Western/central/eastern u.p.

Ya dere eh......just got back from a 850 mile cross country trip of da U.P.. Left Monday morning and got back in Land O' Lakes at 11:30 this morning. For all you sledheads that have been waiting for more snow........WOW its getting better by the day....only sketchy snow day was Monday....it snowed 2-6" almost every day! Went up trail 3 to Watersmeet, it was a rocky start on the grade, but was groomed. 2E was groomed to 107 N. 107N to Kenton wasn't groomed, there were rough spots in the corners, plenty of snow. When we came back today, the groomer had come east on 2 and was going up 107N after we got through it around 11am.....go figure!

Trail 8E to Sidnaw was good and 8/15 going N was a little spotty on snow...the. pipeline was a little sketchy but when we came back today it was GREAT lots more snow and groomed!! Trail 8 E to Nestoria was ok until we got to the "Cozy Mountains" real rocky, no grooming low snow. We didn't come back that way but I'm sure that they got some more snow now and may even be grooming it.

Ishpheming and Marquette were also low on snow, but groomed. Got on Trail 417 on the north side of Marquette and took the rail grade over to Christmas...lots of traffic over there on the prior weekend. Trail 418E wasn't groomed so we took trail 417 to 8 E to trail 7 to Christmas. That area is better than last year with the new grooming authority. (Had too good a time at FOGGY'S in Christmas!)

Went from Christmas down trail 7S to 8E Tuesday morning, shot up to Grand Maris.......section just past the BEAR TRAP for around 10- 15 miles was rough but was great up in Grand Marais....good job grooming up there and lots of snow! Then shot 8E to Paradise.

They were really working on 45S from Paradise to the Falls. At the Falls for dinner and ran into 2 groomers so we took 45 from Paradise to Newberry on Wednesday and the trails were groomed all the way to Seney! Back to Christmas and another great steak at FOGGY'S.

Blasted out of Christmas Thursday morning....This time trail 418 was groomed and we rode the grade all the way to Marquette. Took trail 14N out of Marquette to Big Bay....totally groomed, lots of snow and it was like a blizzard....Big Bays trails were good, a little bumpy in town, then we took 14 to Lanse and that was excellent! Lanse to Baraga was rough and needed more snow but passable.

We stopped at SKIPPER'S in Lanse and met the owner.....NICE place!! Baraga was another story......
Stayed at the Baraga Lakeside Inn. Got there and found out that the bank owned it, the lounge had closed down, 2 out of 3 ice machines were broke. So we went to the Casino to eat, no bar in the restaurant, they didn't have 3 or 4 of the dinners that were listed on the menu and it was as smoky as ****!! It was great in the past when everything was at the Inn , but its gonna be awhile before its ever like that again, not what we were hoping for.

Shot out of Baraga this morning, rough in town but once we got on 159S it was groomed and great all the way down to Sidnaw. Stopped at SIDNAW STATION then shot down 8W to 107S to 2W. We saw more sleds in the 15 miles outside of Watersmeet to Land O' Lakes than you could ever imagine!! Trail 2W was beat (needs more snow) it looked like that brown/red clay color like outside of Hurley. 3S also needed more snow and had a ton of traffic , But Watersmeet has been doing what they can with the snow and traffic they have.

GREAT TRIP.....THE U.P. IS READY TO ROCK!
 
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