Riding with Dan & Dylan, Weekend of February 2, 2008

Friday, February 1, 2008. Temperature was 29 degrees at 4:00 pm

A near blizzard in the Milwaukee area caused us some delays, so we got up to the Pond a little later than usual today. We arrived to find about 2-3" of new snow on the back porch. We headed up the Bonita Creek trail to 7 N railroad grade to get gas at our newest business club member- Parkside BP in Mountain. We then headed north to the 18 W trail to 4 corners and back south and east. We stopped at Pine Grove Bar & Grill before heading down the tunnel trail to 2112, taking that all the way to Hwy 32. We cut across Anderson Lake and ditched to South Shore Dr, crossing Hwy 32 at the new Rhode's Junction Shell station (not open quite yet). We followed the wooded trail back to the pipeline, then went south to Suring. We stopped at Vollmar's Trailside before heading home on the 7 N railroad grade. The trails were all in very good to excellent condition. The ice base is covered with the snow that was melted and packed down by the warm weather and rain this past week, groomed to perfection, then a few inches of fresh snow on top. The only places that were a concern were the cornfields on the pipeline trail north of Suring. The base is glare ice, and the wind blew most of the snow off in a few places, leaving not much snow to wet your slides. Overall, these are the best trails we have ridden in a long time. We're looking forward to seeing you out on the trails!

Saturday, February 2, 2008 Temperature is 29 degrees at 10:30 am, light snowfall.

We met up with Mark & Barb and Dave & Mary, and left the lake on the Bonita Creek trail, heading north on the railroad grade 7 N to Parkside for gas. Dave & Mary led the way as we headed north on the grade to the turn west at O'Neil's Halfway Bar, then north on the wooded trail towards Maiden Lake. The grade was in very good condition, and the wooded trails were excellent as we continued north through Cathedral of the Pines and west to the edge of Oconto County trails. We zig-zagged around the Reservoir Ponds and Big Horn Lake, and then headed north on Valley View Dr. Most of the trails from intersection 9 east and south, then back north on Valley View were road trails, and if it had not been snowing, we would have been scraping a lot of asphalt. I would not take these trails again- I like roads less than I like the railroad grade. As it was snowing, we were fine, and headed to Kathy's Valley Inn for lunch. After lunch we took the trails east of the 7 corridor and looped around, coming back into Townsend for gas at the Shell station. We headed back east and south on the trails east of Townsend and Lakewood, and came out onto the railroad grade south of Lakewood. The wooded trails were starting to show signs of wear by mid- afternoon, as was the 7 S railroad grade, which we took back to Chute Pond. After a stop on the lake, we took the Doze Inn trail off the lake to 2112, cut across Anderson Lake, then worked our way east to the pipeline. These trails were still in decent shape, but the pipeline was a little rough as we headed north to intersection 51 where we turned east into the Bagley- Brazeau trails. These trails were pretty nice, but got a little rougher as we headed east to White Potato Lake, where we made a pit stop at Wouters' Front II. We then headed south and got gas at the Mobil station on Hwy 64 (the "O" in Mobil is red). We continued on south to Kelly Lake, cutting across the lake, then heading west to Suring. We had a nice prime rib and steak dinner at Suring Lanes before heading back to Chute Pond on the 7 N railroad grade. The trails in the afternoon and evening showed the signs of the heavy traffic we saw all day, but were in surprisingly good condition, all things considered. A total of 3-6" of fresh powder fell during the day, which made for a scenic ride on the wooded trails. Overall, the trails were very good today, and we had a great ride. We rode 146 miles today.