Riding with Dan & Dylan, Weekend of March 8, 2008

Friday, March 7, 2008. Temperature was 20 degrees at 3:00 pm.

We left Chute Pond at 3:00 pm on the Bonita Creek trail and headed north on a perfectly groomed 7 N railroad grade. We went east on 18 E at Kingston Road, and followed that trail to the connecting trail to the pipeline behind the Junction. All trails are freshly groomed to perfection (we ran into a groomer behind the Junction) flat, hard, fast, and very lightly traveled. We took the trail east to the pipeline, and went south into the Bagley- Brazeau trails. Dylan and a little problem with his clutch sticking, but we continued on anyways. We went east at intersection 69 into the trails we call the "road trails", heading north and slightly east. There was some major logging activity going on on a large section of this trail. The loggers had scraped most of the snow off the trails to drive their trucks on them. There was barely enough snow left to sled on- we will not use these trails any more this year. After the logging stretch, the B& B trails were freshly groomed and in excellent condition as we rejoined the pipeline south of Crooked Lake. We headed north on the pipeline. Chute Pond's grooming crew has placed a stop sign at the crest of a steep hill on the pipeline where someone had plowed the road crossing the trail last week, causing a dangerous dip in the trail. Make sure you stop at this stop sign. The pipeline was freshly groomed and in excellent shape as we headed into Crooked Lake. We took the trail across the lake and stopped in for a visit with Tim & Jackie at Randall's Resort. We took the 18 W trail home from Crooked Lake, checking in with Jerry & Patti at Everbreeze Resort back at Chute Pond. We saw only one other sled out today during our 68 mile ride.

The trails were fabulous- maybe the trailers full of sleds we saw on the highway on the way up went further north. That's their loss. Thank you to the Chute Pond groomers for another job well done on our trails.

Saturday, March 8, 2008. Temperature is minus 6 degrees at 7:00 am, 20 degrees by 9:00 am.

We left the lake at 9:00 am on the Bonita trail and took 7 N railroad grade to the club meeting at O'Neil's Halfway Bar. The grade in the Chute Pond system was in excellent shape- freshly groomed and smooth. After the meeting we rode north on 7 N railroad grade into Paul Bunyan trails to Lakewood. The grade was very bumpy and rutted, and was an uncomfortable ride. We got gas at the BP and headed back south down the 7 S grade to the Maiden Lake trail heading west. This trail was in very nice shape. We turned south down the trail leading to Mountain Lakes Rd, and this trail was very nice, too. When we got back into Chute Pond trails, we were disappointed to find the loggers had scraped all the snow off the trails in the tornado zone, leaving us mud, rocks, and sticks to ride on for about a 1/4 mile. Overall this trail heading to 4 corners was a little rough in some areas today, which is very unusual. We continued south to Pine Grove Bar & Grill where we stopped for a bowl of chili and a visit with Rocky and Sally before heading back to Chute Pond through the tunnel and 2112. The tunnel and 2112 were in good shape in spite of some logging activity going on near Chute Pond. We rode 43 miles today, and for the second Saturday of March, we were pleasantly surprised at how nice the trails still are. There was more traffic than yesterday, but still not very many other sleds out today.