as fast as I could, grabbed all my snowmobile gear, loaded up the sled and trailer and headed out for a last minute ride.

About 3 miles away is a park with designated parking for snowmobiling, on the way I gassed up the sled, putting in 13 gallons, which btw is 2 more than what my car holds, how sad is that? I topped off the oil, and proceeded to get the sled started, warmed up, and off the trailer. Even though I was by myself, in unfamiliar surroundings, and the fact I had only an hour to ride last night, I had a great time. The ditches where plentiful of snow, wide open, and the sled was running great, I couldn’t have asked for better conditions for the first ride of the season. After that long ass commute, getting on that sled took away any reminder of that horrible commute home, it was just pure bliss to get back out on the sled, specially when the sled is new (new to me that is).

Looking at John Dee’s website it looks like we are in for some more snow tomorrow into Friday with 1 to 4+ inches being predicted, and then again Saturday night into Sunday we are looking at another 4+ inches, then again later next week we are looking at another 1 to 4+ inches again. It has been years since I’ve seen it snow back to back to back like this in Minnesota, and all I can say is it is about damn time! So with that, as John Dee says, “Think Snow!”

- Josh

As Richard pointed out turns are turns, and that’s just what they were on Saturday. This past Saturday was probably one of the earliest times I’ve gotten out skiing since the 1991 Halloween Blizzard. The day after that Blizzard I was up at Wild Mountain enjoying one of the biggest powder days I’ve ever seen in Minnesota to date. Between the man made stuff and the fresh powder I was skiing on over 4 feet of snow that weekend. It was pure bliss.

Anyways this past Saturday marked another year of my 23 years of skiing, yes that’s right I’ve been skiing going on 23 years now. Its hard to believe that since I was the age of 4 I’ve been going year in, year out to Wild Mountain, Trollhaugen, and company for that many years. Granted some years (specially the early years) I maybe got out skiing only a few times a season, but once I got into middle school I was skiing on Average about 50+ days a winter, then in high school I was averaging almost 110+ days of skiing a season, not including my week long trips out west to Colorado during spring break.

Saturday I met up with Richard, Adam, their co-worker Nate and enjoyed a free day of skiing thanks to the demo days going on at Wild. I “pretended” I was with Richard and Dave who work at Continental Ski and Bike in Duluth, MN. So Ski shop reps got to ski for free and got to partake in the ski demo for free. Hell I even got a free dinner thanks to the Elan rep. So even though there were an ass load of people at Wild, I got a free day of skiing, free demo and a free meal to top it off.

The Snow was shitty, the single run that was open, was crowded, and the lift line was long, but I was still enjoying myself. No matter how shitty the conditions are, or how bad of a day I am having, If I am outside, on the snow, either Skiing or Snowmobiling I am happy as a clam, and being out there with friends like Richard and Dave just makes it that much better.

So on top of it being the first turns of the season, I was able to test out quite a few pair of ski’s. Pretty much all the major brands (Elan, Atomic, Rossignol, K2, ect…) had their reps out there pimpin their latest and greatest ski. A few ski’s caught my attention, and intrigued me. Lately I’ve been trying to find a ski that I can use out west but still use here on the off chance we actually get a powder day in the Midwest. Last year in Utah I was riding Dave’s Seth Pistol’s so one of the first ski’s I demo’d was this years Seth’s, which I was a little iffy about because of the mini rocker they put on the tips of the ski now. Granted I still loved the way they ski’d but the mini rocker took away the some of the stiffness in the tip which caused the tips to chatter on the crud on the hill, and that chatter just annoys the hell out of me.

Next ski I really liked were the Elan 888’s. The Trip 8’s were a great ski, nice and wide, good side cut, and solid. I love a solid stiff ski. Which the trip 8’s were. Even though I was on a shorter ski than I wanted to ride, they still were a blast to ski, and I could only imagine how they would be out west it better snow conditions.

The last ski that I liked, the ones that Richard has been telling me to get for a while now, the Rossignol Scratch Brigades. They are a close match to the Seth’s in almost every way, wide, stiff, twin tip, ect…. I rode those for quite a while Saturday, I loved them and hated them at the same time, I loved how light they were, and how stiff they were but they didn’t ski for me light I thought they would, probably the snow conditions, but still I wasn’t too excited to ski them like I was when I first rode the Blizzard X-Cross’s.

So now really it’s a hard choice to figure out what ski I want. For now I’ll wait till later on when it gets closer to the time frame for the out west trip and then I will figure out what I want, till then I’ll keep looking and go from there.

- Josh

I am a regular visitor of www.johndee.com, John has put together probably one of the best resources for Minnesota, Wisconsin, upper Michigan for finding out the latest weather reports, snow falls, weather predictions, ect…

One of my favorite parts about the website though is the Northwoods Camera Network, This is a map of the Midwest with clickable links of webcams, live or still, through out Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the “yooper”.

The webcam network is a great way to easily see whats going on in terms of snow fall, snow fall levels, ect… Every time I visit the site I just itch for it to snow so I can get out the new snowmobile I bought this fall. Ever since I bought the sled I am just itching to go riding. But for now I have to sit and wait for the weather to come.

Till it snows, I guess I’ll just have to settle with heading out to Wild Mountain on Saturday for the Ski Demo they have going on, and ski the “fake stuff”, but either way it’ll be good just to get out and enjoy the snow again.

but till then check out www.JohnDee.com and the webcam network.

- Josh

Wild Mountain is open!
Trollhaugen is open!

So I was talking to Richard on IRC tonight and he pointed out the fact that Wild Mountain is open. So I went over to Wild Mountain’s site and sure enough they’ve already got one run open. Seeing Wild open this early is just plain awesome. It’s been years since I’ve seen Wild or Trollhaugen open this early. I remember back in High School, when I raced, it would take forever before we were on the hill skiing gates. Those were the days. Makes me want to skip dinner and drive out and go skiing right now!

- Josh