CPSC Riding 022809

What a week! We went sledding last Sunday morning, then our family flew out to Los Angeles Sunday night to do a taping of an America's Funniest Videos TV show (ask me about it some time). Now here it is Thursday, and we're back on the trails. We left Milwaukee at 4:00 am to get an early start on our R4RD Benefit Ride weekend. After a day of errands, chores, and preparation, we did find time to take a ride- we met up with Mark & Barb at 5:30 pm, just as the snow started to really come down. We left the Pond at Kingston bridge, and went north on the 7N RR grade. Our plan was to head to Townsend, gas up, and head over to the Windfall Inn for pizza, about a 33 mile ride one way. The grade was flat and smooth (Dylan & I had seen the groomer in Breed when we gassed up earlier today) and snow covered. Visibility was extremely low because it was snowing and blowing so hard. We headed north at about 30 mph, with Mark in the lead. Dylan & I had our Chatterboxes on, and we were discussing how we thought Mark & Barb were either: A. Real diehards to keep going in this weather. Or B: Just plain crazy! Finally Barb pulled up alongside Mark at a stop sign and we discussed our plans. We all had a good laugh at ourselves for even going this far, and decided to get gas in Lakewood, then turn around and head back towards home. We decided to stop at O'Neil's Halfway Bar for dinner on the way back. Tom served us up some tasty burgers and chicken sandwiches, and we were surprised to see that when we left, it had pretty much stopped snowing. There was a good 5-6" of fresh snow on the trails, so with better visibility we took the back trail (I call it the Mountain Lakes trail) towards 4 Corners, then past the "Y" to the tunnel and 2112 towards Chute Pond. We busted through fresh snow all the way. The groomers had the trails flat and perfect before the new snow, so it was a great ride home. We took the small connector trail from 2112 to the RR grade, and went back onto the lake at Bonita Creek. Trails were perfect today, and I'm sure they'll be even better for the weekend. We rode 61 miles today. We're starting the R4RD 4-7 pm Friday at Schoolhouse Bar. Sarge will be serving up brats and chili, and we'll have some fun raffles. Saturday morning we'll meet for breakfast 8:00 am at Chute Inn, then we'll leave on our ride at 9:30 am from Mountain Springs Motel. All riders are welcome to join us on our ride. Lunch will be served 11 am- 2 pm at Pine Grove Bar & Grill on Hwy W west of Mountain, along with some great raffles. Then dinner, dancing, karaoke, and raffles at Kitty's I Grill & Bar on Chute Pond (South Shore Dr) at 5:00 pm will wrap up the R4RD festivities. Any questions, please give me a call at 414-627-9866 (cell). Come by sled, or come by car- it doesn't matter. What matters is that you come on out and join in the fun and help us raise some money for Robby & Dave. We hope to see you this weekend!

We had a lot of errands to run today to get ready for the R4RD benefit ride. The weather turned sunny but still cold, and we saw a bunch of trails that still had not been groomed yet, so we took a break and went for an early afternoon ride to bust some fresh powder. We took the Doze Inn trail off the lake and went east on 2112, crossing Anderson Lake to Rhode's Junction to gas up. We made the loop around in back of the Junction, and stopped for a snack at Everbreeze Resort. We headed home and swapped out sleds, leaving the two-up for my daughter Molly and her friend Emily Jonas to ride when they arrived this afternoon. I got the trusty bullpen Puma warmed up, grabbed a backpack of things I needed tonight, and headed off the lake on the Bonita Creek trail. We headed north on the RR grade to Schoolhouse Bar to check in with Sarge. We dropped off the backpack, and since he had everything under control, we went for a short ride. We headed north on the grade to the 18 W trail. We took that to the "Y", then north on the Mountain Lakes trail to Halfway Bar. We turned south and took the RR grade back to Schoolhouse for the kickoff of R4RD. Trails were not all groomed yet, had seen plenty of traffic today, but were still in very good condition. We rode 53 miles today. We took a few photos at the R4RD kickoff at Schoolhouse- thanks to Sarge for putting out and donating some great food for us and sponsoring the event kickoff. Click on photos to enlarge.

Saturday, February 28, 2009. Weather was minus 1 at 7:00 am. R4RD- Ridin' for Robby & Dave today!

We left the Pond at the dam and headed over to Chute Inn, where we met AWSC Miss Snowflake Brooke Murdock and her Dad Randy for breakfast. Several other riders joined us for a very tasty breakfast, and then we met at Mountain Springs Motel to start the R4RD ride.

Our riding group (L to R: Dylan, Dan, Barb, Mary, Deb, Sablu, AWSC Miss Snowflake Brooke Murdock, Kathy, Don, Dave, Mark, and Randy Murdock) took off heading east on a perfectly groomed trail to the pipeline. We headed south into the Bag & Bra trail system when we had our first challenge of the day- Mark blew the engine on his sled. Click on photos to enlarge.

From GLT, we headed west, and after Dylan lost the "dogfight" to "Rover in the Road", we made it to the 7 N RR grade, and took that to the 18 W trail. The grade and 18 trail were in great shape as we went south at the "Y" to Pine Grove Bar & Grill. Rocky and Sally served up a fantastic lunch spread for the R4RD ride, and had some really great raffles going on, too. A big thanks to Rocky & Sally and Pine Grove Bar & Grill for sponsoring and donating the R4RD lunch today. We did another 50/50 raffle, and had a couple of photo opportunities:

Above is some of our group both inside and outside of Pine Grove Bar & Grill on Hwy W, west of Mountain.

Above, the the Antolec Family: Karen & Madison, and Rick & Noah, who rode out to Pine Grove for the R4RD lunch.

From Pine Grove we headed east on the tunnel trail to 2112. Our trails today were so nice that it seemed as though we were following a groomer all day long. Below is one of the CPSC groomers we actually did follow on the tunnel trail- great job groomers boys! We appreciate your hard work keeping our trails in great shape. Click on photos to enlarge.

We took 2112 to Hwy 32, then across to Water's Edge on Anderson Lake. We held a 50/50 raffle there, then moved on north across the lake, behind the Junction to Old 64. We went west on Old 64 to the new trail cut in to Skinny Dave's. Here we met Crank and the Freedom Girls, who were partying big time when we got there. We did a 50/50 raffle, and Kathy shows us her winnings:

A round of Jello shots was sold by an R4RD supporter that we met there, with all proceeds being donated to the benefit. From Skinny Dave's we headed across Hwy 32 through the woods back to Chute Pond. We rode 99 miles on some really awesome trails today. After a short re-grouping, we met for the evening's dinner and festivities at Kitty's I Grill & Bar on Chute Pond (at the end of South Shore Dr), our third and final sponsor of the R4RD Benefit Ride. Tammy and her crew put together a fabulous feast for us, and there was plenty of it. We spun the wheel and raffled off some tenderloins, turkeys, t-shirts, caps, gift certificates, and other prizes donated by local businesses. Big Al came in a little later and cranked up the karaoke, with the Freedom Girls and other local talent stepping up to the mike to belt out their favorite tunes. We continued to spin the wheel between songs until we had no more prizes to raffle away. At 9:00 pm we drew the winners of the basket prizes, and the rest of the night is history. You will notice that there are no photos at Kitty's, because "what happens at Kitty's on Chute Pond stays at Kitty's on Chute Pond", and we like it that way. Thank you to all businesses who made a donation to this event, and a special thanks to Tammy and Kitty's I Grill & Bar on Chute Pond for donating the dinner and hosting the R4RD party. We will tally up the R4RD donations and share the results with everyone soon.

We left the lake on the Bonita Creek trail and headed north on 7 N RR grade to Mountain Bear Resort & Restaurant on Hwy 32 in downtown Mountain, where Dylan & I met Randy & Brooke for breakfast. After a tasty meal, we got ready to ride:

We continued north on a perfectly groomed RR grade, then went west on the 18 W trail to Boulder Lake. We turned north into Langlade County, and the Boulder Lake Sno-Goers had their trails freshly groomed last night. We stopped to take a picture along the way:

Trails were flat, hard, and fast as we made a loop through the Langlade trails past 9 Mile Resort, coming back into Oconto County and stopping at Animal's Bear Trail for a pit stop. We introduced Brooke and Randy to Mike (Animal) and Steve Nigg from Steve's Amusements, and Steve graciously bought us our hot cocoas and sodas. We warmed up and visited for a short while, then headed out for home. We stopped to get one more photo (below- to prove Brooke really was here on our Chute Pond trails):

We went south from Animal's to 4 Corners, then right at the "Y" to the tunnel and 2112 trail back to Chute Pond. The tunnel was groomed mid- afternoon yesterday (we saw him), so it was a little rough this morning- our only stretch of trail that was below average. We said goodbye to Brooke and Randy at the RR grade, and thanked them for attending our event. We rode 67 miles today on some really nice trails. We had to leave, but our trails were so nice that Brooke and Randy stayed and rode for another couple of hours after we left. It is March 1st today- we're in "bonus time", so don't waste it!

Miss Snowflake is an annual pageant type contest held every October at the AWSC workshop in October. Snowmobile clubs and County Alliances from around the state have the opportunity to enter a contestant to represent them at the pageant. Brooke Murdock is a perfect example of what this very important position stands for. Miss Snowflake is the "voice of our youth" for snowmobiling, and our youth is the future of our sport. I am proud to be associated with a sport that has Brooke as it's youth representative, and I am proud to have met her. I am confident that with young people like Brooke involved, our great sport will have a very promising future. We look forward to meeting up with Brooke and Randy again in October at the AWSC Workshop.