Riding with Dan & Dylan, Weekend of January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009. Weather 12 degrees and sunny at 2:00 pm.
Once again we got a really good start leaving from home, and we were up at the Pond by 1:00 pm. We hit the trails at about 2:00, leaving the lake on the Everbreeze trail. We headed west on the 18 W trail to the 7 N RR grade. The trails were in great shape, and when we ran into Groomer Boss Keith driving one of CPSC's Case tractors pulling a Sno Boss drag just south of Mountain, it was no mystery why. We stopped and talked to Keith for a few minutes, then continued on north on the grade. We turned onto 18 W, crossed Hwy 32, and headed for Boulder Lake. We continued west into Langlade County, and trails were superb. Some were fresh groomed, and the ones that were not were still in very good shape. We could see where the groomer drivers had pulled some new snow from the edges onto the trail, since we have not had any measurable snow in the past two weeks. This seems to have worked very well, since the trails were pure white, flat, and smooth. We made a loop through Langlade County, coming back into Oconto County and the heading north along the western edge of the county. These Paul Bunyan trails were very scenic and nicely groomed, and we continued on into the Red Arrow trails in Townsend, before stopping for a stretch at Kathy's Valley Inn (with the snowmobile on the roof). We then headed south into Townsend to gas up at the Shell station. From there we took the trail heading southeast out of town, through the airport and past the ski hill, towards Crooked Lake. Trails again were in very nice shape until we hit the same Iron Snowshoe trail "F" that we hit last week. The trail was very thin and rough all the way into town, where we stopped for a visit with Tim & Jackie at Randall's Resort. From there we took the 18 W trail through the woods back towards home. This is a very nicely groomed, lightly travelled trail that makes for a very scenic 45 minute ride from Crooked Lake to Chute Pond. We ran into another CSPC groomer just east of Chute Pond on the way home- thanks to Keith and the Groomer Boys for a job well done. Our trails were great again today, as usual. We rode a total for 95 miles today on some very nice trails with very little traffic.
Saturday, January 31, 2009. Weather was 16 degrees at 9:00 am, cloudy and warming up to 31 for the day.
We left the Pond at about 9:00 on the Bonita Creek
trail and headed south on 7 S RR grade. We went east on 2112, cut across
Anderson Lake and ditched to Rhode's Junction for gas. We saw Tom there
and he reminded us about the Mountain Fire Department's Fish O Rama going on
today. We told him we'd see him later at the spin wheel- we couldn't miss that.
We headed east to the pipeline trail, and north towards Crooked Lake. Trails so
far were freshly groomed and in great shape. We took the 18 E highline trail
towards Crivitz, and turned south to go around the scenic overlook of the
Peshtigo River. This trail was also freshly groomed, and the view was
magnificent. We wound our way through the Caldron Falls- High Falls area to
Jungle Jims in Athelstane for lunch. We enjoyed a great burger there before
heading west towards Lakewood. We began to notice that since the Peshtigo River
overlook, over 50% of the trails were cocoa or gray colored now, and the turns
were getting bare and icy. We crossed back over into Oconto County, and worked
our way west across the northern edge of the county. We ran a very wide but thin
road trail for quite a long distance. It would have been nice to have a little
snow left on this road by whomever plowed or groomed it. There was barely enough
for the slides, and the carbides were scratching the whole way. Things didn't
get much better as the road gave way to a winding, wooded trail. The trail was
beat up from the warm weather and heavy traffic. We saw over 100 sleds going the
opposite way past us in an hour's time. We were grateful to finally get to
Lakewood, where we went south on 7 S RR grade to the Maiden Lake trail. We took
that trail south to the Mountain Lakes trail to 4 Corners. From Maiden Lake to 4
Corners, we didn't see a sled until finally a group of 15 from the MS ride went
by, then 2 other smaller groups. The trails on the west side of Hwy 32 were all
pure white and in much better shape than the trails east of Hwy 32. We stopped
in at Pine Grove to talk to Rocky and Sally about some details for the
R4RD Benefit Ride coming up February 27th-
March 1st. From there we took the tunnel trail east to 2112, and went onto Chute
Pond on the Doze Inn trail. We stopped at Doze Inn and picked up a box of R4RD
shirts that were dropped off for us by Sue from Cardinal Creations. The shirts
look great- all you have to do is get a minimum of $100 in sponsorship to get
one.
From there we stopped over at the County Park Pavilion where the Fish O Rama spin wheel was going on. Robby McClain was there (he is a Mountain EMT and volunteer fireman, and he's the "R" in R4RD), so I was able to give him a R4RD shirt. We didn't do well at the spin wheel, but the money went for a good cause. We ended the day with a great all you can eat chicken dinner at Doze Inn. We rode 135 miles today, with only one stretch of trails being sub par. Overall, it was a great ride.
Sunday, February 1, 2009. Weather was 30 degrees, sunny and very windy at 10:00 am.
We left the Pond on the Everbreeze trail and went around to check out the new trail into Skinny Dave's. It crosses over Hwy 32 and goes down Old 64 a little ways before cutting into the woods and coming out in back of Skinny Dave's. It's a very nice trail. We headed over to Rhode's Junction and gassed up before heading out to the pipeline trail. These trails were all freshly groomed last night. We headed south on the pipeline into the Bag & Bra trails, and turned east for a big loop, coming back out onto the pipeline south of Crooked Lake. The Bag & Bra trails were not groomed last night, but were still in pretty good shape. We headed south on the pipeline trail back past Rhode's Junction, across Anderson Lake and down 2112. We put up some "intersection ahead" signs at the turnoff for Kitty's Grill & Bar, and headed home on the small connector trail to the RR grade. We rode 53 miles today on some really nice trails. Here is a picture of the trail between the Junction and the pipeline:
Remember- next weekend is the Chute Pond Snowmobile Drag Races on Saturday at the County Park off Hwy 32. Hope to see you there.
Dan & Dylan
Comments and questions welcome at info@chutepondsnowmobileclub.com