skeedoo
12-14-2009, 11:52 AM
Just rode Harbor Springs/Indian River/Mackinaw/Gaylord area from Teusday afternoon-Saturday of this last week. Excellent riding in that area (we nailed the snowstorm perfectly) but with the weekend comes the sleds so it got pretty busy on Saturday. We don't ride the trails much but when we were on them the Harbor Springs Trail system and Indian River trails were in good to excellent shape with it getting worse as you went south from there (Jordan Valley trail system was good-Gaylord area trails were beat up but there was plenty of snow to run fields and roads down there). We had between 2-3+ feet of snow in lots of play area's (fields, unplowed seasonal roads, powerlines, gas pipelines and even some untouched/ungroomed marked snowmobile trails that had 3 feet of snow on them, yes I said marked trails with 3 feet on them!!! I think in some area's the snow was blowing and coming down so hard for 2-3 days that the groomer and other sleds were waiting for the storm/LES/Blizzard to stop before they ventured out but were idiot's so we had a blast!!! Lets put it this way one buddy in our group was on his new 2010 Ski-Doo Backcountry X and he was having problems with the engine bogging down from the air intake getting to clogged up with snow because it was coming over our hoods/windshieds so much and the other buddy was on his new Crossfire 800 with a 141" track and I have a picture of him stopped in some powder where you can hardly see enough sled to know its an Artic Cat. Keep in mind with all of this said the base is just setting up so playing offtrail is somewhat dangerous but it is always somewhat dangerous so ride on, right??? Anyway there was enough snow to ride the roads, both plowed and unplowed so that made it easy to jump around the trail system if they were to bumpy. We did ride trail #7(the old railline) from Alanson to Mackinaw and it was well groomed, super wide and pretty much smooth as a highway (it helped that we had breakfast at the table next to the groomer and he said he was going to groom later that morning and sure enough we passed him on the trail so things were good). Seemed like the most snow was in all of Harbor Springs trail system (Alanson/Moosejaw Junction/Cross Village/Pellston area) and then just southwest of Indian River or that area that encompasses trails #76 out of Indian River south to #765, 760, and some of trail 76 area headed south from there. Basically the news stations reported Petoskey and Pellston area's getting the most snow from this last Storm/LES/Blizzard thing that just went thru. They also showed snow showers and flurries for basically the next 7 days in that area (except for that brief warm up that was Saturday and Sunday of this last weekend). If trails were able to handle the weekend traffic and warm up and they get some more snow this week on top of what they have then riding should be good. Also, the better you know the area the more fun you will have because you can get around the trails that are beat up and bumpy by using the unplowed seasonal roads, etc... Also, this trip was a decision between the Keweenaw and the tip of the mit and we couldn't have been happier with our decision to stay in the lower- they got nailed with snow!!! Be Careful and Have Fun