Riding with Dan & Dylan, Weekend of March 07, 2009

Friday, March 6, 2009. Weather was disgustingly sunny and 47 degrees and rising at 2:00 pm

We were disappointed that the "partly sunny" part of the weather forecast turned out to be "mostly sunny" today. No matter what time of the sledding season it is, we always check the snowmobile trails as we drive by on our way up here. They were non-existent in Washington County all the way up through Shawano County today. We finally began to see some snow cover as we came into Oconto County. We checked in Breed where the RR grade crosses Hwy 32- that looked pretty good. We checked just north of 2112 where the trail crosses Hwy 32 and runs along the highway to Water's Edge- that was a little burned out and sloppy in the low spots. We took a look where the trail to Everbreeze Resort crosses Kingston Rd- that looked ok, even though it was getting a serious sun tan at the time. We stopped at the RR grade at Kingston and it looked very soft, but fully snow covered. One of our potential riding partners for this weekend had already headed back to Milwaukee after riding for a few days mid-week (he had reported very good trails, but getting soft and sloppy). We took a look at the calendar- it said March 6th (in small print it also said "this is bonus time- go ride!").

So we did. We called Geoff, and took off from Bonita Creek trail, all of us leaving rooster tails of water spray as we made our way across the lake. We headed north on 7 N RR grade to Parkside BP to gas up. The grade was soft and sloppy, but fully snow covered, and we could see recent groomer marks which gave us a decent ride up to the 18 W trail. We took that trail to 4 Corners, where we stopped to make a phone call to report trail conditions to Oconto County so they could update their website before the weekend. In a nutshell, we found the wooded trails to be in good or better condition with some brown and bare spots, and the RR grade in fair condition. We met up with some other local riders who reported that the trail going north from 4 Corners to Animal's Bear Trail was not good because the tornado zone was bare and muddy. We had planned to go that way, so we thanked them for the information. They also said the 18 W trail west into Langlade County was in great shape, so we modified our ride plans based on their report. Here are some photos taken at about 3:00 pm today at 4 Corners. You can see there is plenty of snow in the woods- these are the riders we met:

Below are the founding members (L to R- Dylan, Geoff, not pictured- Dan. Also to be included in our elite group will be Sablu, Jeremy, Jeff, Bear, and Collin. All Cat riders are welcome to join!) of our brand new riding group- "The Chute Pond Cat Riders":

We headed west on the 18 W trail to Boulder Lake. We turned north and west into the Boulder Lake Sno-Goers trails in Langlade County, which were snow covered and freshly groomed. We made our usual loop through, coming back into Oconto County, then heading north on the Paul Bunyan trail that runs along the western edge of the county. As soon as we hit the Paul Bunyan trails, we immediately noticed that the trails were much browner, with more bare spots. We worked our way north into Red Arrow trails, and these trails were much nicer as we made our way east towards Kathy's Valley Inn. In general, the trails so far were good or better for the most part, with some bare and brown spots, and any area in direct sunlight was soft and mushy. Things took a turn for the worse as we headed south on the 7 S trail through Townsend to the Shell station for gas (remember I can't pass up a gas station with this new sled). The trail was in very poor, almost unrideable condition going both ways to and from the Shell station. There was very little snow left- mostly gravel. We burned up some slides on this short stretch of trails. There was no way we were going to try to go south on the RR grade, so we went north to the first turn east into the woods. We worked our way east and south back into the Paul Bunyan trails, heading for Crooked Lake. The Paul Bunyan trails were in poor condition- the little snow that was on them was bumpy, and the bare spots almost outnumbered the snow cover. We zig-zagged back and forth to keep our slides wet whenever we could as we headed east. Just as we thought the trails couldn't get any worse, we turned south onto the Iron Snowshoe's "F" trail. This trail lived up to it's name today, as we gave it an "F" grade for dark brown snow (when there was snow on the trail). It's a mystery to me why this trail was in such poor shape, but it was really bad. Thankfully, we finally got to Crooked Lake, and took the trail across the lake to wash the gravel out from under our sleds. The hill up off the lake at The Pines was 100% gravel, so all our efforts were for naught. We crossed Hwy W and took a right, stopping for a visit with Tim & Jackie at Randall's Resort. After a brief visit, we headed west on the 18 W trail back towards Chute Pond. This trail was in good or better shape, although it had a few brown and bare spots along the way. Most of the trail looked like this (click on photos to enlarge):

We took the 18 W trail across Hwy 32, and took the trail towards Everbreeze Resort, choosing to go onto the lake at Snag Bay rather than going down the hill at Everbreeze. We talked to Geoff about ride plans for Saturday, said goodbye, and headed home. We rode 93 miles today on some trails that ranged from very good to poor. That's to be expected this time of year, especially after a warm spell like we've had. If the weatherman is correct, and we get some snow Sunday, followed by some colder weather next week, we may be able to extend our riding season for another week. As for Saturday riding, we'll see about that in the morning.

Saturday, March 7, 2009. Weather was 30 degrees and cloudy, turning (there's that bad word again!) sunny and heading to 50 degrees.

You know you have a great and very understanding wife when it's her birthday, and you are up north trying to get one more weekend of riding in. Happy Birthday, Sherri! If you didn't know, my wife is a saint (to put up with me, she must be).

Dylan and I had some errands to run, so we figured why not go by sled to check out the trails at the same time. We left the lake at Snag Bay and took the 18 E trail to Kitty's II. We dropped off an R4RD shirt (for sale for $20, all proceeds to Robby & Dave) across the street at Linda's house, then continued on 18 E to Mountain Town Hall. We dropped some stuff of with Deb, and continued out to the pipeline, where we took a new picture for the top of this web page so you can check out Dylan's new ride. Trails so far were in nice shape overall, with a few brown and bare spots. Here are some sample pictures. Click to enlarge:

There were way more nice stretches of trail than bad ones as we went south on the pipeline into the Bag & Bra trails. We went a mile or so, then turned around and headed to Rhode's Junction for gas. We crossed Hwy 32 and ditched to Anderson Lake. We crossed the lake and Hwy 32 again, then headed to 2112. From the Junction to 2112 were the worst trails we saw today. The ditch was rough, the lake was slippery and wet, and there was a lot of exposed gravel near the highway. We won't go this way again. The trail along 2112 was nice as we worked our way back to Chute Pond. We grabbed a bite to eat and picked up Geoff. At about 2:00 we took off again at Bonita Creek and headed north on 7 N RR grade. We topped off at Parkside BP and continued north to the 18 W trail. We took the 18 W trail through the Boulder Lake Sno-Goers trail towards Langlade, and we could definitely tell the difference in the trails from yesterday. The warm weather and riding had packed the snow down, and we had barely enough to wet the slides. We did find decent trails and enough snow as we worked west to Langlade, across the Wolf River bridge, through some sloppy and questionable farm fields and west to the new railroad grade trail that runs from White Lake to Lily. We headed north on the new trail, which was in incredibly good condition. We ran the 12 miles to where the grade ends at Lily River Lodge, then headed east on the Lily Snow Birds trails, into the LMT and 100 Mile Snow Safari trails towards Townsend. Some of these trails were good, and some were not so good, but we were still glad to be riding. Here's two of the Chute Pond Cat Riders with a lot of white snow around them at a trail break:

We got to Kathy's Valley Inn on the Red Arrow trails, and went south on the thin ribbon of snow that was left on the 7 corridor trail through Townsend. We got gas at the Shell station, and took a really nice trail west out of town. We were soon in the Paul Bunyan trails as we rode through the Cathedral of the Pines, and this trail was in very nice shape. We kept going south towards Maiden Lake, then past O'Neil's Halfway Bar down the Mountain Lakes trail to 4 Corners. Most of these trails were in good shape, with some brown and bare spots, as we continued south to Pine Grove. We made a pit stop and visited with Rocky and Sally, who told us they will be closed for the next two weekends because they will be in Florida. We thanked them again for the great job they did last weekend with the R4RD lunch, and headed east on the tunnel trail. There was plenty of snow in the tunnel, but 2112 was a little thin as we made our way back to Chute Pond. We rode 143 miles today on trails that ranged from fair to very good. We actually found better conditions than we expected this weekend. Let's hope we get the snow and cold that the weatherman is predicting. Maybe we will get to ride again next weekend.

Sunday, March 8, 2009. Weather was 28 degrees and cloudy at 8:00 am.

The snow was too crusty to ride this morning, so we packed up and headed home. We drove through a blizzard in Oshkosh on the way home- I hope we get our share of that in the Northwoods. I hope to ride one last time next weekend.

See you on the trails,

Dan & Dylan

Comments and questions welcome at info@chutepondsnowmobileclub.com