My son, Dad, and I headed up to the cabin Friday night and rode Saturday. Took the NSST north from Finland and followed it to just past the Tomahawk trail intersection. From there we rode forest roads,logging roads, swamps, rivers, etc... for several hours. There was a ton of snow but the forest roads, etc... were rock hard, wished I had scratchers. The NSST was mostly very good. Getting bumpy by the time we came back. If they would groom it it would be excellent again. Not sure if they are still grooming. Rode 90 miles though and had a ball. Plan to go again next weekend so we will have rode up there from the first weekend in Dec to the first weekend in April.
looks like you had a good time, good or you guys, 3 gens?
Funny you mention that. As we were sitting on the lake cooking lunch I told my son that he had his grandpa to thank for it. I said when I was a kid we used to do stuff like this all the time so thats why I want to do it with my kids. Then I also blamed my dad for getting me into this money pit of a hobby!
Nice Pics ,Great you can pass on to your kids the lure of the North Shore.Still a ton of snow on the Ontario side and walleye season open till april 15th ! A few more weekend left this year !!
I tried to get a couple of guys to go this weekend, but they all had issues preventing them from going. I hope things hold up this week, because I would like to go for one last ride.
Elf - Nice pics. I'll try to post some when I get home. We rode up there on Saturday too. We rode from the trail access just on this side of Tofte off 61. I was surprised we could still ride the lower trails enough to get to one that took us to the NSST. The NSST was table top smooth and hard all the way from the Caribou lot to the Gunflint G trail and back. This side of the Caribou lot wasn't bad, but a little bumpier in the afternoon. The Tofte trails were groomed and excellent. Lutsen trails were not bumpy, but had frozen hard tracks from when it rained. Same with the Musquash up on the Gunflint. Flat ride, but lots of darting on those side trails. Rest of the Gunflint trails were not as bad as normal. I think we saw 3 small bare spots on the NSST. There were a few more on the mid Gunflint area, but nothing we couldn't get around easily. I had my scratchers down the entire 190 mile day. We ride 2-up, so I had no choice but to leave them down. I tried to pick them up after lunch, but within a few minutes I was smoking my hyfax pretty good. I think I could have picked them up for the NSST part of the ride back, but didn't want to take any more chances. We had such a good day riding on Saturday, that I decided to just end it on a very good note and get home early Sunday for some other things we wanted to do. A ride like that on March 26th to end the season, it doesn't get much better than that.
Dave, glad to hear the trails up north of Tofte were good. We made our way back to the NSST right across from where the trail breaks off to go to Tofte. We plan to ride this Sunday again. Think we'll run from Finland up to the Hungry Jack or Trail center for lunch and back. Thats about 200 miles and would be a great way to end the season on April 3rd. Lots of snow still up there, we should be good for one more weekend yet.
Elf - I just heard today that TC will be closed from 4/2-4/29. We ate there Saturday, but they were out of gas and we filled up at HJ. We took the HJ trail in there and were going to shoot across the lake to the Clearwater trail on the way back. But, the little stretch of lake we crossed on the west end to get to HJ convinced me otherwise. Snow on top of the ice was pretty scarce. Don't know if it was the rain or what. The G trail was good all the way to Musquash intersection. After that, it was mogul city. We turned around and took the Musquash over to the Expressway and took that up to TC. We took the same route back. The expressway was a little bumpier in the woods than the G back to Devil Track, so I didn't take a chance on running it to the NSST. Good luck on your ride this weekend. Should warm up and soften up enough to feel like a real spring ride.
You guys have done it for me. I am going to round up someone and head up there Saturday. It would be nice to get one last ride in this year. Where would you suggest a good starting point would be assuming the conditions do not change too much?
That depends on how far you want to ride and drive. The closest good spot would be the State Trail access lot in Finland, about a mile north of Finland on cty 7. It's not hard to find at all. The next closet spot on the NSST would probably be the Sawbill Trail. Drive that about 7 miles (?) or so out of Tofte. At the intersection with Forest Rd 166 (also called 600 road), the road is wide there with parking along the road where people park all the time. Trial is right there. Another good spot would the the Caribou State Trail access lot. This would be out of Lutsen. Take the Caribou trail about 6 miles (?) out of Lutsen. The lot will be on the right as soon as the black top ends. You can't miss it. The trail runs right though the lot. I don't think the snow would be as good at the Two Harbors access point, and getting out of and back into the one at Silver Bay could be tough too. The state trail from the Caribou lot to the Gunflint trail was perfect on Saturday. The Tofte trails were very good too, except along the bottom closer to 61 and the lake. Good Luck. Sounds like they could get some rain this week.
Dave
You guys have done it for me. I am going to round up someone and head up there Saturday. It would be nice to get one last ride in this year. Where would you suggest a good starting point would be assuming the conditions do not change too much?
6mile,
We plan to start out of Finland on Sunday so that could be a good starting point fr you. Just park at the Rec Center parking lot about a mile out of town on Hwy 7. If you want to get further north theres a parking lot on the side of the sawbill trail just out of Tofte where the NSST crosses it. Have fun!
North Shore 3/26
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by lenny
