2010 HSO Late Winter, Trail & Riding Reports:

[Shack]

2/10/2010:

The marked trails around Zimmerman & Princeton MN are very nice. The groomers have/are out

and I would say the groomed trails have a good solid 6"-10" base to them. Riding on the Soo-Line up to Mill Lacs this weekend should be great. Also was given a report that the Sand Dunes trails are in very good shape and the marked trails from Princeton to St. Cloud & Princeton to Cambridge are ready to go for the weekend.

Feel free to share your riding report!

Good riding!

[tipup]

I know there is plenty, but I am heading up to the duluth area and Sat. How much snow is there up in that area, I am so excited I could [PoorWordUsage]!!!!!

[Surface Tension]

There is plenty just over the hill. The snows we have gotten were very wet and heavy. Total amounts from just two storms is around 3'. A lot of the snow hasn't fallen off the trees from the 12" we got a couple weeks ago. Last night 6" of fresh powder with another 3" possible.

[tipup]

Thanks!!!

[Shack]

Some current trail and riding conditions from around the state courtesy of the MN DNR:

[Shack]

[catchphoto_filet]

I recently just got back from a 100mile ride on sat from biwabik,babbit,ely,tower,embarrass and back to Biwabik. The trails are in ok shape. I did not come across any spots of pure dirt but some areas are getting tore up. I found a HSOforum that let you DL all the trails of MN onto a SD card to put into my gps so that helped a lot as to where to go next and so forth. Trail 297 from Biwabik to Babbit was rough!!

Trail 297 from Babbit to 61 was in good shape recently groomed

Trail 296 was a good ride The GF's pick of the ride

Trail 61 was in decent shape

Trail 204 73 made for a good way to make up time

overall a little over 100 miles roundtrip, with lunch it took 7hrs and I feel like i went a few rounds with mike tyson!Hope this might help make someones ride better.

All i know is watch out for the crazys that must go 50mph around corners and everywhere in between!

[kdawg]

All i know is watch out for the crazys that must go 50mph around corners and everywhere in between!

My brother in law and I were just up at Lake Vermilion and rode up to Intn'l Falls and back, then back to Grand Rapids. From Orr to Intn'l Falls it was very dangerous at times. I came across 3 different groups, where one or more from each group was approaching the corner on the left (wrong) side. Each time I was coming from the opposite direction, hugging the inside corner as close as possible, even putting my right ski on the high side, and these sleds had to lock-up and flip back to their side of the trail. If I were to have been on my side of the trail, but not on the extreme inside, there probably would have been a collision.

Personally, I'm all for riding fast and hard AS LONG as you're on your side and in control. My bro-in-law and myself ride as fast as we can safely ride. We don't blow corners and we stay on our side, always slowing WAY down when we meet others coming from the opposite direction. Riding hard is a ton of fun, but it really blows me away when I see idiots that are riding with no sense of safety for themselves and especially others.

[barebackjack]

New Prague area trails have plenty of snow but need a good grooming, overall I would say the trails that we have been on were on great shape with a mostly solid base except for landing areas with a bit of dirt. Cannot wait for next weekend!

[Shack]

I was able to put on right around 100 miles this weekend between fishing Mille Lacs on Saturday and trail riding around the Sand Dunes in Sherburne County on Sunday.

The lake trail on Mille Lacs is in great shape. We road it north on the east side up to almost the north end and cut cross country over to a mud flat just south of the sand. Never once did we run into any cracks, open water or bridges. Very fun and scenic ride right now on the lake. We unloaded & loaded out of Appeldoorn's resort just north of Isle. I never met up with one or seen one, but while fishing on the Boot flat we had a guy looking for Midget flat stop by on his sled. He said he just road up from Mora and once he hit the lake around Isle, he counted 12 sheriff's and Co's on the East side marked trail. Watch your speed, because they are watching you.

The trails around Sand Dunes in Sherburne County and Elk Lake by Zimmerman are used, but still in good shape (as of yesterday afternoon and last night). Amazing deep, untouched, powder filled areas can be found still and on marked trails. These are areas off of the main roadways & trails around the area. I think most riders who drive up from the cities and park in the designated spots stay primarily on the main trials like Hwy 169.

I would say the riding conditions on the above areas will be holding strong (even if we do not get snow this week) into this weekend and next week.

Good luck riding!

[Xplorer]

Rode with the family saturday afternoon from the Americinn in Orr north up the arrowhead then over to crane lake for a late afternoon snack. Then headed south to Buyck and south down the arrowhead and back around into the south side of Orr.

83 miles in all and the majority were on good trails. Crane lake to Buyck was a bit bumpy. Great day to be out on the trails!!

[Shack]

Well, funny how things change in a week.

The trails around Zimmerman & Princeton are worn down pretty good. IMO not by tons of sleds but because of the sun and weather from last week. Do not get me wrong, the trails are still worth riding and are still in better cond. than years past for this time of year. The groomers where out late last week and there is nothing like hitting a fresh groomed trail. Still some ditches and pockets of untouched snow here & their. I have yet "not" to find a nice patch to cool down my hyfax after ruining the shoulder in areas you have to.

Also the ditches around here have some deepness to them yet. I did manage to find myself in a pickle when braving a very steep road side ditch slope with trees right at the bottom . Thank god for long track, reverse, and my 13 year old son. Sometimes gravity just gets the best of ya. LoL.

Up this way I would say the sledders are down more than I thought they would be. Minus the big packs here & their on Friday & Saturday nights, I have seen very few sleds out on the trails & the parking areas just do not even have the trailers in them even like last year. Funny? Must be the economy, because IMO this is the best year for sledding in many years.

Going for an evening ride once again in a few. Let's hope for some more good snow this week.

Good riden!

[Macgyver55]

We went up and parked at the Twig store again this weekend. Left from there and headed up to the NW towards Eveleth. We cut off on Ely Lake and rode through the Gilbert area then on north to Tower for lunch. After lunch we did a small loop, then rode back south on 73 through Hoyt Lakes/Aurora and did some off trail hill climbing. Took some pictures and then went down to the North shore trail, then took the 51 trail back over to Twig. Most everything was very nice except a 5 mile or so area near Eveleth and some minor logging stuff. The sun is starting to burn some areas out, but many of the trails were smoother than 35W. We ended the day with 281 miles. I hope they can hold out a while longer!

[leech~~]

We went up and parked at the Twig store again this weekend. Left from there and headed up to the NW towards Eveleth. We cut off on Ely Lake and rode through the Gilbert area then on north to Tower for lunch. After lunch we did a small loop, then rode back south on 73 through Hoyt Lakes/Aurora and did some off trail hill climbing. Took some pictures and then went down to the North shore trail, then took the 51 trail back over to Twig. Most everything was very nice except a 5 mile or so area near Eveleth and some minor logging stuff. The sun is starting to burn some areas out, but many of the trails were smoother than 35W. We ended the day with 281 miles. I hope they can hold out a while longer!

Macg, that sounds like one heck of a nice trip and day! How many fill up's did you make?

[Macgyver55]

Started out full and refueled 2 more times. I'd estimate 22 to 23 gallons. The last time we filled was in Hoyt Lakes and when we got to Twig my gauge wasnt even "bouncing" any more!

[leech~~]

Started out full and refueled 2 more times. I'd estimate 22 to 23 gallons. The last time we filled was in Hoyt Lakes and when we got to Twig my gauge wasnt even "bouncing" any more!

Well if you have any running issues, you can't blame it on Old gas in the tank!

Next time you go, make a little noise on FM maybe you'll pick up a few tag alongs!

[Macgyver55]

We figured with the warm weather the past couple weeks and no new snow it might be poor riding conditions, but we took a chance and made the drive to ride. We were wrong! We got up early and headed out at 4:30 am to make sure we were ahead of the pack. Drove up and parked at the Two Harbors area of the North shore trail. We were one of only few vehicles there. We were met with freshly groomed trails the entire time. Rode up to the Tomahawk trail, up to Isabella, over to the Yukon trail and back to Two Harbors. You could tell around 10am the temp got to the point the trails started to get mushy and there were several dirty corners. Only one short area (1 mile) of logging to mess up the trail, but aside from that with a little off trail exploring we ended the day back at the trailer by noon with 148 very nice miles. A Dairy Queen stop in Two Harbors to enjoy on the trip home made for a perfect day!

Without some more new snow though, I'm not sure it will last another week. There was starting to be some fairly heavy traffic on the trail by the time we got back to the truck, and there were more just pulling out as we were loading up.

[Xplorer]

Was up in Ely yesterday and the trails are toast. Little snow to start with and temps into the 50's has made many sections bare ground for up to 1/4 mile at a time. They even cancelled the sled dog race from Ely to Orr yesterday. It was 51 when re returned to our truck around 4:30 yesterday.