March 18, 2019 at 05:12AM
Submitted by admin on Sun, 03/17/2019 - 05:26
Boy am I glad I decided to go on a snowmobile ride with the kids last weekend. This rain will put a damper on riding unless there's some snow to follow.
Our group included my daughter Megan, son Evan and his girlfriend Nella. We left from Ely on the Taconite and headed west toward Tower.
The trail was in great shape which created a problem - we were in Tower too early.
"Okay, how about we keep going and have lunch at the Vermilion Club?" I asked.
"Sounds good, I could go for their pizza," said Evan.
We powered past Tower and hung right on to the Arrowhead Trail and dropped down into the 100-mile swamp. Here the trail was even in better condition, if that was possible.
We pulled off the trail at the Penguin Club section that would bring us over across Hwy. 77 to the VC. We had the same problem, it didn't take any time.
There was a group of sledders parked behind the restaurant and the oldest guy in the group gave us the bad news.
"They don't open until noon."
Ugh. We debated waiting for half an hour. Evan suggested going out on Lake Vermilion and killing some time.
"Or we could keep going and have lunch at the Crescent in Cook," I suggested.
Our ride had been so good, I figured we would be in Cook in no time. Well, that all changed when we got back on the Arrowhead.
A mile or so down the trail was where the groomer had turned around. For the next 14 miles it was bumps, bruises and dodging from side to side to try find a place to ride.
My bad.
We pulled into the Crescent and had a great meal. The service was great and we got to watch the first period of the Greenway state championship hockey game.
There were even a couple of cheerleaders at the bar rooting for the Range team. Well, they might have been cheerleaders a number of years ago. But they did have pom-poms.
We left there and headed over to Cook to gas up at the Country Store, conveniently located right off the trail. Easy to get in, get gas and go.
From there it was on to the Wolf Track Trail, a club maintained section that connects Cook to the Taconite. Flat as a pancake with nice twists and turns along with easy to read mileage markers.
As we tooled back to Ely I thought about what we saw along the way. Three blood stained spots on the trail where a deer had met its fate thanks to a pack of wolves.
And deer stands. Lots of them. Had me wondering if deer hunters are attracted to snowmobile trails.
We saw a number of sleds out that day but not as many as you might expect for a beautiful day with great trails in March. But when there's snow across the state, some people decide they'd rather ride at home.
It's been a first class winter and a great one to get out on the trails. We were back in Ely by 4 p.m., about six hours after we left. We put on 140 miles and all three sleds ran perfect.
Now that's a great day in northern Minnesota.
Submitted by admin on Sun, 03/17/2019 - 05:26
Boy am I glad I decided to go on a snowmobile ride with the kids last weekend. This rain will put a damper on riding unless there's some snow to follow.
Our group included my daughter Megan, son Evan and his girlfriend Nella. We left from Ely on the Taconite and headed west toward Tower.
The trail was in great shape which created a problem - we were in Tower too early.
"Okay, how about we keep going and have lunch at the Vermilion Club?" I asked.
"Sounds good, I could go for their pizza," said Evan.
We powered past Tower and hung right on to the Arrowhead Trail and dropped down into the 100-mile swamp. Here the trail was even in better condition, if that was possible.
We pulled off the trail at the Penguin Club section that would bring us over across Hwy. 77 to the VC. We had the same problem, it didn't take any time.
There was a group of sledders parked behind the restaurant and the oldest guy in the group gave us the bad news.
"They don't open until noon."
Ugh. We debated waiting for half an hour. Evan suggested going out on Lake Vermilion and killing some time.
"Or we could keep going and have lunch at the Crescent in Cook," I suggested.
Our ride had been so good, I figured we would be in Cook in no time. Well, that all changed when we got back on the Arrowhead.
A mile or so down the trail was where the groomer had turned around. For the next 14 miles it was bumps, bruises and dodging from side to side to try find a place to ride.
My bad.
We pulled into the Crescent and had a great meal. The service was great and we got to watch the first period of the Greenway state championship hockey game.
There were even a couple of cheerleaders at the bar rooting for the Range team. Well, they might have been cheerleaders a number of years ago. But they did have pom-poms.
We left there and headed over to Cook to gas up at the Country Store, conveniently located right off the trail. Easy to get in, get gas and go.
From there it was on to the Wolf Track Trail, a club maintained section that connects Cook to the Taconite. Flat as a pancake with nice twists and turns along with easy to read mileage markers.
As we tooled back to Ely I thought about what we saw along the way. Three blood stained spots on the trail where a deer had met its fate thanks to a pack of wolves.
And deer stands. Lots of them. Had me wondering if deer hunters are attracted to snowmobile trails.
We saw a number of sleds out that day but not as many as you might expect for a beautiful day with great trails in March. But when there's snow across the state, some people decide they'd rather ride at home.
It's been a first class winter and a great one to get out on the trails. We were back in Ely by 4 p.m., about six hours after we left. We put on 140 miles and all three sleds ran perfect.
Now that's a great day in northern Minnesota.