Trail reports around Lake Vermilion?
- Thread starter XC Elko
- Start date
oldguy
Member
Just came from a ride on the trails around Tower this afternoon. There is enough snow on the trails. Where the groomer has gone thru this week is pretty good. Some corners are snirty and some are icy, but you will not wreck your wear rods. The places they have not groomed yet are rough and could use some hole filling. The lake is mostly snow covered with good traction, but the hi fax lube is marginal and there are some frozen ruts.
oldguy
Member
Just got back from a 140 mile ride around the Tower, Cook, Virginia area and the trails were great, the best so far this year. All but 15 miles were freshly groomed. Lake Vermilion is still rough with frozen slush ruts. We only got about 1 to 3 inches of snow today but it did make everything white again. Heading to Ash River tomorrow morning and I’ll report what we find.
drgearhead
New member
Hey Old Guy,
I'm not sure if you will see this in time, but if you are taking the Arrowhead Link up to Ash River, be careful north of the split that goes to Crane Lake. There are some big wet holes up there.
I'm not sure if you will see this in time, but if you are taking the Arrowhead Link up to Ash River, be careful north of the split that goes to Crane Lake. There are some big wet holes up there.
oldguy
Member
Just got back from a ride from Tower to the Ash Trail Lodge and back. The beaver dams are fixed and the wet spots were insignificant. Aside from all of the Fat tire bikers and a bunch of hikers on the arrowhead it was in great shape. All the way up to Ash River we had very few rough spots and it was freshly groomed. All of the lakes and the Vermilion River kinda of suck, lots of frozen ruts, enough lube but not very smooth.
oldguy
Member
Yes the hikers are part of the race, although we thought it was only bikers. We talked to one of the bikers and she said she did the 135 miles in 20 hours straight. The hikers and bikers were all on the side of the trail and there was no issue getting around them. Some were camped out in the warming huts along the trail.
Thanks for the info old guy we are heading up to ash trail Thursday and planned on running vermillion river to lake vermillion and running arrowhead back up how bad is the river is there plenty tracks if so on the tracks is it OK got a group of 4 couples so if it's real nasty I'll pry skip but would really like to do it
oldguy
Member
Snowchief,
We did not go on the Vermilion River. When we got to the VRT they said it was passible, safe and the portages to the south were freshly groomed but lots of bad ruts. We decided to run the trail to the Elbow lake grade and take Elbow, Susan and Black lake to Vermilion. All of the trails we went on as of today were great, who knows by the weekend.
We did not go on the Vermilion River. When we got to the VRT they said it was passible, safe and the portages to the south were freshly groomed but lots of bad ruts. We decided to run the trail to the Elbow lake grade and take Elbow, Susan and Black lake to Vermilion. All of the trails we went on as of today were great, who knows by the weekend.
oldguy
Member
Mngolf4
The Elbow Lake Grade road is located 7 to 8 miles West of the VRT on the Crane Lake to Arrowhead trail. It would be the first plowed road that you get to when going West from the VRT. Go south on the road until it ends on Elbow Lake. If there is no fresh snow it will be easy to follow the tracks across Elbow to Suzan Lake to Black Lake then onto Vermillion. Some of the portages are narrow and rough but not to long.
The Elbow Lake Grade road is located 7 to 8 miles West of the VRT on the Crane Lake to Arrowhead trail. It would be the first plowed road that you get to when going West from the VRT. Go south on the road until it ends on Elbow Lake. If there is no fresh snow it will be easy to follow the tracks across Elbow to Suzan Lake to Black Lake then onto Vermillion. Some of the portages are narrow and rough but not to long.
Hey old guy thanks for the tip looking at the map once you get to black lake do you run a toad to vermillion looks like you'd come out close to the landing or do you follow the creek on the map over to vermilion pry won't venture that way since I have 4 lady's that don't ride a lot this weekend but always like finding new paths to explore
oldguy
Member
At Black lake you can go left to the Black River, there are usually 1 small open water area and a beaver dam to get around. Or you take a right and go to a small trail that dumps you out on Vermilion around the corner from the Landing Bar. The trail that goes onto Vermilion is hard to find when you are traveling north from Vermilion towards the VRT.