Lake Vermilion

stueland

New member
Heading to Cook, MN this Friday to ride Lake Vermilion and the surrounding area. Am up there a lot in the summer fishing but have never snowmobiled up there before. Are the trails marked pretty well?

If you have suggestions on places to ride to feel free to share. Would try to shoot for 150 miles/day.

Thanks!
 

snowchief

Member
Take the Arrowhead up to Mel georges great place to stop for beverage or food, another would be to check out Vermillion falls at the top of the Vermillion river if you run that north when you get off there's a road you take to the trail swing right instead of left and that takes you to the top of the falls it's pretty cool, the Vermillion river is usually a blast to run if you get to trails end that is my favorite for food, crane lake has voyagaires and crane lake bar and grill both fun stops, the trails north of there are fun take the lake trails are very scenic, if you get to Ash river, ashkanam and Ash trail Lodge are worthy of a stop, little further up Rocky ledge or kecs love are both good places for a bite, kettle falls is also worth checking out if you get up that far, also chain of lakes trail is a must it's rustic and very scenic, we use to run down to the landing on the west end of Vermillion for the absolute bloody it is pricey but good, have a blast that area is one of my favorite
 

oldguy

Member
Another around 150 mile loop is the Bearskin Trail out of Cook to the Tom Cory then east on the Taconite Trail to the Laurentian Trail. Take the Laurentian to the Taconite Spur Trail to the Iron Ore trail up to Tower. Then get back on the Taconite in Tower to the Arrowhead trail back to Cook. The trails near lake Vermilion are all marked pretty Good. Vermilion is staked with maps at the intersections. Conditions have been excellent the past few weeks.
 

xcr440

Well-known member
Another around 150 mile loop is the Bearskin Trail out of Cook to the Tim Corey then east on the Taconite Trail to the Laurentian Trail. Take the Laurentian to the Taconite Spur Trail to the Iron Ore trail up to Tower. Then get back on the Taconite in Tower to the Arrowhead trail back to Cook. The trails near lake Vermilion are all marked pretty Good. Vermilion is staked with maps at the intersections. Conditions have been excellent the past few weeks.

All good suggestions so far. Put on a little over 1400 miles out of there Saturday - Thursday.

Trails were all really good.
 
If I were you I would get an early start on the day and head to Ely on the Taconite, fuel up then explore the lake trails north of Ely then take the Burntside and Mud Lake trails bake to Lake Vermilion in the afternoon to avoid the crowds on the taconite in the afternoon.
 

Oly

New member
If I were you I would get an early start on the day and head to Ely on the Taconite, fuel up then explore the lake trails north of Ely then take the Burntside and Mud Lake trails bake to Lake Vermilion in the afternoon to avoid the crowds on the taconite in the afternoon.
I agree with crossfire, look for the grassy loop trail north of Ely. It’s a series of lakes & portages, it’s not traveled much but the lakes are staked. Watch for previous tracks for the portages. Ask a local for the trail start, it’s a great ride & is maybe a ten mile loop but lots of fun & will take you to Burntside lake or back to the start on Shagawa.
 

snowchief

Member
I agree with crossfire, look for the grassy loop trail north of Ely. It’s a series of lakes & portages, it’s not traveled much but the lakes are staked. Watch for previous tracks for the portages. Ask a local for the trail start, it’s a great ride & is maybe a ten mile loop but lots of fun & will take you to Burntside lake or back to the start on Shagawa.

That is a cool loop we took that when we stayed on Vermillion once, we did have a hard time keeping in and finding the loop but was cool, one thing I found up in that area was that some of the ice fisherman were right in the trail in big groups so you had to do your best to slow down and try to go around them got some dirty motions and looks but tried to be respectful since I am a ice fisherman as well, when we did that loop I couldn't believe how fast we ended up back on Vermillion really good riding up there
 

stueland

New member
Is the Vermilion River marked as well?

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I agree with crossfire, look for the grassy loop trail north of Ely. It’s a series of lakes & portages, it’s not traveled much but the lakes are staked. Watch for previous tracks for the portages. Ask a local for the trail start, it’s a great ride & is maybe a ten mile loop but lots of fun & will take you to Burntside lake or back to the start on Shagawa.

Planning to go to Ely, so will definitely give that loop a try. It looks like it would be a very scenic route to take, especially with all the snow they've had this year.
 

xcr440

Well-known member
Is the Vermilion River marked as well?

Not exactly - you need to follow the tracks through the short portages south of the VRT - there is some land trail through the other areas coming closer to Lake Vermillion. Its not hard to follow.
 

oldguy

Member
The trail on the Vermilion River basically starts at Wolf Bay Lodge. It winds it's way up to just south of the town of Crane Lake. If there isn't a bunch of fresh snow it's easy follow the tracks up there. I was on it Saturday and it was fine from the VRT to Wolf Bay. We were told it is now good north of the VRT, it wasn't a few weeks ago. Our group plans on going up that way tomorrow morning on our way to Canada for the weekend.

My wife and I did a quick 110 mile loop from Tower to Cook via the Taconite, Bearskin and Arrowhead this morning. All was either freshly groomed or did not need grooming. The casino and the motel in Cook was filling up. Not sure how great the trails will be by the weekend.
 

stueland

New member
The trail on the Vermilion River basically starts at Wolf Bay Lodge. It winds it's way up to just south of the town of Crane Lake. If there isn't a bunch of fresh snow it's easy follow the tracks up there. I was on it Saturday and it was fine from the VRT to Wolf Bay. We were told it is now good north of the VRT, it wasn't a few weeks ago. Our group plans on going up that way tomorrow morning on our way to Canada for the weekend.

My wife and I did a quick 110 mile loop from Tower to Cook via the Taconite, Bearskin and Arrowhead this morning. All was either freshly groomed or did not need grooming. The casino and the motel in Cook was filling up. Not sure how great the trails will be by the weekend.

Hopefully they hold up decent. Looking forward to it.

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Have fun. A preview from a couple years ago north of Ely for you....

View attachment 60011 View attachment 60012

Now I'm really itching to get up there!
 
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