Bayfield/Valhalla

[woodside]

We took a 110 mile ride this afternoon and found that trail conditions west of Valhalla (TR40) and north to Bayfield (TR1/51/31) held up very, very well after the weekend. Same with TR3/40/43 around Old Baldy. TR 31 north of Valhalla to Bayfield needs a once over by the groomer and same with a short section of TR40. The base is there and will be for awhile.

The warmer temps will do little harm to the trails assuming the groomers continue to work at night. TR31 between Valhalla and Iron River may be the exception as there will be a few spots of thin base due to sun exposure and many tight corners.

A couple pics of our ride today.

Pics of our weekend riding. The slideshow works well and can enlarge the pics. http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/k...b%2028%202010/

Bayfield Rider

[Glori-Ann]

We rode the weekend in Bayfield County and the conditions were great! Rode to Iron River on Friday and Sat. The trails were getting alittle thin by IR on Sat. with the bright sun out, but still decent. Today, we stayed in the Valhalla area and had an awesome ride. We rode 350+ miles this weekend and the trails/forest roads were all still in great shape despite the increased sled traffic. Stayed at Woodside Cottages and as always the accomodations were superb. We trailer about 7 miles to unload which puts us right into excellent riding conditions. Hopefully, the weather doesn't take away the snow too fast as we'd like to get in a couple more weekend. :-)

[woodside]

GloriAnn: Great seeing you guys again.

I took a road trip this PM west of Bayfield and through Valhalla and took a bunch of pics. Conditions are holding up very well.

First pic is off Butterfield Rd and thats a 16" screwdriver barely above the snow! TR1 west of TR51 (2nd pic) couldn't be any better. TR 51 had a 5" base at the TR1/51 intersection. TR19 (3rd pic) was taken west of Valhalla off Cty C. FR698 (4th pic) is a plowed forest road and still shows good cover. The last pic is FR252 which is not groomed.

No doubt there will be some icy & snirty corners on heavy traveled trails (TR31) or other highly exposed spots.

Hope we can maintain the conditions are another week or two.

Bayfield Rider

[just_ride]

Bayfield Rider,
Thanks for the update.
Looks like plenty of snow for a few more good rides....
Keep us posted, might still be able to break away 1 more time in March

Ride em if you Got em

Just_Ride

[North of 2]

Tomorrow afternoon I will be heading over to Woodside Cottages in Bayfield for what I hope will not be the last ride of the season. The trails and FR have had a very good base all winter and should hold up as long as the temps don't remain above freezing at night. Conditions might be thin getting into the outlaying towns so trailering might be the way to go.
If you are looking for that one last ride this might be the weekend to do it.
Ride safe out there.

North of 2

[woodside]

Look forward to your return North of 2.

You "fence-sitters" may want to take heed to North of 2's advice about the weekends to ride could be numbered, especially taking John's bleak extended forecast into consideration.

Will be doing a short ride this PM and post some more pics.

Bayfield Rider
www.woodsidecottages.com

[North of 2]

I have been reading the reports from the UP also and looks like they are feeling the effects of the warm up also. I was thinking about a trip to the UP the middle of Mar but will have to wait to see what the conditions will be like.
In my previous post I forgot to mention I need 27 more miles on the 2008 Yamaha to watch it go over the 12,000 mile mark.

[mellemel]

we rode 140 miles on Monday out of iron river, trails were in good shape even after weekend traffic,31 was bumpy from bayfield to vallhala and vallhala towards iron river , 21 to iron river was dirt where it went down a plowed road about 5 miles from IR, saw the grommer on 19 in the am ,looks like that was only thing groomed at that time.all in all it was a great ride for early in the week.

[woodside]

We took a very nice 70 mile look-a-round this afternoon and the trail and forest road conditions are good to excellent. No reason to expect nothing but good riding up here this weekend.

The groomer worked TR19 last night and TR31 south of Valhalla prior to that.

The last pic is TR31 south of Valhalla which is the worst trail to maintain in our area. And that was the only snirt spots we saw during our ride. The second pic was a short dead end forest road that no one had been on for awhile.

North of 2: Look forward to watching your odometer hit the 12,000 mark. I remember when you 03 XCSP 600 hit 15,000 miles. Mine is just under 17,000 and still going strong. Kind alike that battery bunny.

BTW, we have availability at our cottage for this weekend. www.woodsidecottages.com

Bayfield Rider

[cgeisler]

Bayfield Rider....did you get out yesterday? How are things holding up? Coming up tonight and curious if you know condition of Battlaxe down to #2 Corridor. Staying in Iron River and need a way to get north into the snow.

[woodside]

Yep. We rode 116 miles in the PM after meeting up with a friend who rode up from Clam Lake. He said conditions were 80% good, 20% bad up to IR. Avoid plowed roads especially on TR 6. He said a section of TR31 north of Barnes was rough but that may have been groomed last night.

We road down to BattleAxe late yesterday and it was fine from 43 south. We did not take the Old Baldy loop as we had to get back. TR 40 east of Baldy was rough in spots up to TR41 then fine going to Valhalla. TR31 was groomed last night from Valhalla up to Bayfield and two nights ago going southwest towards Iron River. He said it was good from IR Thursday morning. Tr 19 was very good yesterday.

Grooming has been cut back to 3 days due to budget shortfalls so you may encounter some trails that may be in need of grooming. I would avoid TR1 except west of Cornie to Bayfield.
I would be surprised if there is any grooming this weekend.

Have a good ride.

Bayfield Rider

[cgeisler]

Thanks...sounds like we will be OK.

[woodside]

My brother just called and he said conditions were fine from Bayfield down towards Barnes. TR27 was good but TR7 west of Barnes was in pretty bad condition. TR31 north from Barnes was brutal.

Expect some bare spots along the way where the sun hits hard and exposed corners.

Bayfield Rider

[90s]

rode weds/thurs out of pug & grub. got started late weds--90 miles. thurs rode tr 31 to 63 to tr4 thru delta to iron rvr for gas, up battleax to old baldy(always stop here in march), to herbster/corny, across 1 to jct 1/31, and then run forest rodes for quite awhile. a little thin on 63 south of hwy 2. all in all conditions were very good to excellent in places. this looks like this might have been my last ride judging from the forcast, if so couldn't have been a better ride to close out the season, did not want to stop thurs, but had to work fri, got back home about two fri morning.

[woodside]

We had a nice 140 mile yesteday west of Bayfield southwest of Valhalla. Stayed north of TR 40. Traffic was light. Trail conditions were a 5 to 9 with the 5 being late afternoon as they got soft and full of ruts. TR31S had some bare, mud and snirty spots but TR19/TR40/TR51/TR1/TR31N were about 98% white. The forest roads have not been affected by the prolonged warm temps and no snow and many actually have improved due to the soft conditions, especially in the PM. Many of the plowed roads are pretty much toast but a few are still passable.

The groomer is now limited to 3 nights of grooming which will only happen if the temps cool down at night. Many of the trails still have a good base but are rutted up now. If they do groom, we should get one more week/end on the trails unless it rains. No snow in the 10 day forecast.

Bayfield Rider

[just_ride]

Thanks for the update.
Ride em til it melts......

Just_Ride