Houghton
- Thread starter mfcoop
- Start date
I am up here now too.
The upcoming weekend will be shot but today from 8 Am to 2 PM trail 3 from Houghton to Brockaway was superb, the side trail to laclabel was superb, 124 from 3 to Gay was a 7.5 (hadn't been groomed today but still ok) and 122 was flat where it connects to 3 (won't get you to Gay though). Went from Houghton to the Mosquito and back to Houghton from 330 to 6 PM and 3 was superb. 225 fun and fast miles.
Bear
IOWASLEDDER
Active member
I'm up here right now also. Got here Sunday and leaving Saturday. 1Fujifilm hit the nail on the head! Conditions are very good. We rode 133 from Gay to Lac La Belle yesterday and it was great! 132 from LLB to 3 was awesome!! There was not 1 bump on 132. We've been riding north the first 2 days. Today we're going south so I can post tomorrow. From talking to people sounds like Lake Gogebic area is trashed! We're not going that far south today. I'm glad we came up. Was well well worth the drive!!
the trail to dreamland from 122 is groomed and well marked. However, I was talking with the groomer at dreamland and he told me that heading towards Dollar Bay you have to take the road for about 6 miles and then cross the portage to the bar due to a new lady who now wont let the trail go through. they have a google map page printed with instructions to do so. If i were to do it again and coming from houghton I would probably just take the canal to the portage until i saw the christmas trees and then take the trail back to 122 out the back of the bar. There were tracks on the portage heading down to chassel, not many but they went the whole way. And the ice fisherman were a plenty on the portage.
Staying in Houghton but made the mistake of driving 3 south to Mass city then tried to get over to Sidnaw, wrong; 109 was shot and not groomed since the weekend. 3 was fine though.
The mistake was that is freezing rained from Rousseau to Mass city and all the way on 3 to about 5 miles north of South Range. Snowing nicely now in Houghton, probably a other inch or two.
Fyi, Houghton sheriff in his SUV and sled on trailer was inspecting sleds just north South Range on 3.
Bear
That would explain why we never really found the trail. Do you know are most people just getting on Portage lake in Chassell at the end of 15?
Plenty has been said about the area....today was as good as I've seen it. Obviously it helps being a weekday....the sugar snow and new snow are mixing well and will help the trails setup better. But it will likely be tough going this weekend as it doesn't take long for the trails to get chewed up pretty well after a few sleds hit a freshly groomed trail. Another 6" of heavy wet snow would do wonders, but more lake effect can only help!
IOWASLEDDER
Active member
Yesterday we rode 3 from Houghton all the way to Trail 8 and into Bruce Crossing. It is thin about the last 10ish miles into Bruce Crossing. 8 is darn near pure gravel. We had to get into Bruce Crossing to get gas so we were committed. So we backtracked back towards Houghton and 3 was brutal to about the Mosquito. From there is was great back into Houghton. 3 down to 8 yesterday morning was awesome.
krupps_resort
New member
02-01-17 TWIN LAKES-4-5 inches last nite. Superior Snowmobile Club grooms their trails at night and are given time to set up. With all the traffic on maintrail #3, by late afternoon is showing the wear & tear of a busy day. Temps are colder and since the 26th we've totaled 8-9 inches snowfall and its mixing into the worn out sugar snow trail quite nice-Good trail reports from riders morning & early afternoons
One theory I have about the trail condition change just south of the Mosquito where trail 3 crosses the highway is "this could be an area where the past rains converted and snow began north of the Mosquito". I say this as the base under the recent snows seems to be hard as a rock (ice likely) and north of the Mosquito the base seems more pliable and therefore smoother to the rider. To add to this theory, as you ride north on 3 the snow depth seems deeper overall about 3 miles north of South Range and there is " no ice-feeling" as the base all the way to Brockway Mtn.
I can tell you (possibly a coincidence) that yesterdays freezing rain from Rousseau to just north of South Range (where it became all snow) inspired this theory.
Thoughts?
Bear
indy_500
Well-known member
I have to disagree, I was up there last weekend and the base off the trail was rock hard all the way to brockway... I think what Iowa slender noticed is because of the trails switching over from superior club to Keweenaw trail service. That switches over right in Toivola...
That's all I had time to do was think over 350 miles in two days..your probably right though.
I think Indy 500 is on to something too. As Krupps said, both grooming organizations work at different times of day too.
Bear
I think that Indy_500 is onto the main reason. The grooming from Toivola north is the Keweenaw Snowmobile Club, whereas south of Toivola is the Superior Snowmobile Club. Both do an excellent job. I am on the board for the Keweenaw Club and I have a question. Did you think that the conditions were better north of Toivola or south? Am most definitely NOT trying to start a pissing match! The Superior Snowmobile Club does an awesome job and has tons of grooming experience at their disposal. We have a pretty new crew on our south end (Toivola to Calumet) and I am more concerned that if it was better south, then we need to get together with our staff on the south end and work out the bugs that are causing this to occur.
I know earlier in Jan we had some issues with one groomer being down and our brand new one arriving without a drag (that finally came in mid Jan!), so our resources were pretty stretched, especially at the middle of the month.
To the best of my knowledge Superior grooms primarily at night, but not exclusively. Night time grooming has lots of advantages over daytime, although I believe that there can be advantages to doing both day and night, especially in very high snow/traffic areas.
We do both, but there may currently be more being done during the day, so I am trying to get a better feel for things, as that end of our trail system is a pretty far drive for me to check on a daily basis, whereas I can check a lot of the north end trails by just going about my daily driving routines. So any feedback from you and others would be greatly appreciated!
-John
Fyi, trail 3 about 2 miles south of Houghton had a hole open up on the trail about 20 inches wide on the southbound side of the trail. You could see there was a stream under that hole about a foot under.
Be careful, Bear
- - - Updated - - -
With much respect to all groomers from Mass all the way north, I must say yesterday and today the north of Toivola feel better. Especially when you go north of South Range as snow picks up.
With due respect to all, Bear
I think two things contribute to the difference in trail conditions in this area...I was up there Sunday through Wednesday evening, and here are my thoughts.....there is definitely more snow North around the Mosquito for one, and second, grooming during the day and night compared to just at night makes an obviously big difference as well. I think the Superior club did an excellent job as they had a bit less to work with to the South. I've experience that change in grooming conditions in the past, but not this time.
We ran South from Houghton to Bergland on Monday and things were actually pretty nice until you got just outside of Bergland which is done by the Goegibic Grooming Inc. We were lucky we took 1 in as a groomer had just gone through.....what they did with the minimal amount of snow was pretty good. But then heading out of Bergland back to 3 was brutal. I'll never question why a club decides not to groom a certain portion of trail, but man that was bad. Again, not to question, but I was with a guy that grooms our local club trails and has a ton of experience in a lot of different equipment, and he didn't see a reason why they couldn't have hit that trail.
I know it was during the week, but North of the bridge, this was one of the most enjoyable riding I've ever done up there. I can't count the number of times we ran into one of the groomers during the day and night, and the trails were amazing. We hit 3 from Eagle Harbor South back to Houghton around 8PM or so, and I've never seen it so nice at that time. The ride from CH to Gay was amazing and there have been times in the past where its dang near unrideable. 124 from Gay to 3 is my favorite riding trail in all of the U.P. Again, fortunate that my riding happened during the week, traffic wasn't bad, and that we got 4-5" when I was up, but dang it was awesome!
Thanks goes to out to the groomers and the people working to improve the inner workings up there.....the difference is definitely noticeable!
wrestleruiu
New member
I just wanted to thank everyone for going home when the fresh snow came. We were up there and rode Sunday through Tuesday. Rode 770 some miles in 2.5 days. Stayed in White Pine. Rode Monday from there all the way to Copper Harbor on fresh groomed trails all the way to Houghton. Of course you have to get out of bed to ride 372 miles in one day. Trail 8 was getting bare in a few spots but also had some great spots. Grooming was great everywhere but the Bergland area. But they seemed to be making an attempt finally. Traffic was the lightest I have ever seen it up in that area.