Trails are in pretty good shape right now. There is a solid hard base of 6′ or so, and we have worked it and widened things out to the limits, and are waiting for some new snow to top things off and make it perfect. There have been some stutter bumps develop. Typical ridable and not a big deal but they are there, especially on the RR grade. We were working them last night, but didn’t make much progress – see below.

Off trail is in better shape, things are softer then I would expect, and look to be in fun shape. Still no major base under there, so watch for obstructions and be careful for hidden ski-smashers.

It is seriously cold around here. Yes the Island ferry has quit running for about a week. There was open water over last weekend, so no ice bridge as of yet. Things are looking good for a stable ice bridge this year, I will post when the treeline goes up.

Did I say things are COLD? Hasn’t been a great new year so far around here. Me and Randy had to tent the tractor and put a heater on it to get it going for last nights run. We warmed it up for over and hour and Randy headed out to get a run in. An hour into the run the fuel froze and we had a dead tractor. Top it off with a broken part, and we had to tow her in last night. Parts are on the way, and we have it scheduled to go into some heat tomorrow night. Iggy tractor is down for now, should be back on-trail Saturday evening. Brevort tractor is covering the core of the system today, and probably tomorrow so we should be in decent shape.

Don’t fear the stutter bumps, head on up and put down some miles!

Happy New year everybody.

Base: 6 inches

Snowfall Past 24 hours: 1 inch

Last Grooming: 1-02-14

Current Trail Conditions: Good to Excellent

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COLD is the name of the game for the upcoming week.

After a nice mild weekend, almost too warm, forecast is pushing temps 20+d colder for the upcoming week. Things got warmer over the weekend and all the snow settled down well. We got the critical grooms done Friday and Sat night when it was warm, and the bases on all of our trails are hammered down hard and flat waiting for a great season to unfold on them.

The forecast is saying that today is the warm day, at 14d, and not over 10 for the rest of the week. Little snow here and there, with up to an inch on 3 of the 5 days should freshen things up just a very little bit. May have a mini-warmup next weekend.

We had some moderate traffic over the weekend, but with the snow all over the state, overall I would say it is fairly light. With the hard base, and small amounts of snow in the forecast, along with New Years, I think we will only have to run 2 at the most 3 days this week, and will be ready for the weekend. All of our trails are in very good, almost excellent condition. There is some plowed roads for a bout a 4 mile radius in the core of the system, we are doing our best on that, but they are not working with us much.

Notice: The flowing water problem got a little worse over the weekend, as it went from 4′ to 6′ deep, and got about 15′ wide. This are is about 5 miles South of Trout Lake on the RR Grade, a mile North of M-123. We have hazard signs up to mark the location, and you can easily drive to the side to get around if you don’t want to drive through, but I don’t want people to hit it at speed. Please be careful. If it doesn’t improve at all, we will put up stop signs in the next day or 2.

Get on those New Years trips, and get some sledding done! Head for the UP! Why drive when you can ride, all UP Trails start in St. Ignace!
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