Michigan Snowmobiler

MLK weekend ride

Michigan Snowmobiler — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:43:00 +0000

Me and my friend Steve went to St. Helen this past weekend with 3 other guys, Greg, Bud and Jonathan. We ended up putting on 175 miles on for Sunday. Left St.Helen and headed towards Lewiston, overall the trailers were in good shape, some very good, some very rocky. The day went good until we started back from Lewiston and one sled in out group did not like the 2 degree temps and seized while we were running on a section of trail that goes onto a road, high speeds, very cold and a split carb boot did the REV 800 in. We dropped him off in Lovells at the bar and called someone to bring a trailer to pick him up.

The rest of us headed back out. The rest of the ride went smooth, I did get some wind burn/frost bite on my cheeks, I am not sure how I was leaking air with my BRP module but I wasn't too happy once we stopped, the worst part was the other guys said later that my face was very red. They could have told me, oh well.

We ate dinner at the Firehouse on Rose City, this place is very nice inside and dinner was excellent. The prices were very good also. I highly recommend eating there if you are in the area.

Monday we headed over to Rose City and dropped at Frank Alley park. We headed towards Luzerne and trail on the Ogemaw system were flat as could be, great job as always.

As we approached the Oscoda line I was hoping that the trails was groomed better than last season whe I was up there and they were. The ride into Luzerne to Ma Deeters was actually pretty good, the closer you got to Luzerne the thinner the snow got. You had to watch out for potatoe size rocks on the trail. They need more snow but for what they had to work with, they did a good job. We ended up back in Rose City and did some off trail exploring and found a couple of spots that will be fun to bring the kids up to and let them ride without having to put them on the groomed trail. We ended up with 125 miles for Monday.

All and all a great time with friends and the trails were good, what more could you ask for except more snow and more time off work.

Michigan Snowmobiler — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:09:00 +0000

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First ride of the 2007-08 seaason

Michigan Snowmobiler — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:19:00 +0000

My neighbor Steve and I took a day ride up to Grayling yesterday, 12/9/07. We drop off at the park and ride on M-72, west of town. We took off at about 9:00 am and the Grayling trails were is great shape, very smooth. We took the trail towards the Blue Bear with the plan to head to Larry's in Elmira. We stopped for a minute at the intersection to make sure everything was good and we saw the groomer, unfortunately we had to pass him but the trail was still decent for a white. Considering the amount of snow and the traffic the trail probably had on Saturday it held up pretty good.

We made it to Larry's by 11:10 am, so you know the trails weren't too bad. We had a quick pop and listened the Sunday Polka music, haven't heard that in a while. Well, back on the trail, we headed North to the Chandler. Like I heard, they are not groom part of it because a bridge is in too bad of shape to hold a groomer. We did not see any signs for a detour except a sign saying that the bridge was out. We followed the tracks down the trail and just took it easy and made it through. The bridge isn't out but it is in pretty bad shape. If there is actually a detour, some signs would be nice, especially if it was night.

We took the cut off trail to Wolverine because figured we would head for Indian River. The trail was pretty rough heading to the rail road grade but not too bad. Once to the rail road grade it was sweet. You could go pretty much as fast as you felt like going and there was not traffic. We made it to Indian River by 1:15 and fueled up. We went to the Rivers Edge and had some lunch, there were only 6 sleds on the parking lot. After a great BLT we head back towards Gaylord. The traffic started to pick up and as expect, the closer we got to Gaylord the busier it got and the rougher the trail got. Rough is actually kind of harsh, still darn nice for trails in this area since they see so much traffic. Once in Gaylord we decide to head toward Lovell's. Trail 4 was in surprisingly good shape. We were making real good time when my riding partner Steve hard a noise on his 800 Renegade. We stop about 8 miles from Lovell's to see what was wrong. We found that his flywheel bolt s came loose from his clutch. Not good out in the middle of no-where. He removed a couple aand tried to tighten the others. We took off and made it about a quarter mile and stopped again. Needless to say this was a slow go. About a mile or so from Lovell's I ran in to town to try and find some pliers to help tighten the bolts better. I ended up at the Lovells Riverside Tavern and asked a guy playing pool if he new where I could buy/rent a pair of pliers, he grabbed a tool box from behind the bar and handed me a pair of channel locks and a cresent wrench. I said, do you need any money of my license for them and he said, no, just bring them back. No that is how you treat people. I ran the tools back to Steve and he put all of the bolts back in and we went back to the Lovells Riverside Tavern. We had a bit to eat and figured we would head back to the truck. We didn't make it a mile and a bolt came loose again. This time Steve was on his own to get it back to the tavern.

I headed to Grayling to get the truck. It was dark by now but at least the trail was good. I caught up to one very slow group in the twisties that took a while to clear, it kind of funny to watch someone actually lean going into a corner going 25 mph thinking they were hauling. The deer were out which made the ride never racking. I had one about 3 feet from my frontend, she turned right next to me, she was so close I could have smacked her. That slowed me down a bit. I finally made it back to the truck, loaded up and headed back to Lovells to get Steve. Al told I put 207 miles on my sled. I can't remember the last time I rode on December 9th, let a lone put on over 200 miles. I hope we keep getting stead snow so the business's up North get the much needed shot in the arm that they deserve.

2007 Season

Michigan Snowmobiler — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:13:00 +0000

The 2007 season is almost here, I can hardly wait. Hopefully John Dee is right and we will have a better winter than last season. If you haven't read John's forecast, go to here: Johndee.com

I am going to try this out again this year to see if I like doing this or not. I am going to try doing some product reviews as well to try and get the word out on new products.

If you would like to see anything added to the site, let me know and I will try and accommodate your requests.

When I go up riding I will post a review of the trail conditions, places we stayed and any other information that I can pass along to you.

Michigan Snowmobiler — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:10:00 +0000

Went for a day ride yesterday. Dropped in Grayling at one of the park and rides on M-72. The trails from Grayling North until you get to the Blue Bear were snirty but smooth, Good Job Grayling. The Blue Bear sucked. I think the DNR grooms those I believe. We need them to give the clubs more money and hand over the grooming to someone who cares about the trails.We gave up going North and headed South on the Cranberry trail, smooth once again. We ran low on fuel so we had to go towards Higgins Lake, getting fuel in that area is a joke, 6 miles in a ditch to get to a gas station from the trail head.We left there and went back North and headed to Frederic to the Swamp for some food, the trails near Frederic were pretty good. You better have a trail sticker, saw County Sherriffs twice, once crossing 7 mile road and of course in Frederick.The whole are needs snow, the groomers who actually groomed did the best they could with what the have. If the DNR isn't going to groom, they should give us rebate or give there equipment and money to someone else.160 miles all together, not a bad day.

Snowmobiling

Michigan Snowmobiler — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 01:16:00 +0000

This is the first time I have ever tried doing a blog, lets see how it goes. We can use this to let people know about new products in the snowmobile industry or some of you favorite places to stay or ride.