Riding with Dan & Dylan, Weekend of February 9, 2008

Friday, January 8, 2008. Temperature was 29 degrees at 4:00 pm.

We left Chute Pond at 4:00 pm on the Everbreeze Resort trail, and headed east on the 18 E trail to Crooked Lake. This trail was freshly groomed and in excellent shape. We stopped in for a visit with Tim & Jackie at Randall's Resort before heading across the lake to the Iron Snowshoe's "F" trail going north and west. This trail was very bumpy and badly in need of grooming. We hit the Paul Bunyan trails at intersection 34, and headed west to Lakewood for gas at the BP. From there we went on a short loop north and east of Lakewood before coming out on the railroad grade 7 just south of town. We headed down the 7 S railroad grade to the Maiden Lake turn to the west, and followed that to intersection 38 and headed south to the Mountain Lakes trail. The Paul Bunyan trails were generally in good to very good condition, with many very icy corners and some moderately bumpy stretches. The worst part of their trails was the section from the "Y" at O'Neil's Halfway bar south to Island Lake Rd. This short stretch was in very poor condition- extreme moguls- hadn't seen a groomer in quite a while. We continued south into Chute Pond trails to 4 corners, then south towards the tunnel trail. The trails north of the "Y" at the 18 E turn were in good to very good condition with some moderately bumpy areas, but south of the "Y" they were freshly groomed and in excellent shape. We stopped for a visit with Rocky & Sally at Pine Grove Bar & Grill on Hwy W before continuing south into the tunnel to 2112. The tunnel was in excellent shape, but there is increased logging activity on 2112, making some ruts and rough spots on that trail. We also checked out the small connector trail between 2112 and the railroad grade, and half of that trail is in similar condition due to heavy logging activity. The logging areas still have plenty of snow to ride on- they are just a little rough. We followed the 7 S railroad grade back to the Bonita Creek trail to Chute Pond, riding 67 miles today. Overall, the trails were in good to excellent condition and made for a very enjoyable ride.

Sunday, January 10, 2008. Temperature was -4 degrees with high winds at 10:00 am.

We left Chute Pond with Szablu on the Bonita Creek trail to 7 N railroad grade at 10:00 am. It was a chilly ride up to Parkside for gas. The grade was freshly groomed and in very good condition. We turned west on the 18 W trail to Boulder Lake, then entered Langlade County on the Boulder Lake Sno-Goers trails. The Chute Pond trails up to the county line were freshly groomed and in excellent shape, but for the first time in a very long time the Sno-Goers trails were not groomed and in very rough and bumpy condition. There is logging activity along this section of trail near the tornado zone- use extra caution. We continued on 18 W until the turnoff north towards Lily, and thankfully this trail was freshly groomed and in excellent shape. We continued past 9 Mile Resort and doubled back into Paul Bunyan trails, heading south to Animal's Bear Trail for a warm up stop. The Paul Bunyan trails were not freshly groomed, but in good to very good condition. We came back into freshly groomed Chute Pond trails which were in excellent condition as we headed south towards the tunnel and 2112. There is logging activity along 2112 east of McComb Lake Rd to intersection 65- use extra caution along this stretch. There is still plenty of snow to ride on, and the groomers had this trail in very nice shape in spite of the loggers. We took 2112 to the railroad grade 7 N back to the Bonita Creek trail to Chute Pond. It was a windy and chilly ride today, but the trails were in excellent shape, and we did not see any other sleds out during our 58 mile ride.