Trail Maps

[FishHawk11]

I live in St. Cloud and plan on riding from my house and heading north. I don't have a trail map for Morrison County. Anyone know where I can get one (in St. Cloud)before heading out tomorrow morning,. I am trying to plan a route with some buddies that have to be back at a cartain time. I am sure I can get one somewhere on the trail, but would like to try and get it today to plan the ride. Thanks for any info!

[ducker]

MN DNR site has trail maps but they might not be as detailed as you are looking for. Search the DNR home page for snowmobile trails. I see one starts in Sauk Rapids. I would go to a gas station by the trail head. They probably will have more detailed maps there.

[FishHawk11]

Thats kinda my problem. Sauk Rapids is in Benton County. I was hoping to avoid driving to Royalton, or where ever to get a Morrison County Map. I seem to have every other part of the state covered but right there.

[Ron Vroom]

If you have a GPS which accepts a chip for fishing maps, etc., I would recommend you check out Red Pine Mapping on the net which has all the trails for Minn. and other states. They will either send you the chip or you can download it for about $40.00. Did a 450 miles trip last week on the Lake Vermillion trails and it was spot on.

[yoppdk]

You can also use the Red Pine maps in an automotive-style GPS like the Garmin Novi 255 I have the maps loaded into. It works just like in your car, but also shows snowmobile trails - which is real handy when you are looking for a place to grab some food or gasoline. Last time I looked, Red Pine had a 2-for sale going on ... so I also got Wisconsin trail maps at no extra charge. I also found them to be quite accurate.

Nice ...

[FishHawk11]

That sure would be nice. I have a LowranceXOG with my Lakemaster chip in for ice fishing. The only problem is it doesn't hold a charge anymore and I don't have a power outlet on either of my sleds. I did go onto the DNR site and the Interactive map is really neat. You can click on your route and it will give you the milage, and it was pretty close.

Ron Vroom-Did you happen to ride on the Vermillion river at all. We did that last year from Crane down to Vermillion. We were planning to go all the way up to Kabetogema this year but that weekend fell through. I think the river is the best ride in the state.

[Walleyehooker]

The MN DNR HSOforum has a free download for MN trail maps for Garmin units.

[Ron Vroom]

We did not ride on the river based upon advice from the bartender in Buyck that it would be rough with slush spots, but the groomed trail was great.I also run an XOG and have wired a Vexlar battery up on one of my sleds without a battery, and on the other with a battery I found a circuit that goes to the battery to tap into. I was skeptical of the XOG in cold temperatures, but I have used it in -20 temps without any problems. I love the unit, and using the touch screen rather than trying to punch little buttons. The con of course is the poor battery life but I have gotten used to that and simply count on using an external power source which is usually longer term anyway than batteries or recharging.

[FishHawk11]

That has me very interested. Did you wire a power outlet to the battery or just wire the XOG cable to it. I opted out of the electric start on the new sled to save a little cash so I have a spot to put a battery. I may have to do this before the weekend trip north (I hope anyways).

[Walleyehooker]

I just bought a female lighter plud at Walmart.Cut the clips off the end of the wires and put clips on that attach to a vex battery.Then just plug your GPS cord into that.Simple.Female end was like $3

[fhj115]

Another good sourch for trails and trail maps would be on the following link. It is for the mnsnowmobiler dot org. You can search by counties and find a local club with a HSOforum. Lots of times they will have local trail maps available for download or a link available.

Good sledding

Brian