this thread is to give people updated information on topics related to the saginaw bay and kawkawlin and saginaw rivers.

story in yesturdays bay city times stated a man and his grandson went through the ice in front of castways. i believe this may be incorrect. i think this was the incident where they went through the ice on the bay. about 1/4 mile from the mouth, right in the channel. the sheriff got the riders to safety ( castaways ) and onlookers pitched in and recovered the sled....... BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR A HOLE IN THAT AREA.

Actually it was right @ the mouth on the north side about 50yds from the big American flag pole. I also heard a few others joined in the hole Sunday. STAY AWAY it is not safe anymore. Your not only taking chances with your own life but others that may try to help are in danger too. Use your head people don't take stupid chances!!

looks like we may get some of that much needed snow tonight / tommorow. lastest forcast is calling for around 6 inches. whereas it may only hide the sins of the river's slush; it will make the shoreline ridable again......time for the snow dance.

i love the turkey roost!!!!

PLEASE SNOW!!!

I'd love to ride up north. But when plans come up where I can't. It's GREAT to know I can go to castawasy and drop the sled in and ride for a couple few hours. Then go back home.
Man......we need snow!

there have been a few reports of someone puring salt on the ice under the euclid ave bridge ( 1st bridge west of castaways ). 45 mph speed limit or not, your gonna want to fly through this area.

so what do people think???? Will it be safe to ride by the weekend again??
I love the snow were getting now! and I hope it keeps up and sticks around for awhile!

this stom has a pretty strong ne wind with it (22 knots ) and when i was at the house for lunch, i looks out at the kawkawlin and the water came up over the edges again. combine that with all the rain from monday night and it is just a bunch of slush. we need it to cool down and freeze everything up again. if you want to run the shoreline, that should be just fine. its really comming down right now, closing many schools early.

thx glen. I'll keep my fingers crossed. I just want to ride!
I heard 7-11 inches by later tonight.

my weather geek-squad said 6-10. with the strong ne winds howling - there is gonna be some huge ass drifts along the shore. especially where the bay ice piled up just off shore.

dont cross the fingers; up your life insurance policy and get out there and hit it.

woohooo!! Yeah we got nailed!
I drove down river road to work.....looked like all slush!
Hows the kawkawlin Glenn?

Prolly shitty, slush!

kawkawlin is like a long sleerpy. i hard freeze ( comming on sunday ) will make it hard enough to ride on but it may be like riding on concrete. i readdy didnt get to investigate too much. ill get out there later today and post up.

i heard a few riding on the bay late last night; anyone get out there?

I had 2 sleds go by the marina today. NUTZ!!!!!! or really big ones

all the snow that I got was in my driveway, one pile next to my truck, two just like it behind it, and two more just like those behind the garage going to my pole barn. Click to view attachment

Did you see them go by again??? No?? they must have been on the Seebawing Xpress. You know under the ice.

Spoke to my friend that lives on the bayshore. last night. He had 6' drifts in the back of the house. Said most of the snow blew up off the shore and accumulated in back. Ice shoves are piled up about a mile offshore from the NE'er. Says the piles look about 30' high. Could use some snow along the shoreline for riding, plenty of drifts but not real level. That's what I heard anyway.

had a few sled slosh by the house yesterday. the kawkawlin is a mess right now. things should freeze saturday night ( calling for lows of in the single didgets ).

keep my fingers crossed for some LOWS!!!!

Hey Dana!!! Actually buddy I didn't see them go by again I thought the same thing. Crazy bastards!!! We rode 130 miles out of Frank Alley park in West Branch Wed. Me, Eddy and Sample. We met the groomer about 20 miles in and we were the first and only sleds down it all day!! I love having hump day off!!! See ya Saturday on the Rock & Roll Bus to Detroit!!!

the slush is now ice. a lot of ruts but ridable. hopefully the snow will continue and make for some nice conditons on the kawkawlin. had a few sleds go by saturday. im off to the abuse michigans northern lower for the next 3 days. have fun and be careful. cheers

Johnny9:
Rode 60 miles yesterday outta Frank Alley also. Groomer was coming back to the garage as we jumpd in! Saaaaaaaaaaaaamooooth! Stopped off at Castaways last nite with a few quads running around no sleds. This cold snap should tighten her right up and the blowing/drifting should fill in the voids! Its 3 right now!

Great thread starter for the local gang Glenn!

JD

i keep wanting to ride on kawkawlin since it goes behind the farm field behind my house but i'm a little leary of soft ice,maybe tomorrow night(monday)!Does anybody know if the 45mph speed limit covers the bay?Or just inland like kawkawlin i have testing to do on my clutching !

[quote name='shnizzelfizzel' date='Feb 10 2008, 06:21 PM' post='3632245']
i keep wanting to ride on kawkawlin since it goes behind the farm field behind my house but i'm a little leary of soft ice,maybe tomorrow night(monday)!Does anybody know if the 45mph speed limit covers the bay?Or just inland like kawkawlin i have testing to do on my clutching !
[/quote

The 45mph is covering the entire kwkwlin river from 2mile rd. out 2 the mouth of the Bay.
The bay is WIDE OPEN, so test/tune out there and there wont be any coupons for u from the enforcement team that patrols the kwkwlin river!

JD

thanks for the info!do you think the bay is safe by now?

I would have to say very safe along the beachfront due to the cold snap! Should be fun with the drifts out front also! Dont no how far out u can go out not having been out there myself, but some one will chime in w/update who's been out there!

Watch out near the eucild bridge by Beason's market.........Seen a huge open hole that was flowing pretty good to east in the middle last thurs. while plowing snow.

JD

should be great out there this week!
Very cold temps. I see the Saginaw river is re-freezing fast (going down river road). But not sure about that yet.

We had 2 Arctic Cats @ the gas dock today. For some reason they said them kittys only run preminum??? So if you come to our dock and need 92 we only have 89 Sorry. As for the river....I got to say it looked pretty good, I may run it the middle of the week. Anyway be safe and have fun wherever you go!!

We are going to Traverse City to Ranch Rouldoph for the weekend, but if your on the Saginaw River the marina will still be open for gas. Have a fun and safe weekend we don't have a whole lot of them left so get while the getting is good!!

I'll even buy u a $9.50 pitcher of beer up there Johnny 9

ok.....going to work this morning, I went over the Vetts bridge. (7:45am) I seen some ice fishermen out. AND I seen a fresh snowmobile track on the river going past the lafyette bridge, and going past the liberty bridge.

LOL....I didnt see any breaks in the ice. Is this saying its safe?

Personally, I'd give it a few more days. I'm planning to ride out of Miller drain Friday afternoon and Saturday. We usually start there then work towards the Saginaw river as conditions improve.

awsome keep me posted. If we dont go to Baldwin this weekend. I'll have to ride somewhere!!!!

I heard the quads tore up the kawkawlin with it was all slushy. Now that its all froze....I heard its pretty bad.

Any info on that?

update:
I took Rive road home from saginaw. I did see a bunch of snowmobile tracks on the river pretty much starting at that park. Vets park I think its called (on river rd m13). They were all along the shore line. Some went east under the bridge also.
So ppl have been riding the river.
Me being from Bay City....not sure if you can make the trip down the river, say from the bay, all the way to that park.
Just south of that park...remember that tug boat is there and there is still open water around it.

lots of traffic on the kawkawlin. the new snow covered alot of the ruts from people riding through the slush. i got back from a 4 day sled trip up north and was welcomed by ridable conditions here, how sweet it is. i expect a bunch of traffic over the weekend. have fun and be careful out there.

Lots of traffic on the Saginaw now looks real good. Just be careful and try not to piss off any ice fisherman!!

awsome deal!! I think thats where I'll be riding this weekend.
Is the Kawkawling good all the way down? I know under some bridges it was pretty wet.
I seen tracks all the way down the saginaw river.
Most likely we will be putting in at castaways, and maybe take a trip to Saginaw! Tonights suppost to be pretty cold too...so that should help.
Be a good time to open it up this weekend!

ill see you guys out there saturday afternoon. gonna get a bit warm sunday afternoon so get your riding in on saturday and early sunday. i have not heard any news regarding the kawkawlin ice beyond the euclid bridge. if your going under that bridge, better pin it. good luck to all and be careful out there.

where you going to be Glenn? Castaways?
Hope to meet ya down there!

Ill be down sometime 2day (sat). Look for the Dragon todd/glenn!

most of my riding is with my 4 yr old in front of me. we usually just ride the river and along the shoreline of the bay. however, much like me, he gets bored easily and wants to ditch bang. so we found some nice hills on the beach at boaters beach at state park. if you see my zert uncovered in front of the house ( indicating "game on") please feel free to stop by.

Sorry I missed you guys! I sort of crashed my sled Friday the 15th. And Its out of commission. Its at XLT getting an estimate of the damages. Then State Farm has to go and look at it. If they can fix it, it will get fixed. If its totalled, id like to buy it back for an extra sled.
Then put a nice downpayment on a new sled.
I'm ok...just sore. Trees aren't that forgiving. (I thought they were suppost to move out of the way for us??!!) Anyway happy riding. Maybe I'll stop by castawasy just to see If I can meet anyone this weekend.

sounds like we need to get together and talk about snowmobile safety. didn't you know that anything over 20 miles per hour greatly increases the risk of beer spillage? i would hate to see you recieve a ciation for alcohol abuse. all kidding aside, sorry to hear about your mishap. good luck with state farm, i know most of those guys, let me know if i can be of any help. does castaways still do the frozen tee shirt contests?

Sorry to hear about your mishap. Where did you sort of crash at and possibly total your sled?

In Baldwin on one of the trails. We went up Friday and came home Saturday, Just for the night.
LOL....no drinking on my sled.
Going around a curve, we were in single file for the most part (4 sleds). Around the curve comes 3 sleds riding side by side.
So hit one going almost head on...or turn off....I chose the safest route. But it wasn't safe for my sled.

All 3 of them kepy going like it was nothing. We pulled my sled out, Drove it back to camp and loaded it up.
Hoods wasted, the grab bar in the front broke in 2, Belly pan is junk, Muffler was crushed, I broke the choke off on the right, broke the key off on the left. Broke the speedo gear, I actually pushed the handel bars forward maybe 3 inches. I guess I bent something under the sled, not sure yet. Its still getting looked at.

I have Al Clements for an agent. (in Essexville) I guess they were going to send someone out to go look at the sled. I'm not sure how it all works out. I've never had to make a claim on a snowmobile before. If they total it, id like to buy it back, hell its got less then 800 miles on it. I also dont want to be low balled if they total it either.
We will fix that sled up for a 4th sled, and I'll put a downpayment down on a new sled.

HOLY SHIT TODD!!!!!!
I crashed mine out sat. nite on the sag. bay!! Must have been something in the air!
Shotput it off a huge rock on the last sandbar drift jumpin in front of my buddy's house. Almost saved it but the left front lower a-arm was crushed and then she rolled 2-4times top heavy on the hood. Handlebars, steering column, hood, front sups, DONE! The tunnel is fine, the track does'nt wobble from side 2 side. Whos no's!!

She fired right up and i drove it back to the trailer. The bulkhead looks OK, no rips, pop rivets missing, but the inside is what u cant see.
Im fine, just alittle sore on the shoulders but OK!!! At the shop right now 2 see its fate!

Tracks everywhere.............and i had to hit the f**kin rock! Under the snow of course, nothing i could have done!!!
Theres also a pinic table south of the kawkawlin sooooooooooooo watch out 4 it!!

JD

You 2 must have been driving to fast for the conditions

hell, that should buff right out. your agent is a good guy and has been in the biz for quite a while. they will sent someone from there claims division to check it out. not sure how they work things over there weather you can buy the totalled sled from them. best of luck to you.

damn, you guys are hardcore. my sled may not have the speed or agility of some of the new ones; but it sure tows like a son of a bitch.