Well with the Twin Ports (Duluth) being my original home where I was born. I'm pondering the question; if I will ever get to ride at home this winter. They have 10 inches to the west and south of us here in the Twin Cities, but have nothing on the North Shore where LES is supposed to happen. :unfb:



You better dance little fucker!!! :fluffy:

I know Duluth has none, but the range cities got snow. As trailhawk said there seems to be a lot of issues getting the trails groomed with all the downed trees and branches. What about this link?

http://www.snowmobiletrails.com/

There's plenty of ridable snow up the north shore. firered834 and i were out all day on Monday, we had a blast.

Just curious what do you mean by plenty? 10" plus or is less then that. I know how those rocks will come out and bite you if you don't have enough on the ground.

Ps: Thanks Ajinx for the link.

Good base,plus 8-10 on top.

How far up did you guys put in? I went up to the Normanna parking lot this afternoon, and if you really have to get out, there is lots of ice and enough snow to keep the engine from getting hot. I'm gonna try it (somewhere) this weekend. Not much cushioning for the track, but maybe I'll find some better areas, I only walked in a few blocks. I'm sure the further away from the lake the snow amount increases. Rather ride on 8" than 2" (that's what she says)
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Is doesn't look like much for loose snow does it? Well hopefully you guys will get some more soon.

That sure doesn't look good, that's near duluth, there's no snow down there, i was about 75 miles north of that, good luck.

This was last sat. on the Snake trail and Hwy. one north of Finland.

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This was leaveing the Knotted Pines mon. morning.


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Hwy. 2 south of hwy. 1 .


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This was sun. evening at the Knotted pines. About 6 inches of wet heavy snow after it rained all day.


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This was Isabella lake parking lot Fri.



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The logging roads are a blast but the trails need more snow.
Did about 300 miles over new years. Some bad but alot good.

Where did you say you were at crazier cat? 75 miles north or northeast?

And it looked alot better?

I wonder how it's faired the last couple days with warmer weather?

I agree im sure we lost a lot of snow up there. WE NEED SNOW!!!!!!!

See above pics and that is where he was. The secret is out.

"This was last sat. on the Snake trail and Hwy. one north of Finland."

and to think I blew off a trip last weekend!!! CRAP. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

We had a blast on monday, up in that area!

here are some picts. from craizercat,lorne and firered834 went riden up behind two harbors on new years day. THERE IS SNOW YOU JUST HAVE TO GO FIND IT AND WE DID! here are a couple of pics.

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OK GUYS, IM GOING TO GIVE UP THE INFO. IF YOU GO UP HWY 1 UNTILL YOU HIT MILE MARKER 313. RIGHT AT THE MILE MARKER THERE IS A ROAD OFF TO YOUR RIGHT CALLED THE DEEP LAKE ROAD. PARK THERE AND RUN DOWN THAT ROAD ABOUT 6 MILES. THE ROAD WILL THEN BECOME UNPLOWED AND ALL THE FOREST SERVICE ROADS FROM THERE ON ARE UNPLOWED! THEN THE FUN BEGINS!!!!!!!!!. THE PICS. WERE FROM NEWYEARS DAY. THE SECRET IS TO STAY OFF THE TRAILS AND ON THE FOREST SERVICE ROADS AND LOGGING ROADS. ALL YOU GUYS THAT DECIDE TO GO UP THERE HAVE FUN AND IF YA SEE ME ON MY FLORSCENT YELLOW SUMMIT STOP AND SAY HI. I'LL BE UP THERE AGAIN ON SUNDAY.

WE'LL SEE YA THERE! HAVE FUN AND BE SAFE! OH BY THE WAY WE ARE GOING TO BE AT STEWART LAKE UP THE DRUMMAND ROAD BEHIND TWO HARBORS ALL DAY FROM 10 AM TILL DARK ON SAT. WITH SLEDS. BONFIRE AND WHEELERS WITH PLOWS TO BUILD THE BIG RAMPS ON THE LAKE FOR THE BIG JUMPS IF ANYONE IS INTRESTED!!

A couple words of advice.
Make sure you have a good forest road map AND alot of gas. You can get lost real easy up there.
Been rideing that area for the last 6 years and I,m still finding new places to ride.
Only ONE gas statoin in that area, The Knotted Pines. The Mooseridge burned down this fall.
Don,t get caught rideing plowed logging roads. $180.00 fine.
Any unplowed logging roads are fair game to ride.
Many times I have put on 150 to 175 miles on a Sat. and never seen another sled.
Have fun but watch out for moose. They don,t move out of your way!!!

THATS GREAT ADVICE! when we were up there our map dident show the forest roads very good and we had to ask some dog sledders where to go to get back! if you stop at holiday at the bottom of hwy 2 in two harbors i just picked up a map that shows all the forest roads. also watch for the dog sledders up there. they are training there dogs right now for the upcomming beargrease race and they are VERY nice people! :fluffy:

Rode from Ely to Tresle Inn all on forest roads. Great riding, much better than any groomed trails. Tresle Inn was empty. It seems that nobody thinks there is any snow to ride. There is not a lot off snow to go and play around in the swamps and meadows but the roads have a 3 inch hard packed base. They have groomed some sections of the Tomahak trail but it is in real rough condition. We did run into a lot of roads that were plowed and ran the risk of getting caught but we didn't see any LAW out there today. If we did we would simply turn around and go another way. They arn't going to chase you but if you do stop you WILL get a ticket. A good forest map and extra gas is good to have up there. Just thought I'd share this information with you guys that are itching to ride. Thanks

I seen lots of sleds on trailers in TH this morning heading north on 61.

I thought I'd see what the North Shore Trail was looking like today. I put in at the Finland trailhead, and while there is enough snow to ride on, it is pretty ruff going. I rode up to the Trestle Inn and had a burger, I was the only one on a sled, and only saw four heading north on the way back. The Tomahawk is really tuff right now. Most of the North Shore had 2-6", no bare spots, and very little ice either. Just seemed weird that what normally is a "freeway" ride this time of year is very early trail riding conditions. I pulled quite a few logs and branches offa the trail, too. Tomorrow, if someone said let's go up there, I'd go again no problem, just keep in mind, it is bumpy, leaving very few places to crank it up. Did get a pretty good work-out.


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this section (which was on Tomahawk) was prolly the worst:
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this was about half a mile down from above pic: (at least it was smooth)
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The other thing is the logging roads are not marked and they intersect with trails occasionally. No markings on the trail or the logging road. Blew right through a few and it is scary.

Jeff

173 and the Tomahawk is the most scary one. No markings at all. I,m going to bring some caution tape up the next time and mark it.
377 and the Tomahawk is another scary one.

Good for you. I would of thought that our unused trailpass money would have the trails all ready to go by now.

OK, I just went out a while by myself. Parked at the Sullivan Lake campground on Forrest Hwy 11. Ditch banged it to the Toimi School and back and then down Hwy 2 a ways. put about 25 miles on. The lake was untouched.

You suck!!!!!!

I have to agree. That blows!!! Lucky F%cker!!

Thanks for calling me fucker. you know i work nights and im up for any daytime riden! if you dont include me on the next one im gonna do this to you or this shane

I said I was sorry. let's just do the dance and hope for the best. :fluffy:

To all my North Shore snowmobiling brothers. Any recent precip (LES) to help the conditions? Or heard of any precip coming your way from the weatherman up there?

just a chance of light snow the next few days.

That sucks

Hey Fireball, FYI, the clubs aren't seeing any cash from the trail-pass yet. Sounds like next season they will start putting it out. Also, with the exception of the NSST, all the trails in our area (TH and the Arrowhead) are club trails maintained by volunteers. What club are you in?, and how many hours have you put in working on the trails this season?

I ride the trails on my wheeler all summer and have removed a lot of deadfall. I have not joined any local clubs, just MNUSA.

Took another quick jaunt up for a burger, from Finland to the Trestle again today. The trails were still pretty bumpy, but definitely rideable (bring the kidney belt if you try to make time on these trails!). There was a little additional snow from last week to this, but it was fairly loose along the way, and again, the trails were deserted. I talked with the bartender at the Trestle, who said there were quite a few riders early in the afternoon, but most of 'em avoided the trails, and were just riding the logging roads. My GPS batteries were low, and so was the sun, so I'm gonna reload for next weekend and try to do some exploring. Not many places to crank it up along the trails yet, none were groomed, although some logging skidders had knocked the brush along the sides down a bit. Still narrow in some places. I had put the movie camera on, so I didn't stop in many places to shoot pix, but here are a couple:

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Even though there has been no grooming, our club got it's first check from the DNR, so they should be out soon...

C'MON SNOW!!!

I (and possibly 2 others) will be riding up that way next monday or turesday. shoot me a PM if you have one of those days off.

Fireball is in a gang not a club.

LOL. My gang sign is the middle finger.

Hey thats mine two.

im in too

Me and crazier cat logged on 82 miles in isabella yesterday. rode the tomahawk trail from knotted pines to isabella and ditches towards Finland. Spent alot of time on some of the lakes in the area. We found a "secret place" with 3 feet of powder drifted up for hundreds of feet. I got stuck twice and cc got the M7 stuck once.

Nice. What flavor you got on your seat? Maybe thats why you got stuck. Just messing with ya. lol.

That would be the good Dr. McGuliguddies. Funny I didn't notice that in the pic. lol.

FIREBALL, I NOTICED WHERE YOUR H.C.S. STICKER IS ON YOUR TUNNEL ITS "VERY NICLEY POLISHED" IN THAT AREA. IS IT BECAUSE THATS THE ONLY PLACE I DID FOR YOU ON YOUR WHOLE SLED!! LOL. ALSO, I CAN TELL RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE ON McDOUGAL LAKE IN ISABELLA FROM YOUR PICTS. I'LL BE UP IN THAT AREA THIS WEEKEND FOR SURE. BRINGING EXTRA GAS AND LOOKING FOR SOME UNMARKED ROADS. IF ANYONE IS UP FOR IT LET ME KNOW. JEFF? LORNE? SHANE? BERRY? CALL ME 591 0300 IM UP FOR SAT. FOR SURE!

Damn your good! 2 for 2. The only shitty part about that lake is having to ditch ride Hwy 1 to get there. Highly not recommended! We saw the DNR a lot up there.

hey firered, i think me and my boys are going to ride sat. leaving from schroeder i'll give you a call friday. barry

here is a vid from tuesday in isabella.

tuesday in isabella