I apologize for the quality of the picture, but I was driving down the road at 0530, towing a snowmobile trailer, and attempting to take a picture....I think it turned out pretty good!
We got Dad loaded up and then we hit the road again to pick up my friend Chris at his wife's work in Plymouth. We got his things transferred and were back on the road again in a few minutes. The drive up to the Larson cabin went very well, no issues what so ever. We did stop in Danbury, WI to buy our out of state trail passes and get some coffee, but since the 'burban has a 44 gallon gas tank, we could have made the entire trip without stopping!
We arrived at the Larson cabin a little before 1000 on Friday morning. Phil Larson (my friend's dad), Brian Larson, and Brian Moline all came up the night before so the cabin was warm and they had their sleds ready to go! Shortly after we arrived, one of Phil's friends from work, Bob Claerhout showed up. Now we had the whole group together.
As we were getting the sleds ready and getting dressed, I took the opportunity to snap some candids of some of our group. I didn't realize or remember until after I got home, that I forgot about 3 people including myself, but I will try and get those shots next time we go up!
Top Left: Brian Moline on his 2002 Ski-Doo Legend 600
Top Right: Chris Vervais on his 2000 Polaris XCF 440
Bottom Left: Bob King on his 2001 Ski-Doo MXZ 600
Bottom Right: Bob Claerhout on his 1998 Polaris XC 700
When everybody finally got ready, we hit the trails at about noon. We made it about 10 miles from the cabin and Vervais' sled started acting up again. He has been fighting with his sled for a couple years now and keeps dumping money into it, bringing it to many repair shops and no one can figure out what keeps making in bog down. Anyway, he limped his sled back to the cabin and the rest of us headed off to Iron River to get a snack before dinner. The trails were perfect and the temperatures were just right. After we were done in Iron River, we headed back to the cabin and heated up the duck chili that Dad and I made. I was a hit again. We finished the first evening off with a couple of drinks at the local bar and hit the hay around midnight.
The next day we woke up to about 3 or 4 inches of fresh powdery lake effect snow. I love waking up to fresh snow when we go snowmobiling, it just makes everything about perfect. We all had breakfast, got geared up, and hit the trails around 0900. Vervais was going to stay behind and bring his sled back to the shop in Hayward, so we would only have a group of 6 today.
We all decided that wanted to put some serious miles on today and head north. We headed straight north and hit Lake Superior within an hour. I did remember to take a picture of it while we were stop there, but we didn't stop for long, it is freaking COLD standing next to that lake with the wind blowing!
Once we hit Lake Superior we went east and almost made it out of Bayfield County until we realized that it was getting late and we were in the northeast corner of the county and the cabin was in the southwest corner. We stopped and got a late lunch and started the trek back to the cabin. I think it took us almost 2 hours to get home. The one nice thing about the trails being in PERFECT riding condition is that you can ride all day long and not get too sore! The other thing that I noticed about riding this weekend so far is the lack of snowmobiles. I think I saw maybe 1/10th the number of snowmobiles that I usually do. I don't know if it is the economy or just that there is so much snow everywhere right now, maybe people don't have to travel places to ride?! Who knows....I know it is nice not having as many sleds around! After we got back to the cabin, we heated up some home made lasagna that Vervais' wife made and had a nice dinner. A few of us headed out for a couple drinks, but we were all back and in bed by 0100. A great 170 mile day of snowmobiling!
On Sunday, we all woke up in a very good mood and ready to ride again. Vervais' sled was still on the fritz and he wouldn't be joining us today either and Bob Claerhout had to leave early to work, so we decided to stay a little closer to the cabin. We headed out for the Cable/Drummond area. We have never rode there before so we were all excited to check it out. Once again the trails were perfect, but we did hit about 2 miles of trails that were kinda crappy, but other than that, very smooth riding. We stopped in Drummond for lunch and I got a chance to take another picture.
I thought this picture was pretty cool of all our sleds lined up in the parking lot at the bar. After we ate, we headed back to the cabin. My snowmobile hit 5000 miles on the way back, and I took a picture, but the flash reflecting off the plastic on the gauge, made it impossible to even read, but it does have 5000 miles on it now! On the way back, we took a small trail around Larson's property and ended up on a dried up slough that had about 2 feet of powdered snow on it. We all took turned busting over the fresh powder and had a great time. It was the perfect finally to the weekend. After out deep powder adventure, we got our sleds loaded up along with Bob Claerhout and we hit the road to come home. The others were going to stay the night, but Dad and I figured since we weren't going to be riding anymore, why not head home and sleep in our own beds for the night! The drive home was smooth and I almost made it home without having to fill up the 'burban!
Overall, we put about 320 miles on in 3 days and pretty much covered the entire county. As I am writing this, we are getting ready to go up for another weekend. A few are heading up tonight, Dad and I are leaving at about 0500 on Friday morning. Hopefully the warmer temperatures that they are predicting don't mess up the trails too bad!
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