MN North Shore
- Thread starter lcfcats
- Start date
Its going to be super busy with the temps for sure - I would recommend going to Finland at least, or another good place to base out of (Stayed there the last two weekends) is Superior Ridge just before Schroeder. Bruce is a good guy, just a little deaf, so don't be turned off by his voice. This place is right on 61, and the NSST is 5 miles up the hill.
Grooming?? Yes, EVERYTHING has been groomed and is in pretty good shape. From this point, you can make the run up to Hungry Jack or TrailCenter on the end of the Gunflint trail and back in a day (~150 mile day if you go straight up and back, more with some side trails off the NSST).
I have spent the last four weekends in a row up there with a few week days mixed in.
Grooming?? Yes, EVERYTHING has been groomed and is in pretty good shape. From this point, you can make the run up to Hungry Jack or TrailCenter on the end of the Gunflint trail and back in a day (~150 mile day if you go straight up and back, more with some side trails off the NSST).
I have spent the last four weekends in a row up there with a few week days mixed in.
jschnell20
New member
We stayed in Isabella for the weekend. Isabella to Finland has been groomed. Isabella to Babbitt, the first few miles of the Tomahawk was groomed, and the Stoney Spur from the trail shelter to Babbitt. So about 20 miles in the middle hadn't been groomed. I would expect it done by now. Adequate snow depth, with more coming down Sunday as we left (wished we stayed one more day). Other sledders said the Yukon was groomed and the Tomahawk to Trestle Inn was. We didn't see much traffic, it was below zero every day. Trails should be in good shape next weekend. Have fun!
Yukon has been groomed and will be groomed twice a week until conditions do not allow. NSST from Beaver Bay down may be questionable with little snow and lots of traffic. I hope Johns 5-10 day forecast is right, another 8" of snow would put all trails in the arrowhead as great condition!!! FYI, if you do come south on Saturday afternoon, stop by the new Voyageur Snowmobile Club shop ( former Dixie Bar and Grill ) and enjoy some sloppy joes and good company. Don't forget to fill up your sled while you are there
Based out of Two Harbors this weekend (Thursday/Friday/Saturday) and put 500+ on. The State Trail from Finland to Trestle was perfect. We circled back at that point, but if they did the grooming they claimed all the way to Grand Marais it should be PERFECT. It was damn near that the last 3 weekends I was up there, all the way up the Gunflint as well.
Just remember, the John Beargrease dog sled race is the 26th-28th (Friday-Sunday). I’d give them the Trail for their days up there.
Oh, and we never waited at a gas station to fill......
Just remember, the John Beargrease dog sled race is the 26th-28th (Friday-Sunday). I’d give them the Trail for their days up there.
Oh, and we never waited at a gas station to fill......
Whitenytro
New member
Any update with the snow after the weekend and if they got any of this snow? Looking to go this weekend.
I don't know about further north. Two Harbors did not get any snow, nor did they get any snow 20 miles north of town. Things were nice Friday night and most of the day Saturday. With the lack of snow and the warm busy weekend there won't be much grooming happening on the Yukon or the south end of the NSST.
WorkHardPlayHrd
Active member
Was there this last weekend dropped in silver bay on Friday went north to Happy Jacks Lodge then over to Grand Portage Casino. Big thanks to the groomers that ride was great and I would have placed the whole ride from good to very good depending on location. Grand Portage could really use some more signing it would make it easier to find partridge falls and other neat locations. Almost hit a moose on the Blueberry trail out of Grand Portage. Wanted to see one just not so close. Small area of flowing water about 13 miles east of gunflint on the blueberry, passable just keep an eye out. With the warm temps on Saturday this area will start to suffer with out fresh snow. Headed back down the nsst to head for Babbitt.
This is were it gets ugly. Got to the trestle ate and fulled up at the 24 hour pay at pump behind the bar at the crooked lake resort. Tomahawk trail from trestle to 7 miles west of Isabella had not been groomed in at least a week and was not groomed yet when we can through on Monday. It is like being dropped in Bergland on a bad day. We have brand new thunderclats, even in stiffest setting the ride was atrocious. There is a way around on the fire roads make sure you know it. Or just follow the tracks from the other sleds. Such beautiful fire roads and hardly a bump on the way back on Monday.
From the junction with the Yukon west the trail was freshly groomed to Ely on Sunday night and good. You'll hit a few rocks, scrape a few bare spots, but enjoyable. Matthew's shelter to Babbitt to Taconite junction was groomed on Saturday late and was very good still in Monday. The Taconite trail did not hold up well over the weekend. It was not groomed on Friday or SATURDAY and they did it on Sunday night. It's thin, showing bare, with some hard bumps in it I will rate it fair. Before it was groomed it was bad. Stay away from fishing lakes trail if you can the rocks are bad even with the snow. Return on Monday from trestle to nsst was groomed and good. The nsst from there south to silver bay had been worked on, but they had gotten some freezing rain and it really took down the base. Even with the grooming it's quite icy and fair condition. Started south in the truck on Monday at 6 pm and hit the storm at Solon springs. North of there no new snow.
If I were going north this weekend I would trailer to at least Finland. Make sure you bring a gammon and download the Polaris ride app. I will not leave home again without it. Overall okay except for bad section of Tomahawk, and the Taconite. Enjoy the ride.
This is were it gets ugly. Got to the trestle ate and fulled up at the 24 hour pay at pump behind the bar at the crooked lake resort. Tomahawk trail from trestle to 7 miles west of Isabella had not been groomed in at least a week and was not groomed yet when we can through on Monday. It is like being dropped in Bergland on a bad day. We have brand new thunderclats, even in stiffest setting the ride was atrocious. There is a way around on the fire roads make sure you know it. Or just follow the tracks from the other sleds. Such beautiful fire roads and hardly a bump on the way back on Monday.
From the junction with the Yukon west the trail was freshly groomed to Ely on Sunday night and good. You'll hit a few rocks, scrape a few bare spots, but enjoyable. Matthew's shelter to Babbitt to Taconite junction was groomed on Saturday late and was very good still in Monday. The Taconite trail did not hold up well over the weekend. It was not groomed on Friday or SATURDAY and they did it on Sunday night. It's thin, showing bare, with some hard bumps in it I will rate it fair. Before it was groomed it was bad. Stay away from fishing lakes trail if you can the rocks are bad even with the snow. Return on Monday from trestle to nsst was groomed and good. The nsst from there south to silver bay had been worked on, but they had gotten some freezing rain and it really took down the base. Even with the grooming it's quite icy and fair condition. Started south in the truck on Monday at 6 pm and hit the storm at Solon springs. North of there no new snow.
If I were going north this weekend I would trailer to at least Finland. Make sure you bring a gammon and download the Polaris ride app. I will not leave home again without it. Overall okay except for bad section of Tomahawk, and the Taconite. Enjoy the ride.
"Make sure you bring a gammon"?
A "gammon"? — which flavor would you suggest?:
- A cut of quick-cured pork leg.
- A British hand grenade used during World War II.
- The Russian Angara/Vega/Dubna surface-to-air missile system (SA-5 Gammon — the NATO designation).
- The rope lashing or iron hardware to attach a mast to a boat or ship.
- A Welsh professional footballer (Steve Gammon).
- An English painter (Reg Gammon, 1894 – 1997).
- The language of the Irish Travellers [sic] (Speakers of the language refer to it as Cant, Gammon or Tarri; the name Shelta is the most commonly used term among linguists.)
- A civil engineering construction company in India.
- A construction company in Hong Kong.
- A victory in backgammon achieved before the loser removed a single checker.
I certainly wouldn't want to discourage anyone from posting such reports, as they're very much appreciated,
but a "gentle"
suggestion:Twenty-plus lines of run-on text without paragraphs is a bit hard on the eyes, making this a bit of a struggle to read. Ditto for the lack of capitalization of proper names, "SATURDAY" in all caps, but not "nsst"(?), or the likes of "fulled up", "thunderclats" etc.
Now my "hed hertz" (about 30,000 hertz)!
[English is a dying language!]
I really tried not to post this, but:
WorkHardPlayHrd
Active member
Got me, I enjoyed the laugh. There's a devil in all of us at times!
Great report
Paragraphs, I could care less but it was a hilarious post, thanks. You made me laugh even tho our conditions are in trouble in most places...
Great report for this area, as far as the CAPs and
Paragraphs, I could care less but it was a hilarious post, thanks. You made me laugh even tho our conditions are in trouble in most places...
robgoggins
New member
NSST??? Help please?
dragon_700
Member
what info you looking for?silver bay and north good.further north the better.
NSST = North Shore State Trail.
sweeperguy
Active member
NSST (north shore state trail) also known as CJ RAMSTAD trail is 146 miles long
Runs from Duluth north to Grand Marais
Main drag of the north shore
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robgoggins
New member
Great, thank you for the NSST acronym assistance. My son and I are heading up there Feb. 15-18 - staying at Superior Ridge Resort in Schroeder. We're still relatively novice riders and we live in the Twin Cities. Based on all the reports I read about heavy (and crazy?) weekend traffic in the U.P., I decided to book in the North Shore areal; hoping it's a little less busy. We don't have any plans to get crazy on our two days of riding. We'll probably stay on/near the NSST, hopefully run up to Grand Marais and maybe do an hour or two loop here and there (e.g. 155/154/60 west of Tofte). Some questions for the group:
1) Trail access/parking spot. I'm assuming we can just park in the lot at Superior Ridge, unload the trailers and hit the trails. But if not, how do I go about finding a nearby parking spot where we can access the trails? I can't seem to find that on the DNR interactive trail map or on the Polaris app map.
2) Emergency/gas/rest stops on NSST. I'll admit, I'm a little conservative and as I think about the ~30 mile ride from Schroeder up to Grand Marais, I start thinking about where we can stop if we need to get some gas, or a bite to eat, or just how far away help would be if something goes wrong. (There will be two of us; one each on our own sled so I realize the last concern is probably worrying too much.) When I look at the Polaris app it appears the Trestle Inn/Crooked Resort is the only place open along the NSST from Schroeder to Grand Marais - is that accurate? If not, how do I go about finding other options? Or if you need something do you just head east from the NSST trail and ride towards one of the towns assuming there is enough snow on the ground to pull up to a gas station or restaurant?
3) Gas. Will they have gas available at places like the Trestle Inn/Crooked Resort? We do not have spare gas cans on the sleds. I'm assuming we don't need them given our general proximity to civilization on/around the NSST, but what you all think? We haven't even ridden our sleds enough to burn through a tank of gas yet! From what I can see online it looks like we can probably get ~200 miles per tank.
Thanks.
1) Trail access/parking spot. I'm assuming we can just park in the lot at Superior Ridge, unload the trailers and hit the trails. But if not, how do I go about finding a nearby parking spot where we can access the trails? I can't seem to find that on the DNR interactive trail map or on the Polaris app map.
2) Emergency/gas/rest stops on NSST. I'll admit, I'm a little conservative and as I think about the ~30 mile ride from Schroeder up to Grand Marais, I start thinking about where we can stop if we need to get some gas, or a bite to eat, or just how far away help would be if something goes wrong. (There will be two of us; one each on our own sled so I realize the last concern is probably worrying too much.) When I look at the Polaris app it appears the Trestle Inn/Crooked Resort is the only place open along the NSST from Schroeder to Grand Marais - is that accurate? If not, how do I go about finding other options? Or if you need something do you just head east from the NSST trail and ride towards one of the towns assuming there is enough snow on the ground to pull up to a gas station or restaurant?
3) Gas. Will they have gas available at places like the Trestle Inn/Crooked Resort? We do not have spare gas cans on the sleds. I'm assuming we don't need them given our general proximity to civilization on/around the NSST, but what you all think? We haven't even ridden our sleds enough to burn through a tank of gas yet! From what I can see online it looks like we can probably get ~200 miles per tank.
Thanks.