Houghton/Hancock Feb. 23-25

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upoutdoorzman

New member
Visiting our daughter at MTU and taking her riding. Looking for a place in the H/H area reasonably close to a trail or spur, i.e. to avoid trailering or going down city streets for more than a couple of blocks. Not finding anything near a trail that I can tell. Any recommendations?

Much appreciation.

Rob
 
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packerlandrider

Active member
Ramada in Hancock has trail 17 literally on the other side of the parking lot. Super 8 is another possibility that practically avoids pavement if your comfortable with riding the Portage.
 
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ICT Sledder

Active member
Trailside is a really cosy place, and like the name implies, the trail passes one side of their property. It is on the north outskirts of Calumet, so not sure if you want to be that far from H/H.
 
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bmpskier1

New member
Rode out of Greenland on Friday the 23rd around 10am in the morning to Copper Harbor up trail #3.. Trails were great going up with no traffic and without seeing a groomer. Found the spot in Toivola just past the Mosquito with the driveway crossing, I can see where this could be a problem, as I launched over the driveway at 50. Made our way up Brockway mountain and headed for the mariner for lunch, and this is where the fun stopped. Rode #134 heading around the tip of the peninsula, this was absolutely brutal, 2-3 foot bumps the whole way until I got to #135. Decided to take the short cut back to #134 to see if this was any better... Boy was I WRONG....This stretch was whooped up more than #134... Still have not seen one group of sleds, or a groomer.. Took #134 down to #132 towards Lac La Bell... Still riding in 2-3 foot bumps, Corners were fun however riding the high sides and felt like we were on a snow cross track.. Took #133 down to Gay, because I had heard this section was good, they lied...Passed one group of sleds sitting on the side of the trail who did not want to continue riding because it was so bad...One of our Vipers had the bolt back out of the A-ARM from all the big hits riding these big *** bumps at 60 trying to stay on top of these things... Almost lost that guy, but lucky he caught it and found the nut and tightened it back down on the trail.. Made it to the GAY Bar.. Only 4 other riders in there, nobody was on these trails, yet they are sooo bad.... and still didn't see a groomer.. Needless to say, took #122 back to #3 down to Houghton and Back to Greenland... Finally saw a groomer on #3 by Toivola for a 5 mile stretch and he was heading north up #3... To Sum it up.. 100 miles off 2-3 foot bumps, no sleds out and saw 1 groomer on a Friday.. Thought we would be safe riding this loop on a Friday before the weekend (Saturday), Were we wrong.. We have done this plenty of times with awesome trails on Fridays.. Not sure what happened here but it was absolutely the worst experience ever... Rode around Ironwood by our house on Saturday because of the weekend traffic and saw 4 groomers during the day and the trails were incredible.. Enjoy the KEWEENAW boys, I wont be back.. And I'm sure people will say, good.. more trails for us... I wanted to bring 2 guys up to Copper because they have never been, and I have ranted about how good these trails were, I looked like an ***... Peace out. and Be Safe..
 
S

Skylar

Super Moderator
Staff member
Sometimes snit happens, and the trails arent groomed. Could have been a broken groomer. One of the groomrrs could have been sick, who knows. But to give up riding the area because one trip was bad, that's silly.
 
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ICT Sledder

Active member
Saw two Keweenaw Trail Services groomers sitting out in the middle of nowhere last evening - one off of 3 near the south entrance of the Eagles loop, and another on the south end of 124. Not sure if they’re broke down or just sitting between shifts.

Trail conditions have been poor in areas the past few days, which is kind of surprising up here. Also have seen very few groomers out and about - also surprising from the norm. Rode back to Calumet from Mass City Saturday night and it was nothing but 60 miles of moguls all the way down 3, but ultimately it was Saturday night I guess. Most surprising was 124 last evening. The northern end of the trail was still drifted real bad from the snowfall/wind from 36 hours earlier. Just overall poor-fair trail conditions this trip from a grooming perspective.

Used to be able to come to the Keweenaw and plan on smooth and flat trails, but that’s not been the case the past couple of years. Maybe unlucky sample size on my own account, or maybe something’s actually changed.

Normally not cool to hack on volunteer trail grooming, but up here with KTS they are more or less a county department with paid employees.
 
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jd

jd

Administrator
Staff member
bmpskier1 said:
Rode out of Greenland on Friday the 23rd around 10am in the morning to Copper Harbor up trail #3.. Trails were great going up with no traffic and without seeing a groomer. Found the spot in Toivola just past the Mosquito with the driveway crossing, I can see where this could be a problem, as I launched over the driveway at 50. Made our way up Brockway mountain and headed for the mariner for lunch, and this is where the fun stopped. Rode #134 heading around the tip of the peninsula, this was absolutely brutal, 2-3 foot bumps the whole way until I got to #135. Decided to take the short cut back to #134 to see if this was any better... Boy was I WRONG....This stretch was whooped up more than #134... Still have not seen one group of sleds, or a groomer.. Took #134 down to #132 towards Lac La Bell... Still riding in 2-3 foot bumps, Corners were fun however riding the high sides and felt like we were on a snow cross track.. Took #133 down to Gay, because I had heard this section was good, they lied...Passed one group of sleds sitting on the side of the trail who did not want to continue riding because it was so bad...One of our Vipers had the bolt back out of the A-ARM from all the big hits riding these big *** bumps at 60 trying to stay on top of these things... Almost lost that guy, but lucky he caught it and found the nut and tightened it back down on the trail.. Made it to the GAY Bar.. Only 4 other riders in there, nobody was on these trails, yet they are sooo bad.... and still didn't see a groomer.. Needless to say, took #122 back to #3 down to Houghton and Back to Greenland... Finally saw a groomer on #3 by Toivola for a 5 mile stretch and he was heading north up #3... To Sum it up.. 100 miles off 2-3 foot bumps, no sleds out and saw 1 groomer on a Friday.. Thought we would be safe riding this loop on a Friday before the weekend (Saturday), Were we wrong.. We have done this plenty of times with awesome trails on Fridays.. Not sure what happened here but it was absolutely the worst experience ever... Rode around Ironwood by our house on Saturday because of the weekend traffic and saw 4 groomers during the day and the trails were incredible.. Enjoy the KEWEENAW boys, I wont be back.. And I'm sure people will say, good.. more trails for us... I wanted to bring 2 guys up to Copper because they have never been, and I have ranted about how good these trails were, I looked like an ***... Peace out. and Be Safe..
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Sorry you had a bad experience. I think the timing of events up here just all worked against you. First, we are putting more emphasis on night grooming, as that when the trails are quietest and the groomed trail has a better chance of setting up before sled traffic tears it up again. We still will get out during the day, especially in the afternoon to try and knock down the bumps as best we can.

We got between 6-10" of snow from around 2 am until 8 am on the 23rd. This was just as the groomers were finishing up their night shift. The day shift did not go out because temps were in the low 30's and the snow was too soft to hold up for very long after the groomers went through. So you are right, no grooming was done during the day on Friday.

Fridays are part of the weekend up here, especially after midday. So the fact that the trip up was good and back so horrible was likely due to the fresh snow on the trails that could not be groomed only plied up into moguls that much quicker with the Friday traffic. I realize you say you did not see much traffic and I believe that, but I did see quite a bit of traffic from around 10 am on through the rest of the day. I also saw the same thing happen to the trails as I traveled around on Friday and just shook my head when thinking of all the poor people that were riding and the fact that there really was not much we could do about it at the time. We did get out Friday night and trails were good on Saturday morning. I rode some trails south of Houghton Saturday and they were good.

-John
 
jd

jd

Administrator
Staff member
ICT Sledder said:
Saw two Keweenaw Trail Services groomers sitting out in the middle of nowhere last evening - one off of 3 near the south entrance of the Eagles loop, and another on the south end of 124. Not sure if they’re broke down or just sitting between shifts.

Trail conditions have been poor in areas the past few days, which is kind of surprising up here. Also have seen very few groomers out and about - also surprising from the norm. Rode back to Calumet from Mass City Saturday night and it was nothing but 60 miles of moguls all the way down 3, but ultimately it was Saturday night I guess. Most surprising was 124 last evening. The northern end of the trail was still drifted real bad from the snowfall/wind from 36 hours earlier. Just overall poor-fair trail conditions this trip from a grooming perspective.

Used to be able to come to the Keweenaw and plan on smooth and flat trails, but that’s not been the case the past couple of years. Maybe unlucky sample size on my own account, or maybe something’s actually changed.

Normally not cool to hack on trail grooming, but up here with KTS they are more or less a county department with paid employees.
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You are right, we do pay our groomers, but I want to make one thing clear...we do not receive any more funding from the state to maintain our trails than any other club in the state. All get the same amount of per mile funds. We have to raise the funds to pay our groomers and have to pay our groomers, as there is no way you are going to groom 35,000 miles in a 4 month season with volunteers. The sad part is there are some businesses that benefit greatly from the snowmobile activity, yet fail to help us out.

-John
 
jd

jd

Administrator
Staff member
One last thing. I say all I do because I am the president of KTS. It is a volunteer position, as are all the other board member positions. We do pay our groomer operators, because as I said above, there is no way we can handle the combination of fresh snow/traffic and having the largest trail system in the state by a factor of nearly 2 above the next largest system and a factor of 4 for most others with out having paid operators. You can excuse a volunteer for not going out because they have a kids basketball or hockey game to go to, but when paid, it is their job.

I do not have a problem with folks mentioning they experienced some rough trails in our system. Rough trails happen. Hearing about them is part of the job and also helps us to improve our operations. I guess the main thing I want to get across is that if you experience bumpy trails up here, it is not because we do not care or are lazy. Everyone in our organization does their best, or they do not remain part of the organization for too long.

-John
 
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clark_w

New member
Thanks John, and its sad you have to defend your trails and the groomer operators.
Yes we ALL want perfect trails every time we ride and some trips we had perfect trails, but now when we head to the UP, if Wisconsin has no snow, we expect to experience some bumps, we don't like it, but hey we are riding.
We will be heading up again this weekend to experience the Copper Dog again and are hoping for perfect trails and we will take what we get with the weather and everyone else trying to get one more ride in.

Thanks again to John and all the groomer operators.

CW
 
B

byr 13

Member
administrator said:
you are right, we do pay our groomers, but i want to make one thing clear...we do not receive any more funding from the state to maintain our trails than any other club in the state. All get the same amount of per mile funds. We have to raise the funds to pay our groomers and have to pay our groomers, as there is no way you are going to groom 35,000 miles in a 4 month season with volunteers. The sad part is there are some businesses that benefit greatly from the snowmobile activity, yet fail to help us out.

-john
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yes business owners should be in groomer 1 day a week
 
H

harvest1121

Well-known member
Rockland to Copper Harbor was all good today so groomers out and was groomed . Roads are not good or gas but worth going. Another 1050 miles from Sunday to Wednesday
 
1

1fujifilm

Well-known member
harvest1121 said:
Rockland to Copper Harbor was all good today so groomers out and was groomed . Roads are not good or gas but worth going. Another 1050 miles from Sunday to Wednesday
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One of the only people that I know with more miles on sled than trailer this year.

Booyah!
 
H

harvest1121

Well-known member
5500 and I am done March could be epic does not matter tearing trail passes off tomorrow maybe but was a great year
 
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