Last ride of the season

[greekboy]

Well dirty Mike and the boys got one last ride in...... March 9-11.....

Friday we rode local trails from my cabin and did around 100 miles.
Rode 2 miles along the road to get to the trails - straight blacktop scratching sounds on all three of my machines. 
Once we got into town, trails were VERY icy until we reached Iron River, MI. Then you could see a little more snow on the trails.
The grade was good & bad, any place the sun was beating down the trails showed bare stone / gravel, in the shade - totally able to ride.....
Made it to the Wooden Nickle for some burgers and beers.... Proceeded West towards Watersmeet, MI and ran trail 15 North to Sidnaw.
Conditions were great North of Iron River. Some icy corners, but overall good trail riding..... Once we got to Sidnaw, local riders told us the trail system to complete our loop sucked bad.
So, we ended up double tracking back the way we came. The devil you know is better than the devil you don't.....

Friday night, the rest of the posse filtered in. Johnny Z and Kingpin and Fireball. We toasted with some Spotted Cow and Krack'n Rum....  Always nice to see the group back together ! I miss riding with those dudes....

Saturday, we ran the trailers to Champion, MI. Around 1 hour N/E from our base camp.
We rode trail 5 up towards Big Bay, then took the 310 loop towards Marquette, then to Big Bay.
Stopped for lunch at the lumber jack in Big Bay. Ran around that area for a while, as the conditions on and off trail were pretty nice.
Again, doubled back the way we came on trail #5 due to time and distance. I had my two sons with (ages 14 &17) and didn't want to attempt the 250 mile day that we had planned from Champion, to Big Bay, to L'Anse, to Three Lakes, to Republic, back to Champion. Even with the much shorter route, my youngest son still managed to jump off the trail and fall into a culvert sunken depression along trail side - at the end of the day, he was beat tired.

Loaded up and drove back to base camp, cooked up some tasty steaks and planned on binge drinking all night long. As it were, we all fell asleep watching a movie holding beer cans at around 10:30PM  Oh well, that's how it goes when you work on the trail system, I guess.... 

[greekboy]

Couple of pics

[AdrenalineJunkie]

Early ending again?  We been getting noreasters one a week. First was rain, last was 16", half melted day later, another tomorrow 12"+ Im sure it wont last but up north it should hang for a couple more weeks.

[buddah2]

We've had 4 week-long meltdowns this winter but it's not over as yet, at least in the central U.P......we're in the process of getting 5 to 8 LE right now and even with above freezing temps in forecast so is some additional snow showers.....so we're not dome yet 

[SNO4ME]

We are pulling groomers in and contemplating locking the gates before the weekend. Looking at the forecast i wonder a bit but we have a few nasty holes in our system from open areas, logging etc. The sun is pretty powerful these days. To really make a go of it we need snow. The last storm only hit the southern party of our territory.
The Fat Lady is tuning up.   

[2qik]

We are pulling groomers in and contemplating locking the gates before the weekend. Looking at the forecast i wonder a bit but we have a few nasty holes in our system from open areas, logging etc. The sun is pretty powerful these days. To really make a go of it we need snow. The last storm only hit the southern party of our territory.
The Fat Lady is tuning up.   

We ran our grooming equipment Saturday night, without new snow I don't see us going out again. 

[6Mile]

For Me the season is done. I will not complain as the this was a good year and I rode more this year than I have in the past three combined.  Family Vacation planned to Florida at the end of the month and then go out with the club and pull trail signs.

[greekboy]

My local trails (South / Central UP) are pretty much spent. Around one hour north of me is still decent, but unless they get real snow, I just don't see it happening. MI trails close in 2 1/2 weeks. We'll see what happens. Hoping to get in one off trail ride, if we get some spring snow ?? 

Wasn't a horrible season for me, I got (1) ride in December, (2) rides in January, (1) ride in February and (1) in March. Only downer was that I'm 300 miles short on getting 10,000 miles on my REV. I was hoping to turn the clock, just to say I did it..... 

[SNO4ME]

My local trails (South / Central UP) are pretty much spent. Around one hour north of me is still decent, but unless they get real snow, I just don't see it happening. MI trails close in 2 1/2 weeks. We'll see what happens. Hoping to get in one off trail ride, if we get some spring snow ?? 

Wasn't a horrible season for me, I got (1) ride in December, (2) rides in January, (1) ride in February and (1) in March. Only downer was that I'm 300 miles short on getting 10,000 miles on my REV. I was hoping to turn the clock, just to say I did it..... 

Mighty good feel'n comes with 10,000 on the clock.   

In my world that translates to about 400 hours of motor time.   

[SNO4ME]

We are pulling groomers in and contemplating locking the gates before the weekend. Looking at the forecast i wonder a bit but we have a few nasty holes in our system from open areas, logging etc. The sun is pretty powerful these days. To really make a go of it we need snow. The last storm only hit the southern party of our territory.
The Fat Lady is tuning up.   

We ran our grooming equipment Saturday night, without new snow I don't see us going out again.

We pulled 3 of the 4 groomers in Monday doing a little grooming along the way.
Probably had my last good ride yesterday. Breakfast in Barnes and headed home. 80ish miles for the day.
Going to have to check but I think I cracked 2 k and the first half the winter I just couldn't get into it.
The last few weeks were much better. Things started going better when I got on the sled EVERY DAY for about a week straight. That fixed me right up!
Part of that was weather got better, and it SNOWED, i put the sled on the trailer and went somewhere else for the day, along with a couple other things).

The club made supplemental funding on all three of our contracts. That put me in a better humor too.   

[Hal]

My local trails (South / Central UP) are pretty much spent. Around one hour north of me is still decent, but unless they get real snow, I just don't see it happening. MI trails close in 2 1/2 weeks. We'll see what happens. Hoping to get in one off trail ride, if we get some spring snow ?? 

Wasn't a horrible season for me, I got (1) ride in December, (2) rides in January, (1) ride in February and (1) in March. Only downer was that I'm 300 miles short on getting 10,000 miles on my REV. I was hoping to turn the clock, just to say I did it..... 

I considered it a successful season if I got 100 miles. My total was 137 miles, so it was a successful season with my gas hog Vmax. Hopefully next year I will be riding a much newer four stroke Yamaha Viper.

[buddah2]

My local trails (South / Central UP) are pretty much spent. Around one hour north of me is still decent, but unless they get real snow, I just don't see it happening.

You must be talking the western part of Central.....anything south of me, trailwise, is nothing but icy washboard underneath.....16 mi. south of Wetmore.....anything north is still good to better......that 5 to 8 I mentioned earlier turned into 9 to 12 

[greekboy]

Well, maybe not the last ride of the season...... April 15th with 18" of fresh snow on the ground..... Might be able to sneak in some more riding.....