Chassell to Houghton

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OhioFisher

Member
Heading up to Marquette for the weekend. This is the furthest west I have ridden and just seeing the trail dead end in Chassel. Is there an option to sneak through to Houghton from there? Also open to sights to see while in the Marquette area! Thanks!
 
W

WorkHardPlayHrd

Active member
With the way ice is on the Portage canal probably not. Only did the once and it had been cold for quite a while. Others on here with more experience in that area might know a way.
 
J

J.Glenn

Member
OhioFisher said:
Heading up to Marquette for the weekend. This is the furthest west I have ridden and just seeing the trail dead end in Chassel. Is there an option to sneak through to Houghton from there? Also open to sights to see while in the Marquette area! Thanks!
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You can make a pit stop at Lakenenland off trail 417. It's kind of neat to see all the stuff.
http://lakenenland.com/

Short little video of my trip through. This was 3 years ago, so not sure what has changed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4FARlW3PAw
 
B

Big_A

New member
Question for the group, is the trail leaving the Baraga Casino toward Chassell closed?
I know last year we took that to Chassell and once in Chassell we took the road at the green light bar, i think it was 6th street to the Chassell Painesdale road to superior road then left on Goodell rd to Painesdale where we jumped on the trail 3 just south of South Range. It seemed like a good route if you don’t mind a road route and the locals at the krist gas station told us about the route.
 
T

tnehlsen

Member
We stayed just south of Houghton on the Chassell to Houghton rail trail. Supposedly you can take it from Chassell to Houghton but it is like a snow cross track. We rode it from few miles north of Chassell to Houghton everyday it towards the end of the trip it was getting to be a chore. And the bridge over the Pilgrim river is gated so we had to sneak on the road shoulder to go over the river. Heard that may be the case in other spots on the rail-trail too due to the damage done on couple fathers days ago.
 
S

Sleddog

New member
Always wondered why there wasn't a connecting trail there. Would be a nice loop and probably help out some of the businesses there.
 
H

High Country

Member
Wish there was trail also,only been to chassel 1 time on the ice fun ride to the Greenlight? Cool place i bet it was a happening spot at one time. The ride back sucked as it was all road riding from what i remember to mass city .
 
jd

jd

Administrator
Staff member
Sleddog said:
Always wondered why there wasn't a connecting trail there. Would be a nice loop and probably help out some of the businesses there.
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Way back in the day there used to be an un-groomed trail. The grade is owned by the DNR, so it was legal to ride. More and more homes went up along the shoreline and some were built within feet of the grade, thinking it would never be used for motorized vehicles. A few years back, there was a push to make it a designated trail and some snowmobilers started to ride it. A select few started to block the trail, mainly with snow, but I think a few went even further. Caused a big stink and the DNR changed it's status to strongly discouraging motorized use. It has something like 90 driveway crossings on it, so would take 12+ hours to groom because of that. That would be considered a nightmare for an operator. Thus the grade sits unused by snowmobilers. A shame, for us, but in reality, the best solution. For as many ears, there have been folks trying to get a trail from Chassell to Painesdale (used to be one back in the 90's), but keep running into landowners that are not supportive. We snowmobilers are our own worst enemy.

-John
 
L

larboc

New member
Administrator said:
Way back in the day there used to be an un-groomed trail. The grade is owned by the DNR, so it was legal to ride. More and more homes went up along the shoreline and some were built within feet of the grade, thinking it would never be used for motorized vehicles. A few years back, there was a push to make it a designated trail and some snowmobilers started to ride it. A select few started to block the trail, mainly with snow, but I think a few went even further. Caused a big stink and the DNR changed it's status to strongly discouraging motorized use. It has something like 90 driveway crossings on it, so would take 12+ hours to groom because of that. That would be considered a nightmare for an operator. Thus the grade sits unused by snowmobilers. A shame, for us, but in reality, the best solution. For as many ears, there have been folks trying to get a trail from Chassell to Painesdale (used to be one back in the 90's), but keep running into landowners that are not supportive. We snowmobilers are our own worst enemy.

-John
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ABSOLUTELY!

It technically is a railroad ROW in railbank status, which I BELIEVE means it's actually owned by MDOT not the homeowners.
 
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