Help !! need ride areas / ideas - Snowmobile Forum: Your #1 Snowmobile Forum

stimpy · 11-15-2006, 01:21 PM

With the last couple of incredibly crappy winters, riding in central MN has been slim at best, my son has gotten so discouraged, he is considering giving up the sport and not sledding anymore !!! He is the typical 16 yr old, very impatient, and wants it all, now, but I do feel his pain, we have 2 beautiful sleds that I have a bit of money tied up in, and very few miles on them from local trail riding. Our last trip this spring was a huge dissapointment, mud, hard icy trails,and little riding done.
Any recommendations for this winter? I am not opposed to driving 5 hours or more, but I need to keep a budget, I'm a single dad with a new house ( old one got smushed by a tornado last year) so I can't afford a fancy lodge room and with the boy in school, real long stretches are out. What good areas are in the northern part of MN, or even Wisconsin, we ATV ride there, like the area up by Iron River, or even a dream trip to the famous U.P. at least once. Any tips on where to ride, where to stay, and trails nearby would be great.

PolarisINDY500 · 11-15-2006, 01:53 PM

if your looking to travel to da UP, even from central MN its a "long" drive. id suggest riding in and around the Ontonagon area. its just a few hrs east of WI in the UP right on Lake Superior. from central MN its about a 7 hr drive +/

from ontonagon you have great trail access to lake gogebic, and even houghton/hancock. what else is nice is the fact that you'll be riding in the porcupine mountains. very scenic UP there.

Western UP Trail Map

bryannanderson · 11-15-2006, 02:41 PM

Hey there, I live up in Ely, and even though the winters have been bad the last couple of years, we always seem to end up with some decent riding. There are hundreds of miles of trails up here, and countless lakes to open em up on. I am from St. Cloud, and I know that last year there was really no snow, but we didnt have it too bad up here. There are a few really affordable hotels, and you can set out from town in a few different directions and some really nice riding. PM me if you are interested, and maybe we can ride.

Blownsvt · 11-17-2006, 10:32 PM

I would reccomend going up to the grand marais area. there are a few decent loges up there for a resonable price. we acctually ran a strech from two harbors up to shroeder or something like that. the trails were great. senic and plenty of snow. me and a few friends are going to be trying to do a few trips like that this year. we could always use more company.

SnowBunny550 · 11-20-2006, 10:10 AM

I'm partial to the Eagle River, WI area. We've trailered up there from the south central WI area the past two years. Now that we're in the Twin Cities area, we plan on trailering to the same area. It's about the same - either 4 hours north east, or 4 hours straight east (now) for us.