Was down in the Rushford area this weekend. The local clubs have done a marvelous job getting those trails cleared and in tip top shape. One complaint is the trail marking system is terrible. There are many intersections with no signs or anything saying where each of the trails area going. If anything take a magic marker and write on the intersection sign as to where each trail goes to. We ran into many people that were lost and had the same complaints. Anyway Mother nature has sure blessed that area with good snow and the groomers have done a great job preparing it for riders. The Kwik Trip in Rushford was full of snowmobiles filling up with gas. Who says snowmobilers don't contribute to the local economy !
My 2 cents

We were down there on friday and we had the same issue with trail markings! however the trails look pretty good and yes there is a good amount of snow!
Nice write up! We aremaking a leader change for the first time in 10 years and I have had the joy of starting to learn from the old birds and of corse I had to navigate through that area east of Rushford coming into Rushford! Like the 3 T's with no markings yeah, I got us there on the right trail!! Yeah it looked like the Kwik Tri0p had been busy!

JR All CAT!!!!!

I agree....we rode from Mabel to La Crescent - Houston and back. The trails were in great shape but need more trail and route markers!!!! Had a great time though!! I wish they had this snow earlier in the year.

we were out a little farther west of you guys. From Forestville State Park (avoid it, unless you like 3' mogels.) to Ostrander ther traielr were in my mind perfect. We were a pack of 3 and didnt see another sled from Wykoff to Ostrander. Wasn't anyone else out around 2pm yesterday? sheesh...

Just north of Spring valley towards Stewartville, the trails start to thin out and mud patches were appearing. But south around Ostrander and i am betting East has to be some great sledding. With the snow expected today, who knows what they will be like...hopefully we don't get rain.

So, were the trails pretty busy in the Rushford area? I saw packs of sled Saturday In stewartville, but they were all stopped on the side of the trail...

A group of us are heading down this weekend & plan on staying in Preston & riding east.......looking foward to it as the trails in the SE metro haven't been good most of the winter, at least since December.....

We rode a few weeks ago down there as well....unloaded in Fountain & hit Preston.....we have the same complaint about the trail markers!! We got off course on the waay back & had to back track quite a ways & rode the ditches back to Fountain.....we hope to be able to hit a few more towns this time, since we will have kids ridding with us.....

I found a trail contact down there......several clubs in SE MN make large, fold out maps....much better than the DNR map we had the 1st time we went.....although I compared the map I got to the DNR map & the trail #'s don't seem to match up??? Guess we'll find out how good the large maps are this weekend.......

If I was to ride down there again this year I would trailer right to Rushford, ask to park at either Kwik Trip or Hammel Implement and then ride out from there. I would then ride towards LaCresent / Caledonia and the Mississippi river. There are alot of loops to the east of Rushford.
Good Luck

Just FYI.........We have a rather large group riding NE Iowa Saturday (tomorrow). Everyone is welcome to join us. It will probably be our last good ride in Iowa this year. Have fun everyone and be safe.