S
skylar
Guest
Another season comes to an end, with a ride in April. 5 years in a row we have ridden into April, can't complain with 5 months of riding now can we?
Kim and I left Friday afternoon and headed to John and Nora's who graciously offered us a place to stay for the weekend. Thanks again! We got up there around 6 or 630 and headed out for a quick ride before the sun went down.
Here we are following John through Mohawk.
That John is quick, he was unloaded and ready to ride in about 30 seconds. LOL. Kim and I were still putting our gear on, and John was making laps already.
Here we are taking a short break. I got stuck shortly after this photo, it was a good one too. I was in a drift area, and there was still 3-4 feet of snow in the spot I was stuck in. Talk about working up a sweat! No pictures though, my batteries went dead.
Saturday morning we trailered up to the Lac La Belle Lodge, we could have ridden from John's house by sled easily, but decided to save some time and just trailer up there. The owner of the Lodge, Troy, and his son Zach were to be our tour guides today. Troy is a great guy, and his knowledge of the back country up there blows my mind. He took us to a lot of places where I have never been, and did it with hardly touching any of the trail system. His son Zach is a great rider. Man, do I wish I could be his age, and living up there. SAWEET! Oh yea, Troy has The Keweenaw Brewing Company micro beers on tap, umm, yea, me likey! Anyways, here we are dropping off.
My first stuck of the day. The snow was like snow mud, very sticky, and with a junk front track shock, track ratcheting was an huge issue for me.
tracks coming up
Troy leading us through the woods, you can see him, he is over on the left.
Coming down a hill, with the big lake in the background.
\image010}
We got to Mt. Houghton, John wasted no time in starting his climb, with Zach hot on his heels. I am standing at the bottom, fully zoomed, 10x optical, with John stalled out on the left, and Zach still climbing on the right.
I then started my climb, I track poached Zach's line a bit, went around him, just missing his sled, and then up the hill I went, all the way to the top. My first time making it all the way up from that side of the Mt. My line is in red.
My sled on top
The view from up there.
On the back down I stopped to help John and Zach. Pictures do not do justice to how steep this was. To keep his sled from rolling all the way down, John dug a pit into the side of the hill to get his sled turned around.
Here is a picture with my brother way down at the start point. I have his sled pointed out in red.
Lake Addie in the distance.
John and Zach made one more run at it, John made it, Zach did not. Here is a pic of John stopping on his way down to help Zack get turned around.
Zach turned around, and heading back down.
We were just getting ready to leave Mt. Houghton when Todd and Neil arrived, so we added two more to our group for the day. Here we are taking a little break.
Lost Lake, we basically had to ride down a creek bed to get here, a little muddy, but pretty cool I thought!
Everyone on Lost Lake
We arrived at Keystone Bay, what a great day to be on the beach. I could have taken a nap very easily here.
Here is a pic of the trail, we were getting low on gas, so we took the trail back to Lac La Belle, and loaded up. The trail was in awesome shape!
I thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the Bear Belly Bar and Grill after we were done riding, BSing with John and Troy and my brother, and sipping a Bear Belly Lager, and a Lift Bridge Brown Ale. Well, maybe more than one or two. LOl. It was a great way to end the season. Met a couple of fellow John Dee fans, didn't break anything, and no one got hurt. Once again, thanks to John and Nora for having us up, and Troy and Zach for leading us through the woods. Cant' wait until next year!!
Kim and I left Friday afternoon and headed to John and Nora's who graciously offered us a place to stay for the weekend. Thanks again! We got up there around 6 or 630 and headed out for a quick ride before the sun went down.
Here we are following John through Mohawk.
That John is quick, he was unloaded and ready to ride in about 30 seconds. LOL. Kim and I were still putting our gear on, and John was making laps already.
Here we are taking a short break. I got stuck shortly after this photo, it was a good one too. I was in a drift area, and there was still 3-4 feet of snow in the spot I was stuck in. Talk about working up a sweat! No pictures though, my batteries went dead.
Saturday morning we trailered up to the Lac La Belle Lodge, we could have ridden from John's house by sled easily, but decided to save some time and just trailer up there. The owner of the Lodge, Troy, and his son Zach were to be our tour guides today. Troy is a great guy, and his knowledge of the back country up there blows my mind. He took us to a lot of places where I have never been, and did it with hardly touching any of the trail system. His son Zach is a great rider. Man, do I wish I could be his age, and living up there. SAWEET! Oh yea, Troy has The Keweenaw Brewing Company micro beers on tap, umm, yea, me likey! Anyways, here we are dropping off.
My first stuck of the day. The snow was like snow mud, very sticky, and with a junk front track shock, track ratcheting was an huge issue for me.
tracks coming up
Troy leading us through the woods, you can see him, he is over on the left.
Coming down a hill, with the big lake in the background.
\image010}
We got to Mt. Houghton, John wasted no time in starting his climb, with Zach hot on his heels. I am standing at the bottom, fully zoomed, 10x optical, with John stalled out on the left, and Zach still climbing on the right.
I then started my climb, I track poached Zach's line a bit, went around him, just missing his sled, and then up the hill I went, all the way to the top. My first time making it all the way up from that side of the Mt. My line is in red.
My sled on top
The view from up there.
On the back down I stopped to help John and Zach. Pictures do not do justice to how steep this was. To keep his sled from rolling all the way down, John dug a pit into the side of the hill to get his sled turned around.
Here is a picture with my brother way down at the start point. I have his sled pointed out in red.
Lake Addie in the distance.
John and Zach made one more run at it, John made it, Zach did not. Here is a pic of John stopping on his way down to help Zack get turned around.
Zach turned around, and heading back down.
We were just getting ready to leave Mt. Houghton when Todd and Neil arrived, so we added two more to our group for the day. Here we are taking a little break.
Lost Lake, we basically had to ride down a creek bed to get here, a little muddy, but pretty cool I thought!
Everyone on Lost Lake
We arrived at Keystone Bay, what a great day to be on the beach. I could have taken a nap very easily here.
Here is a pic of the trail, we were getting low on gas, so we took the trail back to Lac La Belle, and loaded up. The trail was in awesome shape!
I thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the Bear Belly Bar and Grill after we were done riding, BSing with John and Troy and my brother, and sipping a Bear Belly Lager, and a Lift Bridge Brown Ale. Well, maybe more than one or two. LOl. It was a great way to end the season. Met a couple of fellow John Dee fans, didn't break anything, and no one got hurt. Once again, thanks to John and Nora for having us up, and Troy and Zach for leading us through the woods. Cant' wait until next year!!
