Duluth, MN (Normana Rd) to Finland - North Shore Trail

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four0044

New member
Dropped off just North of Duluth at the Normana Rd Parking Lot and rode the North Shore Trail North to Finland and stopped for lunch at the Tressle Inn (great food as always) on Saturday. Overall it was about a 190 mile trip and I'd rate the conditions from fair-very good. We got on the trail early Saturday morning and they were in great condition from being groomed the night before. As expected by the afternoon they were beat up quite a bit due to weekend traffic. Best trails were from Duluth to Two Harbors and then North of Silver Bay towards Finland. Right around Two Harbors the trails were showing signs of wear with snirt and small rocks poking through, but 90% of the trails were well snow covered.

Overall it was a great day trip, would recommend anyone looking to ride in MN to come up ride the North Shore Trail. Not Perfect conditions, but by no means terrible either!

Just a word of caution to anyone not familiar with the North Shore Trail, they have been placing signs and posters for the Sled Dog Race upcoming in a couple weeks. If you're not paying attention, you can mistake the arrows for the race, for the trail turnoff signs.

Tried uploading a pic, but for some reason it wouldn't let me..
 
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xcr440

Well-known member
What day is the sled dog race?

They have been giving rides on weekends on the NSST north of Schroeder, FYI
 
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Dennis

New member
We parked at silver bay and rode around the area.We ate at the trestle at 11:00 when it first opened.I took a few pictures.The trail going up there was great and the trails heading across the tomahawk trail than turned back south on the sawtooth had so much snow on it.Both trails had bad areas that have trees and brush everywhere.Wow did they get a ice storm up there.The snowmobile clubs that have been cleaning this up get a big Thankyou and wow what a lot of work did they do.I have been there doing this before in the moose lake area when we got hit 4 years ago spending a whole Day cutting and moving brush and logs just to get a 6 mile area open to get the grommet trou.The trails have plenty of snow in that area.We also rode around Finland.We rode the red dot trail but watch out for the Lax Lake trail.It has not been groomed and the trail ends on a road than you come across the lake and can't find the trails off the lake.What a mess we ended up on the road around the lake looking for the trail heading east.Found it but never again.We parked in the big lot just north of silver bay on hwy 5. I use to park near two harbors but learned that driving up the road the extra 30 miles is so worth it.We only put around 120 miles on but I'm ready to go back.

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machz2005

New member
The local clubs have been working their tails off as things have changed a lot over the last two weeks. We rode the state trail from Two Harbors to Finland and its was in fair to good condition. The moose walk/run and Timberwolf trails were excellent! The Tomahawk to Yukon trail has been opened but not groomed (still lots of brush). Yukon had plenty of snow and was cleared but needed more grooming. Plenty of snow and worth the trip, should only get better from here if the temps stay below freezing.
 
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xcr440

Well-known member
What's really cool is that snow flocked in the trees has been there since the heavy wet snow they got that took everything down before Christmas.
 
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