I just returned from a weekend in Iron County, Wisconsin and thought I would share some experiences and pictures. Two questions everyone has when they learn you've been riding up north; how were the roads and how were the trails? In my opinion, the trails in the Mercer area were smoother than Hwys 39 and 51. There's a stretch northbound in Steven Point that'll cause some cuss words but Lordy there's a 10 mile stretch southbound at Merrill that defines Highway to H E L L. Your hard earned tax dollars are hardly working in that stretch.
So to start with, we had about 30 members of our Neenah club that stayed at the Great Northern. I'd recommend it with the caveat that there's a couple of things lacking. My room was showing signs of wear and tear and there's no room service due to Covid. The rooms are large, the showers hot and the bed is soft and as a snowmobiler that's all I could ask for. Give me a hot shower and a soft bed and I would sleep in a graveyard. The Great Northern sits on one of the main trails, they have a huge parking lot for trailers and they offer food and beverage in-house.
As for the trails, I logged about 150 miles. We split our club into two groups, the high milers and the moderates. The trails were pretty darn good. Great in the morning and lasting most of the day, corners were getting icy by dark when most of the groomers were coming out again. This would be a good place to mention that the Mercer area has their first female groomer driver this year. You Go Girl! The first picture is that of the trails Sunday morning indicating the previous night's work.
The following is our group warming up the sleds at -18 on Saturday morning prior to heading out. I did end up with a small patch of frost bite but the temps warmed up nicely later in the day.
One of my favorite stops this year was at Saxon Harbor. You come out of the woods on a winding trail and BLAM, you're looking at Lake Gitchegumee. The mother of the Great Lakes, Superior. As you can see from the pic there are no ice shoves at this location, just snow and ice as far as the eye can see.
In the above picture you can follow the bluff along shore as that is the beginning of the Upper Peninsula eventually ending on the Keweenaw.
We had a couple of stops throughout the day to take a break and take on some liquid refreshment. This was one of the quirky places we stopped out in the middle of nowhere.
And I think that covers it. I may have some video to share later in the week, I'll have to check on what the cam. collected along the way. No accidents, no break downs, we did have one guy who lost a piece of track but he limped it back to town. My advice, if you're thinking of going to your favorite location to snowmobile, do it now! Time is getting short and the sun is getting higher in the sky. All the best for a safe season of Winter Fun!
So to start with, we had about 30 members of our Neenah club that stayed at the Great Northern. I'd recommend it with the caveat that there's a couple of things lacking. My room was showing signs of wear and tear and there's no room service due to Covid. The rooms are large, the showers hot and the bed is soft and as a snowmobiler that's all I could ask for. Give me a hot shower and a soft bed and I would sleep in a graveyard. The Great Northern sits on one of the main trails, they have a huge parking lot for trailers and they offer food and beverage in-house.
As for the trails, I logged about 150 miles. We split our club into two groups, the high milers and the moderates. The trails were pretty darn good. Great in the morning and lasting most of the day, corners were getting icy by dark when most of the groomers were coming out again. This would be a good place to mention that the Mercer area has their first female groomer driver this year. You Go Girl! The first picture is that of the trails Sunday morning indicating the previous night's work.
The following is our group warming up the sleds at -18 on Saturday morning prior to heading out. I did end up with a small patch of frost bite but the temps warmed up nicely later in the day.
One of my favorite stops this year was at Saxon Harbor. You come out of the woods on a winding trail and BLAM, you're looking at Lake Gitchegumee. The mother of the Great Lakes, Superior. As you can see from the pic there are no ice shoves at this location, just snow and ice as far as the eye can see.
The following picture is that of our group on the shoreline at Saxon Harbor.
We had a couple of stops throughout the day to take a break and take on some liquid refreshment. This was one of the quirky places we stopped out in the middle of nowhere.
Our group at Willy's.
And I think that covers it. I may have some video to share later in the week, I'll have to check on what the cam. collected along the way. No accidents, no break downs, we did have one guy who lost a piece of track but he limped it back to town. My advice, if you're thinking of going to your favorite location to snowmobile, do it now! Time is getting short and the sun is getting higher in the sky. All the best for a safe season of Winter Fun!
Gary
