Snowmobile Trails In Decent Shape Despite Rough Winter Start

The Thanksgiving weekend blizzard brought a TON of snow to our area. That made a lot of people like myself excited to get on the snowmobile and rip around the woods. But, our excitement soon dwindled when we realized that the snow was going to insulate the ground and prevent swamps and lakes from making good ice. Then, on top of that we had a week where we saw temperatures reach nearly 40 degrees, turning a lot of that snow into slush and ice. It was a very wild end of November and December here.

Yesterday was our first ride out for the year. We wanted to wait for the groomers to be able to get out, and they still haven't been able to groom all of the trails. There are some wet spots, some swamps that still have open water areas, and slushy lakes. But, if you are smart and do a little planning, you can still get around.

We rode around the Fish Lake area on the trails. We tried to stay off the lake as much as possible. I've heard from other riders that the edge of the lake is pretty good, but if you get further in it's pretty slushy. Of the trails we rode (from Fish Lake to Pequaywan) about 90% of the trail was groomed. There was a couple mile stretch that was really rough, and we imagine it's due to the fact there is a large swamp that the groomer hasn't crossed yet.

The Pequaywan trails were in really good shape, and the North Shore Trail from Duluth to Two Harbors was in great shape. We did hear from some folks that further up the North Shore Trail near Finland there were some tough spots.

Cold temperatures this week will help out, and a little of fresh snow never hurts either!