Trail Conditions 1-11-2021

[Snow VP]

Hello to all out there in internet land. I know some of you have been clamoring to get your dose of UP trail report here, and I am sorry this is so late in the season, but hey, there isn't really anything to report on that front.

I wanted to take a bit of time and post to let you know about what is going on here.

First, the weather:
Ya, right now texas has more snow then Iggy does. No really. We have maybe 3in on the ground, and will lose some of that over the next few days. Forecast is doing a minor polar vortex thing happening this coming weekend, and it will turn maybe 10d colder. A touch of snow on Friday, will help. Long term forecast isn't really clear on precip next week, but we are going to need a major storm got get things going. Good news is there is frost in the ground, so the snow will stick, and we can do an ice base when possible.

Second, club info:
Things are ready to go around here. HUGE thanks to our regulares who came up to brush and sign amid the pandemic. It is kinda weird, but we got it all done. That weekend has pushed me to the final decision that we will only have 1 brushing and signing weekend from now on. We will need to get another trailer, and a bit more gear, but doing it all in 1 day is making so much more sense now. It will still be the same time of year, but we may jump back and forth between the 2 weeks looking for good weather. That discussion will happen at a later date.
Groomers are all prepped and ready to roll. There is news on that front. I recently have been pushing for a new tractor from the DNR. It kinda worked, and in late November we were shipped a new-to-us 2006 model Deere 8230T. Visually, it is very similar to our other 2 machines, but it setup a bit different, and does not have enough hydraulic ports for our drag requirements. Good news is has more HP, so we will see how that works out.
Yes, that means we now have 3 groomers. The 'new' one is in Iggy, were we can keep an eye on it for now. 05 has been stationed in Epoufette, and 06 has now been permanently stationed in Trout Lake. We hope that splitting up the runs some will make for shorted trips for the volunteers and redundancy on the grooming operation. There has been more than once that we have been tasked with grooming all 101 miles of trail with 1 machine, and this will make that much more manageable.

Finally trail reports:
I have been doing trail reports (and other things) for over 15 years. It is time to step back from that. I tried to do that last season which didn't work, and I am taking a bigger step back this season, letting some new faces come up. With that I will not be reporting trail conditions this season. A consensus among the 3 grooming managers is that facebook will be the easiest thing for them to utilize. This will be a trial for this season to see how it goes, and if successful will continue into the future. You will still be getting reports right from the club via the groomer drivers and managers themselves, and we will still honestly and accurately report what is out there with pictures and video as in the past - I promise you that. We will never tell you that there is great conditions when it isn't rideable, you can count on that. Right now, my plan it to keep this page up and active, and I hope folks will still come here, but I understand that while this page was cutting edge back in 2005, there are many differing types of communication now available. I hope to have the main trail condition info harvested, consolidated and cross posted here and on MSA at least once a week, however I will not be doing that and I have not been able to talk to the person I have in mind about spearheading that. I will keep you updated on the status of that as well.

So with that, keep an eye here for the official announcement of the new facebook page, which will be up in the coming days. Any page that is out there now is unofficial, and will not be supported by the whole of the operation.

Finally, as you may have seen in other news, our pond hockey and the I500 snowmobile race have been cancelled. We are hoping that things turn around here soon, and the restraunts can open up more. Please don't make vaccines and masks political, do what its right for you, but RESPECT others choices, and certainly the workers and volunteers in that area that you ride this season. PRAY FOR SNOW, so we can get our season rolling.

[Attak06]

Thanks for the updates Neil. Still doing the snow dance but still no results. Getting anxious ready to get this season started.

[Wink]

Originally Posted by Attak06

Thanks for the updates Neil. Still doing the snow dance but still no results. Getting anxious ready to get this season started.

A vision of you doing any kind of dance is one I would rather not have in my head.

[Attak06]

Originally Posted by Wink

A vision of you doing any kind of dance is one I would rather not have in my head.

I don’t blame you. Me dancing is not a pretty sight. ESPECIALLY my snow dance

[Bill]

Thanks for all the information, very exciting to get an additional groomer. Let’s hope the snow gods come thru and make up for this miserable start!

[Snow VP]

SNow conditions have actually gotten much worse since that post. You could just about mow the yard today. The forecast is not good for the next 10 days, with only 2 weak systems headed our way. Could change, but not looking good for more than 2in this week.

[JRiggs]

Originally Posted by Snow VP

SNow conditions have actually gotten much worse since that post. You could just about mow the yard today. The forecast is not good for the next 10 days, with only 2 weak systems headed our way. Could change, but not looking good for more than 2in this week.

Any hope for for this weekend?

[Snow VP]

No.
Only a couple of inches forecasted for the next 10 days.

We may go without grooming in January.

[Thundecat_Triplecat]

Is the Straits Area Snowmobile Club facebook page up and running yet?

[PolarisLover]

Is there enough snow along the way from the Sault to St Ignace, do you think?

[TL Dave]

Went out for a test run in the TL groomer this evening. Couldn’t have been happier with what I found. Snow from TL to the Burma Rd on the RR grade, then over to the Carp River Truck Trail and back to TL on the CRTT was great! The groom turned out excellent and should firm up well overnight. There was definitely significantly less snow south of the Burma Rd but very rideable with what we got in the last 18 hours or so. Pic is from the Burma Rd. I’d rate these trails very good right now.

[Snow VP]

Facebook page is under construction and will be up this weekend at the latest.

I will post up the facebook link as soon as the guys have a chance to get connected.

Iggy got 3, maybe 4in yesterday, way more than we were supposed to. Remember we had grass the day before, so I'm not really sure it is enough to groom out of town yet, Wayne will be checking later today to make that determination.

At least we are making progress!

[JRiggs]

Finally some positive news!

[skidoodude04]

Got up and did a quick little ride tonight. Left out of brevort and they are logging headed out of town which sucks all the way till the Burma/Truck trail. Took the Caffey towards Rexton and came across a TNT 850 that smoked a tree that looked like it was in the middle of the trail at one time on a right hand corner and the sled was absolutely destroyed. I really hope the rider was ok because the sled was in very very bad shape. Stopped briefly to look at the sled and after we took off we ended up passing a state trooper coming the other way down the trail. Rode thru Rexton and down a little ways before turning around and heading back cut river trail (473). This is being logged for a long stretch and it is NOT GOOD. Every year it drives me nuts we pay out of our pocket for loggers to have the right to destroy our trails... Yes the trail is snow covered but it’s packed down hard as concrete so it does no good... On a good note I came across 0 water holes on my way back to brevort. Headed out in the morning for an all day ride and will report back with some more trail conditions much further out!

[906UP]

I just got home, we have 6-8" in my yard in Rexton (Far NW edge of Straits Trails), probably a little more in the woods, my wife says TASA groomed to the store last night but it isn't reported on their page so I can't verify. We might go for a spin tomorrow. She did say sleds were zipping past the house today.

[Wink]

Originally Posted by skidoodude04

Got up and did a quick little ride tonight. Left out of brevort and they are logging headed out of town which sucks all the way till the Burma/Truck trail. Took the Caffey towards Rexton and came across a TNT 850 that smoked a tree that looked like it was in the middle of the trail at one time on a right hand corner and the sled was absolutely destroyed. I really hope the rider was ok because the sled was in very very bad shape. Stopped briefly to look at the sled and after we took off we ended up passing a state trooper coming the other way down the trail. Rode thru Rexton and down a little ways before turning around and heading back cut river trail (473). This is being logged for a long stretch and it is NOT GOOD. Every year it drives me nuts we pay out of our pocket for loggers to have the right to destroy our trails... Yes the trail is snow covered but it’s packed down hard as concrete so it does no good... On a good note I came across 0 water holes on my way back to brevort. Headed out in the morning for an all day ride and will report back with some more trail conditions much further out!

Thanks for the update Matt. Yep, the loggers really piss me off. Guess they have a right to make a living though.

[Snow VP]

Thanks for the info Matt. After talking to a few people, the conditions out there may look OK, but it is still not advisable to travel to ride here. The base is not set, hazards persist and the snow is not sticking to the ground. You will be riding white rocks for sure.

[PolarisLover]

Originally Posted by Snow VP

Thanks for the info Matt. After talking to a few people, the conditions out there may look OK, but it is still not advisable to travel to ride here. The base is not set, hazards persist and the snow is not sticking to the ground. You will be riding white rocks for sure.

The trails in the Sault are getting there. I want to take a ride down to St Ignace, but trying to wait for a little bit more snow

[A600]

Time to start a new thread with a current date. What happened with the facebook page? Heading UP this weekend no matter what!

[polaris4me]

https://www.facebook.com/StraitsAreaSnowmobileClub