Grant Hoar
New member
Got back Friday from a four day backpack trip.
Stayed Sunday night at Great Northern in Mercer, Monday night at Mariner North in Copper Harbor, Tuesday night at the Buckhorn near Munising, Wednesday night at Jasper Ridge Inn in Ishpeming and Thursday night back at Great Northern in Mercer.
I am not going to mention any specific trail conditions because of how quickly they can change, so a few day old report is not useful. 830 miles over a four day trip, with conditions on a scale of 1 to 10 ranging from a 10 to a minus 2.
Here are a few general observations:
There seems to be a lot of looking for opinions on trail conditions from others on this forum. Your rating of an 8 might be my rating of a 6, or vice versa, so we didnt really listen too much to anything we read. If we had, we would have missed some great riding areas because folks a day or so earlier mentioned poor conditions.
A shoutout to the guy at the Greenlight in Chassell, about the directions to the DNR bike trail from MTU to Chassell. Glad we took that route.
Another shoutout to the Kewanaw Brewing Company Widowmaker Black Ale - you guys did some great work on that. And, before anyone comments, no adult beverages were consumed until sleds were parked for the night.
Guys (and gals) - we all miss a turn occasionally, but if you do so and wipe out a sign, please do everyone else a favor and reinstall it for the next riders. Would it have kept one of our guys from wrecking a sled, maybe not (and he acknowledges that missing the turn was 100% his fault), but having the sign back at this location might have helped. Common courtesy though, if you take down something that a club made the effort to install, take a few minutes after digging yourself out and put the darn thing back in place.
Next, if and when you reinstall the sign, how about trying to orient it in the right direction? We spent some time at several locations trying to figure out what was the right orientation, and turned several signs that folks had propped up to face the right direction. You might think it was funny to put them up wrong, but we didnt.
To the Ricky Racers out there; the middle of the trail in blind curves is not the place to be. No paint swapped, but a couple of really close calls. You do know that they put both brakes and throttle on sleds for a purpose, right? Brake before a blind curve, throttle after you can see what is ahead!
It seems like courtesy has gone a bit out the window. When we were getting a broken down and stuck sled out, even though we were waving sleds to slow down, one group seemed to think slowing down to 30 mph while passing between sleds 10 feet apart was adequate? Really? Five groups passed us while we were doing this, and only one actually pulled over to talk to see if we needed assistance. We didnt, as we were out already, but thanks for the stop and the courtesy. Everyone else just sailed by, not even checking for a thumbs up.
Signing - in general no issues, but the Ishpeming area marketing folks sure should think about addidng some signing to inform trail riders of hotel and restaurant locations.
We saw sheriffs and DNR at three different locations trailside checking stickers. All we had to do was slowdown as they gave us a quick eyeball.
Overall, a pretty nice trip, and I would rank overall trails a 6.5 throughout the trip. Carbides survived with maybe 25% wear for the overall trip, and hyfax look almost the same as when we started.
Have fun out there, and be safe.
Stayed Sunday night at Great Northern in Mercer, Monday night at Mariner North in Copper Harbor, Tuesday night at the Buckhorn near Munising, Wednesday night at Jasper Ridge Inn in Ishpeming and Thursday night back at Great Northern in Mercer.
I am not going to mention any specific trail conditions because of how quickly they can change, so a few day old report is not useful. 830 miles over a four day trip, with conditions on a scale of 1 to 10 ranging from a 10 to a minus 2.
Here are a few general observations:
There seems to be a lot of looking for opinions on trail conditions from others on this forum. Your rating of an 8 might be my rating of a 6, or vice versa, so we didnt really listen too much to anything we read. If we had, we would have missed some great riding areas because folks a day or so earlier mentioned poor conditions.
A shoutout to the guy at the Greenlight in Chassell, about the directions to the DNR bike trail from MTU to Chassell. Glad we took that route.
Another shoutout to the Kewanaw Brewing Company Widowmaker Black Ale - you guys did some great work on that. And, before anyone comments, no adult beverages were consumed until sleds were parked for the night.
Guys (and gals) - we all miss a turn occasionally, but if you do so and wipe out a sign, please do everyone else a favor and reinstall it for the next riders. Would it have kept one of our guys from wrecking a sled, maybe not (and he acknowledges that missing the turn was 100% his fault), but having the sign back at this location might have helped. Common courtesy though, if you take down something that a club made the effort to install, take a few minutes after digging yourself out and put the darn thing back in place.
Next, if and when you reinstall the sign, how about trying to orient it in the right direction? We spent some time at several locations trying to figure out what was the right orientation, and turned several signs that folks had propped up to face the right direction. You might think it was funny to put them up wrong, but we didnt.
To the Ricky Racers out there; the middle of the trail in blind curves is not the place to be. No paint swapped, but a couple of really close calls. You do know that they put both brakes and throttle on sleds for a purpose, right? Brake before a blind curve, throttle after you can see what is ahead!
It seems like courtesy has gone a bit out the window. When we were getting a broken down and stuck sled out, even though we were waving sleds to slow down, one group seemed to think slowing down to 30 mph while passing between sleds 10 feet apart was adequate? Really? Five groups passed us while we were doing this, and only one actually pulled over to talk to see if we needed assistance. We didnt, as we were out already, but thanks for the stop and the courtesy. Everyone else just sailed by, not even checking for a thumbs up.
Signing - in general no issues, but the Ishpeming area marketing folks sure should think about addidng some signing to inform trail riders of hotel and restaurant locations.
We saw sheriffs and DNR at three different locations trailside checking stickers. All we had to do was slowdown as they gave us a quick eyeball.
Overall, a pretty nice trip, and I would rank overall trails a 6.5 throughout the trip. Carbides survived with maybe 25% wear for the overall trip, and hyfax look almost the same as when we started.
Have fun out there, and be safe.
