Iron Mountain/Gwinn/Marquette/Ishpeming

dfattack

Well-known member
I've been posting these reports because it seems that trail reports don't happen as often as they used to on this site, which is what brought me here to begin with years ago. Maybe it's me but I really used to rely on them to figure out where we were going to ride. Snowtracks is useless and apparently facebook is the place to go now but I don't do facebook...ever.

We left from the house in Spread Eagle yesterday and headed up 5 to 32 east to Gwinn. It seems the 5/32 junction has been moved east a bit and not sure why. 5 was great in the morning heading north. 32 was also a very nice trail except for about 5 miles of plowed road (Icy) but the recent snow helped make that tolerable. Had lunch at the UP north lodge and they were busy. From there gassed up in Gwinn and headed north (west) on 8. This section of 8 up to Marquette has been one of my favorites for years. Tons of traffic yesterday with groups as large as 15+. Once we arrived in the Marquette area trail 8 turned to crap. I posted a separate thread about this. Arrived in Ishpeming and decided to gas up there instead of winding through the access trails to get to koski to gas up. This turned out to be a great move. My son has the BRP go app and he noticed a trail (82) that we could take to avoid 8 west in case the moguls continued. Trail 82 turned out to be a hidden gem (at least to me). I've never ridden this trail and if you want to open it up a bit this is the trail to do it. Made up all the time lost in the moguls by Marquette. 82 was absolutely perfect. Picked up 5 again to head south and take us home. 5 on the way home appeared to get a little choppy due to the weekend traffic but not horrible. Would still rate it good to excellent.

Had a suspension error code pop up with the smart shox. It stayed on for a while then after turning off the sled the second time while taking a break it cleared itself...who knows. Heading out today and will see if it comes back. Couldn't select different settings while this error was active.

Overall another great day with my son. 239 miles but got beat up by Marquette so made it feel like 400!
 

whitedust

Well-known member
I've been posting these reports because it seems that trail reports don't happen as often as they used to on this site, which is what brought me here to begin with years ago. Maybe it's me but I really used to rely on them to figure out where we were going to ride. Snowtracks is useless and apparently facebook is the place to go now but I don't do facebook...ever.

We left from the house in Spread Eagle yesterday and headed up 5 to 32 east to Gwinn. It seems the 5/32 junction has been moved east a bit and not sure why. 5 was great in the morning heading north. 32 was also a very nice trail except for about 5 miles of plowed road (Icy) but the recent snow helped make that tolerable. Had lunch at the UP north lodge and they were busy. From there gassed up in Gwinn and headed north (west) on 8. This section of 8 up to Marquette has been one of my favorites for years. Tons of traffic yesterday with groups as large as 15+. Once we arrived in the Marquette area trail 8 turned to crap. I posted a separate thread about this. Arrived in Ishpeming and decided to gas up there instead of winding through the access trails to get to koski to gas up. This turned out to be a great move. My son has the BRP go app and he noticed a trail (82) that we could take to avoid 8 west in case the moguls continued. Trail 82 turned out to be a hidden gem (at least to me). I've never ridden this trail and if you want to open it up a bit this is the trail to do it. Made up all the time lost in the moguls by Marquette. 82 was absolutely perfect. Picked up 5 again to head south and take us home. 5 on the way home appeared to get a little choppy due to the weekend traffic but not horrible. Would still rate it good to excellent.

Had a suspension error code pop up with the smart shox. It stayed on for a while then after turning off the sled the second time while taking a break it cleared itself...who knows. Heading out today and will see if it comes back. Couldn't select different settings while this error was active.

Overall another great day with my son. 239 miles but got beat up by Marquette so made it feel like 400!
How many miles on the 850 now and how long do you plan to keep it?
 

dfattack

Well-known member
How many miles on the 850 now and how long do you plan to keep it?
around 1,500 and it's my son's sled so I think he's planning on keeping it a while. It's not something he's even thinking about. Still dialing in the suspension which admittedly isn't our specialty. We are bringing it along with the others to a guy I know who set up my apex so we can get everything dialed in to reach it's max potential.
 

whitedust

Well-known member
around 1,500 and it's my son's sled so I think he's planning on keeping it a while. It's not something he's even thinking about. Still dialing in the suspension which admittedly isn't our specialty. We are bringing it along with the others to a guy I know who set up my apex so we can get everything dialed in to reach it's max potential.
Just have to get across the bridge. Lol
 

just_ride

Member
thanks for the update...... looks like several groomers are down, where the snow is falling
more snow ....bigger moguls
what day was this Friday or Saturday after noon?
 
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