Riding with Dan & Dylan, Weekend of January 24, 2009

Friday, January 23, 2009. Weather was 25 degrees at 1:00 pm.

We got a good jump out of town today, and were up to the Pond by 1:00 pm. Some of the fluffy snow from last weekend had settled during the week and there has been no new snow since, but there is still a lot of snow on the ground (about 14" on the table on my deck). We needed to take a ride to follow up on some missing signs we heard about from a website visitor (thanks for the information, bigbadbirdie), so we left the Pond on the Everbreeze trail, and made a circle around on the 18E trail to Rhode's junction for gas. We cut across Anderson Lake and headed down 2112 west to 7 N RR grade and ended up back at the Pond. Trails were all fresh groomed, flat, hard, and fast- perfect! We then headed north on the 7 N RR grade to Lakewood Motorsports to drop off a poster for the R4RD Benefit Ride , and Greg and Pattie gave us a nice donation to raffle off at the fundraiser- thanks! The RR grade was surprisingly rough on the north end of the Chute Pond trails, but once we hit the Paul Bunyan trails, it was much better. From Lakewood, we went south for a short distance on the grade, then turned east on the trail leading towards Crooked Lake. This trail was in very nice shape all the way until it turned south and went into the Iron Snowshoe system. The trail was thin, bumpy, cocoa colored, and the turns were icy most of the way into Crooked Lake. We stopped in for a visit with Tim & Jackie, fresh back from Las Vegas, at Randall's Resort. After a short pit stop, we were back on our way on the 18 W trail. We hit the 7 N RR grade and swung up to see Sarge at Schoolhouse Bar. We needed to go over some of the R4RD Benefit details with Sarge, and stopped in at a rare moment of the place not being packed. We had a good discussion about the R4RD Event Kickoff being held at Schoolhouse Friday, February 27, and now things are all set to go. We headed home on the 7 S RR grade. Overall, trails were fair to very good to excellent today on our 73 mile ride. I know the groomers will be out on the Chute Pond trails tonight, so no worries about the rough spots, mate.

Saturday, January 24, 2009. Weather was -2 and clear at daybreak, warming up to about zero at 8:00 am.

We were joined by Bubba and hit the Everbreeze trail and the 18 E for a short distance before turning off to the trail into Kitty's II Grill & Bar on Hwy 32. We met up with a group of club members and had a tasty breakfast. At 9:30 am we prepared to leave on our first official club ride of the year:

Thirteen sleds left in one group (long route), and five in a second group (short route). We took the 18 E trail around to Rhode's Junction to gas up, then cut across Anderson Lake, down 2112 to the 7 S RR grade. Trails so far were superb. We headed south on the grade, and it was in top notch condition. It was so nice we got to Suring a half hour ahead of schedule, so we made a scenic loop into the Bag & Bra trails before heading south again to Vollmar's Trailside in Suring.

These trails were in great shape, and we had a great one hour ride. We were glad to get a stretch break, and Jim & Chris gave us the ok to do a 50/50 cash raffle for the R4RD Benefit. We sold a bunch of tickets, and came away with a $61 profit for R4RD. We then headed north on the trail leading to the pipeline, and took the pipeline north to Shady Acres in Crooked Lake. Along the way we had a few mishaps. Bubba blew a cylinder on his sled, and Josh had a minor fender bender with Jenni, but we towed Bubba in, and had a great lunch cooked for us by Fuzzy & Woody. After lunch and shifting a few people around on sleds, we left Bubba's sled at Shady Acres and headed on the 18 W trail through the woods back to Chute Pond. Trails again were great, and the scenery was just as nice on this wooded trail. We picked up a spare sled at the Pond, so Bubba had a ride once again. We took the Bonita Creek trail off the Pond to the 7 S RR grade, then west on 2112 to the tunnel trail to Pine Grove Bar & Grill. We met up with several other club members at Pine Grove, which is the Saturday lunch stop on the R4RD benefit Ride. Rocky and Sally treated us great as usual, and Rocky even took our picture:

After a bunch of smart talk and a 50/50 raffle in which we netted $65 for R4RD, we decided it was time to hit the road back to the beer barrel cookout. We took the 18 E trail from the "Y" all the way to the turnoff for Kitty's II Grill & Bar. Jay & Rod and their crew had a delicious steamed meal of meat, potatoes, and vegetables waiting for us when we got back. Great job, guys! After we ate, Big Al came in we enjoyed some karaoke. I think we made it as far south as Margaritaville before we realized we were still in Wisconsin in January, singing in a bar. We had our final 50/50 raffle and added another $57 to the R4RD coffers ($183 for the day!). Thank you to Kitty's II for hosting our breakfast and beer barrel cookout. We had a great time. Trails were good to excellent today on our 125 mile ride.

Sunday, January 25, 2009. Weather was -2 and sunny at 7:50 am.

We left the Pond at 7:50 on the Bonita trail to the 7 N RR grade and headed to the snowmobile shop in Mountain for a Special Board meeting called by President Dan Huth. By 8:45 we were done, took some trail signs we needed with us, and headed back to the Pond for a screw gun and hammer. We left the Pond past Everbreeze and put up two missing intersection number signs on the way to Rhode's Junction. We then cut across Anderson Lake to 2112 to the tunnel and headed west. Trails were fresh groomed, flat, and hard. We continued north to 4 corners, then took the trail towards Animal's Bear Trail. There were a few worn and missing signs along the way, and we took care of them. We stopped in for a warm up and pit stop and visited with Animal before heading north into Paul Bunyan trails, then west into Langlade county. We made a big loop past 9 Mile Resort, and headed back towards Boulder Lake. We took the 18 E trail to the grade to Parkside for gas. The Paul Bunyan and Langlade County trails were mostly ungroomed, but the light traffic yesterday left them in still very good riding condition. However, you could still tell when you were back on the Chute Pond trails, which were mostly fresh groomed Saturday night. We headed down the 7 S R grade to 2112 and headed east to the trail north to Doze Inn. We stopped at Doze and Della gave us some recycled trophies for the Club Slalom Races which are coming up February 21. After that we headed home across the lake. We rode exactly 100 miles today, and trails were overall in very good to excellent riding condition. Traffic all weekend was very light on all trails we rode, possibly because of the cold weather. It certainly wasn't because of the condition of the trails! We'll be back out again next weekend- see you on the trails.

Dan & Dylan

Comments and questions welcome at info@chutepondsnowmobileclub.com