We rode 440 miles the past two days with trail conditions from very poor to excellent. We started on Lake Nokomis in Tomahawk on Sunday morning. Without ice scratchers I don't think I would have made it far. By time we got northwest of Nokomis about 25 miles trails improved significantly. Trails in the Nokomis area are pretty much shot. The further you get away the better they got. We stopped in Butternut for lunch and trails in the Park Falls and Butternut area were pretty good. We then road west to Winter. The further west we got the worse the trails got. By time we got to Winter they were pretty thin, but still rideable, at least with ice scratchers. We then rode northeast to Clam Lake. Those trails were some of the best we road. Then from Clam Lake we road to Ashland. The closer we got to Ashland the worse the trails got. You could see that they got a lot of rain up there as the fields were flooded.
Monday morning we left Ashland and head to Mellen. Again once we got a few miles south of Ashland trails improved significantly. Trails were very good from South of Ashland to Mellen. Then from Mellen we went to Island lake (west of Mercer) Trails were great through there. Then from Island Lake we headed over to the Turtle Flambeau Flowage and then south. Trails were in great shape through there. We headed south on Trail 19 through price county until we hit trail 10. 19 was awesome, except about 2-3 miles of trail that was 3 foot moguls south of the Flambeau Flowage. Trail 10 was in great shape as was trail 5 heading south back towards Nokomis. The trails didn't start getting bad again until about 20 miles or so from Nokomis.
We had some really firm conditions due to the wet snow that froze solid. Two of us were running ice scratchers and two were not. You could tell the difference in how much snow was in the skid with who had ice scratchers and who didn't. Most of the trails I would say were in good condition with some very poor to some excellent. The best area I would say that we rode is south of Ashland, East of Winter, west of Hwy 51 and North of Hwy 70.
The road stretches were brutal just about everywhere. Not much you can do. I put a new set of carbides on when I left Sunday and they actually look pretty good still. So maybe not as bad as I thought.
Monday morning we left Ashland and head to Mellen. Again once we got a few miles south of Ashland trails improved significantly. Trails were very good from South of Ashland to Mellen. Then from Mellen we went to Island lake (west of Mercer) Trails were great through there. Then from Island Lake we headed over to the Turtle Flambeau Flowage and then south. Trails were in great shape through there. We headed south on Trail 19 through price county until we hit trail 10. 19 was awesome, except about 2-3 miles of trail that was 3 foot moguls south of the Flambeau Flowage. Trail 10 was in great shape as was trail 5 heading south back towards Nokomis. The trails didn't start getting bad again until about 20 miles or so from Nokomis.
We had some really firm conditions due to the wet snow that froze solid. Two of us were running ice scratchers and two were not. You could tell the difference in how much snow was in the skid with who had ice scratchers and who didn't. Most of the trails I would say were in good condition with some very poor to some excellent. The best area I would say that we rode is south of Ashland, East of Winter, west of Hwy 51 and North of Hwy 70.
The road stretches were brutal just about everywhere. Not much you can do. I put a new set of carbides on when I left Sunday and they actually look pretty good still. So maybe not as bad as I thought.
