Riding with Dan & Dylan, Weekend of January 16, 2010

Friday, January 15, 2010. Temperature was 34 degrees at 2:00 pm, cloudy skies.

As we drove up today, we talked about the weather, and we were hoping the trails would still be ok for riding today. More importantly, we looked ahead to the CPSC Vintage Riders 2nd Annual Ride & Show, our Club Ride and Beer Barrel Cookout at Kitty's Grill and Bar next weekend and Dylan's MS Ride the following weekend, which he has raised over $1,000.00 in pledges for (to donate, please click the link). Most of the northern half of the state has been grooming pretty much the same snow since Christmas, and now more than ever with the warm weather coming, we really do need more snow.

We unpacked quickly and got the Bullpen Puma and the Guzzler out of the garage. Rodney and his crew are bringing our other sleds back up later tonight. The thermometer read 34, but it didn't really feel that warm- maybe because of the heavy cloud cover. At 2:00 pm we took off from Bonita Creek onto the 7N RR grade and headed north to Parkside BP to fuel up. We continued north to the 18W turn, and I took these pictures (click on photos to enlarge):

The RR grade was in good shape- freshly groomed and reasonably flat- a little concave in the middle, but still a nice ride. We headed west on the 18W trail. and again, we were pleasantly surprised at how nice the trails still were. They're getting a little thin in spots, with some of the ice base showing, so be extra careful on the turns. I think I'll put a "helmet cam" on my birthday list for next year, because I really like the action shots while riding, and my hand gets cold holding the camera and taking pictures like a few of these:

The two left photos above are heading west from the grade on the 18W trail, getting ready to cross over Hwy 32. The middle photo is that really scenic bridge that I always take a picture of on the 18W trail, and the last two on the right are the Mountain Lakes Rd trail heading towards the "Big Y" intersection. The 18W trail was in good shape, flat and freshly groomed as we made our way to Boulder Lake. We continued west and north into Boulder Lake Sno-Goers' trails in Langlade County, and these trails were also in very nice shape. We stopped to take this picture- you'd never guess we are in the middle of a "melt-down" crisis:

So far, we had not seen any other snowmobilers on the trails, and it was smooth sailing as we followed the trail west. We stopped to top off the Guzzler's tank at Bob & Joni's at Hwy 64 & 55. Then we crossed the ugly bridge over the Wolf River and continued west. We wound through woods and farmer's fields until we got to the White Lake RR grade. The trails were all in good shape, and it was a very nice ride. Now we were starting to see a few sleds here and there as we crossed Hwy 64 and made our way north on the RR grade. This is an incredibly nice trail- freshly groomed, flat and smooth. We rode it through Polar Blazers trails, into Lily Sno Birds system, all the way to where it ends, about 8 miles north of Lily in the Tombstone Pickerel trails. We made a pit stop at Laurie's Lily River Lodge, and planned the next leg of our journey.

We headed east from there, into a confusing mixture of Lumberjack Memorial Trails (LMT) and 100 Mile Snow Safari trails. While these trails are generally nice and ok to ride for the most part, we usually find the wooded and hilly sections to be "overgroomed" to the point of the snow being a thick, slippery cocoa colored mixture. This area is no exception to the "needing more snow" rule. The other thing about this area is that the trails are not very well marked, and there are intersections that are not on the maps. Many intersections do not have numbers, so we kind of "guessed our way" east and south towards Townsend. Overall, the trails were in good condition, and we found our way to the Shell Station in Townsend for fuel. We saw two groups of ladies riding along the way- we figured this must be the "Women on Snow" weekend. Looks like they were meeting up at the Townsend Fire Station. These women raise money for their ride through donations and pledges, and this money is donated back to the local communities. They had some nice trail conditions, and a great ride for a great cause- thanks, ladies!

We headed south on the RR grade to Lakewood, then turned onto the Maiden Lake trail where we passed another group of Women on Snow heading north. We worked our way south past Halfway Bar, down the Mountain Lakes trail to 4 Corners to the "Big Y". We met Craig and Chris at the Y, and we all headed down to Pine Grove Bar and Grill for a pit stop. We found out they took pretty much the same trails we did today, except they went into Lily and stopped at the Lily Sno Birds clubhouse before turning around and heading back. They had good reports on trail conditions on their ride. After a little more smart talk, we headed home on the tunnel trail to 2112, and back onto the Pond. We rode 106 miles, through three counties and nine trail systems today on some really nice trails, especially considering the weather conditions. Here's a breakdown:

Chute Pond trails- good condition

Boulder Lake Sno-Goers trails- good to very good condition

Polar Blazers trails- very good condition

Lily Sno-Birds trails- good to very good condition

Tombstone-Pickerel trails- fair to good condition

LMT trails- fair to good condition

100 Mile Snow Safari trails- fair to very good condition

Red Arrow Trails- good to very good condition

Paul Bunyan trails- good to very good condition

We had some dinner, and afterwards Jeff & Bear stopped over. We gave them a report on our ride and the trail conditions, and talked about (what else?) the weather and upcoming plans for riding. We hope our plans work out and we actually do get to ride tomorrow and into the next few weeks. As they were leaving, Rodney was pulling into the driveway with our repaired sleds. Although I was happy to get my other sled back, Dylan was ecstatic to be able to finally park the Bullpen Puma and get back onto his ZL600 SS.

We'll see what the rest of the weekend and next week bring as far as weather. Let's hope for the best.

Saturday, January 16, 2010. Weather was sunny skies and 28 degrees at 10:30 am.

We were all excited when we got up this morning- after breakfast we rushed outside and got our sleds off the trailer. We put a new set of wear bars on my ZR600,and as we were finishing, Mark & Barb, Dave & Mary, Jim & Linda, and Ken showed up for a ride. Our destination was Barb's Mom & Dad's house in Crandon. We left the lake at 10:30 am on Bonita Creek and drove north on a freshly groomed RR grade 7N to Parkside to fuel up. After filling up, I was anxious to actually drive past a few gas stations today. We turned onto the 18W trail and made our way out to the "Big Y" and 4 Corners, where we turned north to Animal's. These trails were also freshly groomed and in great shape as were Paul Bunyan trails once we crossed over north of Hwy 64. We headed north along the western edge of Oconto County into Townsend Red Arrow trails, which were also in great shape. We made our first pit stop at Kathy's Valley Inn (with the snowmobile on the roof), and Barb told us not to order food, because her Mom & Dad were making us lunch.

We left Kathy's and headed north on the 7N RR grade trail. As soon as we crossed over into Forest County, the trail got really rough. There was lots of snow on the trail, but it was very soft and squishy on top, yet hard and bumpy underneath- not a very nice ride as we ground our way north to Laona for a fuel stop. My ZR600 got 11.6 mpg, which is better than the 7.4 mpg I was getting with the Guzzler. This is my first ride with the new sled, and so far things are going well. We headed west from Laona on a very rough 100 Mile Snow Safari trail to Johnny's Resort on Wabikon Lake. Ironically, Johnny is a groomer for the 100 Mile Snow Safari. It was really busy in the tiny bar, so I didn't offer my opinion on the condition of his trails mid-day on a Saturday. It just seems like their grooming drags leave too much snow loose on top, which makes for a sloppy ride early in the day, and that snow packs down into those back breaking "whoopties" later in the day. In my opinion, both the LMT and 100 Miler trails are groomed like this. Combine this with heavy traffic, and here we are riding mid day on some pretty rough trails. I don't have any "really nice trail pictures" to share, but here are a few of our group (click to enlarge):

From Johnny's, we headed south on the 100 Miler, and turned west to Lake Lucerne. We cut across the lake, coming off by Water's Edge, crossing the road, and pulling into Roger & Joyce's driveway. They had a great spread of food set out for us- hot beef sandwiches, relishes, pickled eggs, fresh baked apple and rhubarb pie, and cupcakes. We weren't allowed to leave until we finished it all, so we did our best to obey Mom & Dad. We thanked Roger and Joyce for their hospitality and placed our order for stuffed mushrooms for our next visit with them.

We headed back across Lake Lucerne and then south on the LMT 6 and LMT 3 and LMT 4. These trails had plenty of snow in most places, but were rough and bumpy, almost to the point of pain. We made a pit stop to rest our arms at Windfall Inn before continuing on our merry way. We headed south and then turned east onto another rough 100 Miler trail that took us back into Oconto County and the Townsend Red Arrow trails. It was amazing that at the County line again the trail turned much smoother. We headed through Townsend, and when the rest of the group made another pit stop, Dylan & I broke off and headed south. We gassed up at the BP in Lakewood, then turned east towards Crooked Lake. The Paul Bunyan trails were in fair to good shape, considering a full day's traffic had pounded them down. We turned south onto the Iron Snowshoe's "F" trail, and that trail was pretty much the same- it needed to be groomed, but the ride was better than what we had been on for most of the day. We stopped in at Randall's Resort in Crooked Lake to find Kevin tending bar, and Tim & Jackie were playing some kind of weird percussion instruments along with the jukebox. Tim told me he never played an instrument before (like I wouldn't have known that!) but that some musician friends brought in the funny looking instruments to them to try.

We flipped a coin and decided to take the 18W trail back to Chute Pond. This is the trail that had the ruts a few weeks ago from the hunter in the pickup truck, and we had not been on this trail yet this year. The first 1/2 mile or so through the swampy area were pretty rough, but the trail got much better as we wound our way through the woods. This is really a very nice trail, and there's still plenty of snow on it, and no signs of any truck ruts. We made out way back to the Junction, then crossed over Hwy 32. We met a groomer who was going north, and we rode some freshly groomed trail until we cut into the ditch at Hillside/South Shore Dr. We ditched to Anderson Lake, crossed the lake and came out at Water's Edge on Anderson Lake, and rode more freshly groomed trails onto 2112. We headed west on 2112 and saw another groomer heading east on the other side of the road. We made our way to the 7N RR grade and this, too was freshly groomed as we took the grade back to Bonita Creek and hopped back onto the Pond.

We rode 151 miles today on a variety of trails. All trails had plenty of snow, and the day's warm sunny weather didn't hurt the trails very much. I'm not going to reiterate my opinion of the grooming of those northern trails, so based solely on the conditions we rode in, here are our grades on the trails we rode today:

Chute Pond trails- fair to good, some better

Paul Bunyan trails- fair to very good

Townsend Red Arrow- good to very good

100 Mile Snow Safari- poor to fair

Lumberjack Memorial Trails (LMT)- poor to fair

Iron Snowshoe trails- fair to good, some better

It was great to see the CPSC groomers out last night. As I type this, it's Sunday morning, 20 degrees outside, and I'm looking forward to another ride today. The ZR600 treated me well today- it a really nice ride. We have lots of fun snowmobiling activities planned over the next several weeks- let's hope the weather this week cooperates.

Sunday, January 17, 2010. Weather was a sunny 23 degrees and rising at 9:00 am.

It got down to about 15 degrees overnight, and we were anxious to check out how many trails got groomed last night. We went off the lake at Bonita Creek and headed south on the 7S RR grade to 2112. Below are a few pictures (click to enlarge):

We headed west to the tunnel, past the "Big Y" intersection and then headed west on the 18W trail towards Boulder Lake. All CPSC trails were freshly groomed, flat, and fast, which made this a great start to the ride. Below are pictures taken at 4 Corners (click to enlarge):

We headed west and north into Boulder Lake Sno-Goers' trails, and were surprised and disappointed to find that their groomer had not been out on this section of trail last night. The trail has plenty of snow, but was beat up from yesterday's riders, and hardened by the cold overnight temperatures. We bumped and banged along until the first intersection, and headed north. Thankfully this trail and all the rest along the way were groomed overnight, which made for a great ride in our short loop through Langlade County.

We headed back into Oconto County into the Paul Bunyan trails. These trails are some wooded and hilly, but a lot of road type trails, which were flat and fast. We cruised smoothly back into Chute Pond trails, which begin again at Animal's Bear Trail at Hwy 64.

The trail through the tornado zone was well groomed, and we were happy the Groomer Boys had already replaced a "stop ahead" sign we noticed was missing yesterday. We headed to 4 Corners, then south to the "Y" and east on 18E. We worked our way through the woods to the 7S RR grade, and had a special guest join us for a short section of trail. Oconto County Sheriff Troy Sherman was out on his sled, and he rode with us a short distance before pulling off at a controlled trail intersection just north of Mountain to check riders as they went by. It was a good reminder to make a complete stop at all stop signs- no one needs a ticket for that!

We fueled up at Parkside BP, then continued south on the RR grade to Kingston Rd, where we turned east on 18E and followed that trail all the way to Crooked Lake. All of the Chute Pond trails were freshly groomed and it was a great ride through the woods. We took the pictures below along the way to Crooked Lake (click on photos to enlarge):

We stopped and Dylan posed by the new Adopt-A-Trail sign by our trail section that we help Mountain Springs Motel maintain:

We cut through town, which had not been groomed, and it was rough and bumpy, as was the trail out of town and the "F" trail until we got to the Highline trail. We headed west on the short section of Highline leading to the Pipeline and went south. We took a few pictures at the intersection of the Highline and Pipeline trails (click on photos below to enlarge):

The Pipeline trail was 100% better than the last time we rode it, but you still need to be careful, especially on the north end of the trail. There are some deep dips that need more snow to fill them in, and in general help smooth things out a little more. Although we would not quite make it our "trail of choice" yet, it is ok to ride, and we're no longer afraid to go there. We continued south and then east, before ending up at Rhode's Junction Shell, where we topped off our tanks for next weekend. We ditched at Hillside/South Shore Dr to Anderson Lake, and cut across the lake before picking up the trail again at  Water's Edge on Anderson Lake. We cruised down 2112 to the 7N RR grade and got home via Bonita Creek.

We rode 93 miles today on some really great trails. It's amazing what our groomers continue to do with the same snow. It's kind of like a magic trick in a way. The Groomer Boys are doing a great job, so if you see them on the trail or in the bar (or anywhere), make sure you thank them. Every Chute Pond trail we rode today was freshly groomed last night. The only trails that were rough were the trail through Cooked Lake and that one section of Boulder Lake trail. Here are today's trail grades based on our ride:

Chute Pond trails- fair to good, some better

Boulder Lake Sno-Goers' trails- poor to very good

Paul Bunyan trails- very good

Iron Snowshoe trails- poor to good

We are looking ahead to the CPSC Vintage Riders 2nd Annual Ride & Show (open to the public), our Club Ride and Beer Barrel Cookout at Kitty's Grill and Bar (for CPSC members only) next weekend and Dylan's MS Ride the following weekend, which he has raised over $1,000.00 in pledges for (to donate, please click his link). We hope to see you at some of these events. 

The time is right for a mid-week ride. Have a good one if you're lucky enough to go. We don't know what this week's weather will bring, so ride while you can.

 Be smart. Drive safe, ride sober. Don't become a statistic- the fatality count is up to 11 already!

See you on the trails,

Dan & Dylan

Comments and questions welcome at info@chutepondsnowmobileclub.com