Minnesota TY ride Jan. 13th-15th, 2012! CANCELLED!

[thegrizzly1]

Right now snow conditions are horrible, but a lot can happen in 2 1/2 weeks, keeping my fingers crossed. Our deadline for hotel reservations is this Saturday, Dec. 31st. After that they will have to give up our block of reserved rooms. There are a couple of hockey tournaments in the area the same weekend so lodging availability has been tough.
I'm still planning on having this ride but make sure you get your rooms reserved/booked.
I'll update everyone on conditions closer to the ride date.

 

[Super Sled]

I've had my reservation for a few months now and I'm certainly praying for snow. But I also am not blind that we'll need a good foot or more of really heavy stuff and then for that to freeze before the trail people even think of packing or grooming. But my fingers are crosssed......

 

[Sleddineinar]

I've doing the snow dance for about a month now. Hope things change soon. I see that JohnDee.com is saying that the jetstream should start moving back south soon and that should help our situation.

 

[blueironranger]

Suppose to be getting an inch or so each day for the next few days. Another 3-4" and I'm going to start bombing around with the old Phazer II to check things out. By my house in eveleth I have about 4-5" on the ground and kids have been packing the trails by me so there is a decent enough base if we get another 6". Swamps are FROZE, which is great and lakes are solid too. Snow gets deeper the farther east one goes and there might be enough in cook/lake counties to ride right now.

 

[MrSled]

I hope things change, the season is not going well any place.

 

[thegrizzly1]

I hear you Tom, not looking too good. I had just enough snow to have to brush of my truck this morning. We still have a long ways to go before we can ride.

I had a thought last night and I want to run it up the pole. If snow conditions continue to be lousy/nonexistent, would there be any interest in making it a TY ATV ride instead? There are a ton of forestry roads in my area and with all the lakes well frozen, I could take us on a good sized ride that could include a stop at Bimbo’s for lunch/snacks and still be legal by avoiding snowmobile trails. I know that’s a lot of money for people coming from out of town, but for my part, half the fun is just meeting other awesome TY members and the camaraderie we share. I’d still be more than willing to take a day off of work that Friday and guide anyone Friday or Saturday if there is some interest. I’ll look into lodging accommodations behind Bimbo’s. They have small cabins for rent, and it would be pretty central to the area I was thinking of riding anyhow. Hopefully their prices would be a little better than the Holiday Inn in Mountain Iron.

Hopefully this is just a contingency plan that will not have to be used, but unless we get a lot of snow and fast, I’m not sure the snowmobile ride is going to happen. If people are up for it let me know. We can even do a BBQ/bonfire at my house one night if people are interested.

Let me know if there would be any interest in something like this. In the meantime, everyone keep doing their snow dance.

 

[MrSled]

I hear you Tom, not looking too good. I had just enough snow to have to brush of my truck this morning. We still have a long ways to go before we can ride.

I had a thought last night and I want to run it up the pole. If snow conditions continue to be lousy/nonexistent, would there be any interest in making it a TY ATV ride instead? There are a ton of forestry roads in my area and with all the lakes well frozen, I could take us on a good sized ride that could include a stop at Bimbo’s for lunch/snacks and still be legal by avoiding snowmobile trails. I know that’s a lot of money for people coming from out of town, but for my part, half the fun is just meeting other awesome TY members and the camaraderie we share. I’d still be more than willing to take a day off of work that Friday and guide anyone Friday or Saturday if there is some interest. I’ll look into lodging accommodations behind Bimbo’s. They have small cabins for rent, and it would be pretty central to the area I was thinking of riding anyhow. Hopefully their prices would be a little better than the Holiday Inn in Mountain Iron.

Hopefully this is just a contingency plan that will not have to be used, but unless we get a lot of snow and fast, I’m not sure the snowmobile ride is going to happen. If people are up for it let me know. We can even do a BBQ/bonfire at my house one night if people are interested.

Let me know if there would be any interest in something like this. In the meantime, everyone keep doing their snow dance.

I would do it... I have 3 ATVs and would love to ride anything... well almost anything...LOL

 

[thegrizzly1]

I just got off the phone with the owners of Bimbos Octagon Restaurant and Sunset Beach Motel. They currently do have rooms available for the weekend of the 13th -15th of January. This is basically a mom and pop type motel, nothing fancy, but there is a good restaurant/bar adjacent to the motel. My house is only about 12 miles away if we need any repairs or decide to do a BBQ/bonfire. Rooms start around $55/night. That’s a heck a of a lot better price than we were able to get at the Holiday Inn. I’m thinking if we don’t get snow this wouldn’t be a bad spot to base the ride out of if we decide to do the ATV thing. If people are interested, give them a call @ 218-254-2576. Bimbo’s Sunset Beach Motel. Mention TY and/or Dan Tarnowski to get a better rate. Like I mentioned earlier, there should be some pretty good ATV riding in the area if snowmobiling isn’t an option. If anyone has questions, call me (Dan) on my cell @ 218-969-5893. If I don’t answer, leave a message with a number where I can reach you and I will call you back for sure.

Till then, THINK SNOW!

 

[blueironranger]

ATV's work for me also, the Iron Range Offroad park should be open weekends yet also. I just hope you guys don't mind wheelers that are Honda Red and Honda Green. I'm taking my Sled up to Lake Vermilion tomorrow and plan on riding from my Grandparents on the Cook end and try to make my way to Ely by lakes, I've heard from a few people now that there is at least "marginal" snow from Ely eastward. That would be the same chain of lakes were rode on the First MN TY ride.

 

[blueironranger]

Vermilion is pretty good for riding, 80+ miles today. Didn't venture all the way to Ely because it was SNOWING pretty good, atleast 4" of fresh heavy snow in the area north of the Iron Range. Trails are marked on the lake but there are a few nasty pressure ridges.

 

[Super Sled]

It's looking like things will be fine by then.

 

[Sleddineinar]

I just checked in on the Trestle Inn website (Finland, MN), they said they have 12" and the trails are being groomed. Maybe if Chisholm/Mt. Iron area doesn't have enough we could shift east abit...? I have a place outside of Ely, the Trestle Inn is a fun ride from there. I'm just throwing it out there... I don't know what hotel availability is like on the North Shore. Like I said, I'm just thinking out loud.

 

[Super Sled]

We could stay at Americinn out of Silver Bay, MN. Won't have to go too far for ok trails out of there. Although the first 30 miles or so will be iffy riding out of there I must say. But there will be some snow. Even if this ride peters out riding out of Mt Iron, I'm definitely up for riding SOMEWHERE that weekend for sure!!!

 

[Evil Santa]

Some friends were up at Knotted Pine out of Isabella over New Years and said the trails were barely Rideable. The Wife and I did a scouting 50 miles around the middle of the Yukon. Trails in the Woods and Swamps are Rougher than a Cobb. The Forest and Logging Roads are still the best bet unless you have great suspension. I was glad I've got the M10 HA..

I can't believe panning this amount of snow would do much good except to expose more rocks and dirt. I'm going to run down the Stony River Road and check out the Forest roads. Knowing the young guns in Silver Bay there has to be lots of Dirt on the trail out of Town. Just a guess but the hill country can be very rocky also.

This really just Sucks big time. I usually don't run the logging roads much but I'm thinking I'm gonna have to. Anybody want to go exploring let me know I'm game...

 

[thegrizzly1]