Good News! We have seen the Gaylord groomer twice today! We saw it this morning approx 10 am running along Old 27, on Trail 7. Again, at 5 pm… out front here. So that is encouraging.

We left for a ride late morning. We started out on trail 7 heading south out of Rays Retreat. This was after seeing the groomer the first time. That trail has been so rough it will take many times before the groomer gets this smooth again. At least we know he went over it twice today, and if this continues the Gaylord trails will get in good riding condition.

At Waters, we cut over on back roads/two tracks to pick up the Blue Bear. Trail 679 was fun, but did have ripples thru out the ride. When we hit 76/79 a few more noticiable bumps especially thru the curves. No long stretches of smoothness. Still very ridable and enjoyable.

We had lunch at Starvation Lake. Quite a few riders in there. Coming back home same conditions on 76/79 and then we cut over on Cameron Bridge Rd, Manistee River Rd… and then picked up on trail 4 to check it out. .. Still very rough.

We enjoyed our 79 miles of riding. It was snowing all thru the day, those big beautiful diamond white flakes. Another room from Rays took the Lovells trail and said it was very good riding.

It has been a trying few days as we have been trying to find out answers to what is happening with Gaylord trails. We appreciate Paul Beachnau at the Gaylord Tourism Bureau for his help and understanding with our frustration. The tourism bureau is not directly overseeing grooming anymore, but they do have a real concern for what happens in regards to grooming. The DNR is not in the business of grooming trails anymore. They are responsibile for processing grant paperwork. Dana at our local DNR department has been very helpful is explaining and doing what she can do to see Gaylords trails are groomed.

Hopefully the group that has accepted responsibility for grooming will get their organizational skills fine tuned, and keep the grooming on going and have the Gaylord trails groomed in great condition.

Gaylord has an excellent trail system that intersects with so many great trails in any direction. We look forward to enjoying them this winter and hope you will plan a trip soon and stay with us at Ray’s.

Rays Retreat is also renting Ski Doo snowmobiles this season.

——just one last note. Please do not call us just to complain. Or send an email to just complain about the trail systems. It has been upsetting enough these past few days without having to listen to someone holler at us for situations beyond our control. —-

Hi Everyone, we did receive a couple inches of LES snow last night and it is cold this morning, 5 degrees. Just a heads up from the grooming coordinators, "because of the heavy snow last week and high wind this last weekend, there are some trees down in the trails, use extreme caution." The schedule is, if everything goes well, to have the trails cleared by Wednesday afternoon and all trails groomed again. Almost all the roads are snow covered so getting fuel or food shouldn’t be a problem and there is tons of snow in the woods and the trails are in good to fair condition. There will be some ice on the trails for the little warm up on Monday and then the refreeze on Tuesday, so be careful. THE LAKES ARE NOT SAFE YET.

Rooms and Snowmobile Rentals are available.

We are members of the Cycle Conservation Club of Michigan, Baldwin Trailriders Snowmobile Club, Benzie/Manistee Snowbirds Snowmobile Club, Irons Area Tourist Association Snowmobile Club, Wellston Area Recreation and Tourist Bureau Snowmobile Club, Lake County ORV Club and the Michigan Snowmobile Association, which are the local grooming clubs. I can not thank these guys and gals enough, they do a lot of work for free, so we all can enjoy this sport. I would only think that if someone is complaining about a bumpy trail on Saturday afternoon, come to a couple club meetings and see just what these people do. They would never complain again. Thank you again.
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Here is a list of the snowmobile trails in this area, are you ready? The Baldwin trails go south from here for 146 miles to Newago, Irons trails wrap around Wolf Lake and then heads north for 122 miles and connects to Cadillac and Wellston trails, Cadillac trails connect into the Irons and Wellston trails all the way to Cadillac, then south to Leroy, they groom 124 miles. Wellston trails connect to Cadillac to the east, Benzie/Manistee trails and Irons trails to the north and west to Stronach for 68 miles, Pere Marquette trail connects to The Baldwin trail and all the way to Evart and up to Leroy to the Cadillac trail system for 144 miles, the south Pere Marquette trail runs to Grand Rapids I think about 140 miles. The Benzie/Manistee trails run north of the Wellston trail all the way to the Empire Airport on the Bear lake and Platte river trails another 150 miles I think. Let’s total this up, 146 + 122 + 124 + 68 + 144 + 140 + 150 = 894 in groomed connecting trails just in this area alone and we are right in the middle of them. I don’t know about you but that’s a ton of riding. Now there is more trails to get to, but that would be just over kill and this is not even counting all of the two tracks and seasonal roads that you can ride. Why spent an extra $200 to $300 in fuel to get to Gaylord or the UP when we have fantastic riding right here and spend that money on snowmobile fuel.

We have two bedroom lake front rooms with full kitchens, living rooms with a sofa sleeper, (sleeps 6), double lake front rooms with a queen and full beds and a kitchenette (sleeps 4). Double motel rooms with two double beds and a mini fridge, (sleeps 4) and single motel rooms with one full bed, (sleeps 2) and a large Bunk House which has two bed rooms with queen bunk beds and a queen sofa sleeper, (sleeps Ten), full kitchen, full living room, a bar and a fireplace. We have something for everyone.

Call 231 745 4101 8am until 10pm. See ya soon on the trails.