Michigan Snowmobile Trail Reports
for Northern Lower and the U.P.
 

Coming soon. Live web cams and video trail reports from across Michigan. 

ATTENTION BUSINESS OWNERS! We are currently looking for businsesses in selected areas to provide local conditions, reports and or live cam feeds. Get the greatest exposure from infomi's 300,000 monthly visitors. These visitors view on average 1 to 1.2 million infomi pages every month. We will provide links to your website or provide contact information for your business free of charge in return for your help. Email jim@burtlake.com  to see if your area is available.

SUNDAY'S SERMON:  BLESSING OF THE STRAITS...

Sleds-Aplenty over the weekend enjoyed white-out conditions throughout the Northern Lower this past weekend following the multi-county teacher hooky-high-jinks on Friday.  Sunday's prophecy became Monday's revelation with a WARNING for the STRAITS area for snow accumulations of EIGHT or more - beginning a half-hour from now (1pm) until 5am on Tuesday!  So, as the trails continue to freeze and please throughout the UP, it is the Straits area that continues to shiver and deliver the Chemin Magnifique (superb trail).  So, for this MLK, JR. Week, the place to chill and thrill appears to be the Gaylord-Cheboygan corridor.  Riders can Springvale-it from Wolverine to Petoskey/Harbor; Rail-Trail it from Gaylord to Cheboygan; Mackinaw-Hawks-it from Cheboygan through the Black Mountain Rec Area to Millersburg and Eastern beyond; go West young man from Indian River to Alanson and rail-it to Mackinaw... do the Clark Grisdale "Grand Canyon Sigh" at the Mighty Mac Bridge and let the NW wind at your back rip-tide you all the way back to Cheboygan, Indian River, Gaylord, Whathaveyou!  Be careful traveling as the winds can create whiteout conditions such as those during that 50-car Mosh Pit on I-75 back on 12.31.98.  Call ahead for rooms and local trail conditions.  A minimum of light snow is expected each of the next 10 days.  Enjoy!

JCM  1.21.08  12:48  www.johnmclintock.com

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SCHOOL'S OUT - FOR - FRIDAY... SCHOOL'S BEEN BLOWN TO BREEZES

Slaughtering Alice Cooper tunes aside, sledders in Northern Michigan awoke to a half-hour-long scroll of school closings throughout the Northern Lower and Eastern UP due to light snow, high winds and blowing/drifting conditions.  Cadillac NW to Traverse E to Gaylord N through Wolverine, Vandy, Indian River, Mackatack, Chegirlgan, St. Ignace, the SOO, W to Newberry... you get the picture.  It wasn't significant accumulation that mattered today, it was mother nature's way of putting down an icy ribbon.  Since the blasphemist thaw at December's end, January has been slowly but surely adding inches to her waist until now... and its enough inches for many areas to loosen the belt, and get the sled off the bed.  Light snow and cold temps remain in the forecast for the next seven days so don't be shy, book a room and let 'er fly.

JCM  1.18.08  17:00

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THING ARE LOOKING UP AND EVEN LOWER PENINSULA, TOO!

The Heart of the Inland Waterway - Indian River, MI - was the heart of a snow system Thursday night that dumped 8" on the region.  Known for only 105" of annual snowfall, this region has been blessed with the best of 'em.  As mentioned previously, the wkend is still short of sustainable, groomable trail conditions throughout northern Michigan - including most of the UP, but snow showers - including a sizeable mid-week system - should get the sleds back on track for next weekend.  If you're blackberry-bluetoothing this from your sled this weekend... hit some back country trails where the accumulation is enough to put some spin on your grin -- the Pigeon River Country State Forest - for example.  Use your head, call ahead, and do not cut across the inland lakes until the ice thickens... reminds me of my brother crossing Walled Lake downstate in his pickup truck back in the 70's... Glub-glub-glub!  Temps will remain below freezing for the next double-digit days with snow (mostly light) nearly every day.  

JCM  1.12.08  13:08pm  www.johnmclintock.com

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ANOTHER FINE MESS!

Easy come, easy go.  Don't like the weather in Michigan... Wait a day!  In like a lion... Out like a lamb!  Oh, the cliches one can turn to whence the weather has gone south... literally!  Mild temps are bad enough; kinda like a Swiffer that sweeps away the surface snow but leaves the bottom stuff stuck to the floor... Rain, however, is altogether different; like a Dyson Vacuum Cleaner that sucks the sap out of your hardwood floor... or for the sake of our analogy; the life out of our trails.  A week ago, traffic on the Gaylord-to-Indian River rail corridor was like rush hour on the John Lodge; today it's barren.  Muddy.  It looks more like early November than early January.  Ice anglers are bobbing on shantyboats in the middle of lakes wondering what happened! 

All is not lost, though.  Temps will be dropping soon with snow on the way; in fact, the forecast calls a string of snow days through the weekend.  Will it be enough to restore the trail roar by this weekend?  Unlikely.  Martin Luther King's three-day weekend might be the better plan!  Let's hope and pray!

JCM  1.8.08  11:05   www.johnmclintock.com

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ARCTIC CLIPPER GIVES WAY TO GULF STREAM GUMBO SKIFF SKIPPER

Fret not Eskimobilers, the Clipper will reach our ports with a snowmobiler salute by New Year's Day, driving our temps down to the teens for highs.  In the meantime, like right now, a SYSTEM SNOW STORM is barrel-rolling up the state, leaving fresh powder in its wake.  This Gumbo Boat Skipper will deliver 3"-8" to a large area of the Lower Peninsula Sea of Snowmobiling, creating a Gulf of Sled Gladness throughout the Northern Lower.  It appears, however, the skipper will go dryland at the Straits, leaving the EUP under lighter fare.  As for specific reports, we'll have to wait to daybreak to match the whoms to the what in accumulation.  Suffice to say, Grand Rapids to Gaylord and Manistee to Midland are seeing more white than a group of wheat-intolerant folks at a sandwich bar!  If you're out riding tonight or early tomorrow, drop me an email so we can straight-to-the-trail with a couple good or bad spots to hit or miss!

JCM  12.28.07  15:00  jmclintock@voyager.net 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

WARMTH OF CHRISTMAS SPIRIT... GOOD FOR MANKIND, NOT YOUR 'HIND!

A little melt can't be helped this time of year when the warmth of the Christmas spirit roughens the trails a bit.  Trails throughout northern Michigan held up, but have become not-so-kind-to-your-'hind!  An arctic clipper will push well down to the Mason-Dixon line to keep the melt away.  Light lake-effect moved SE across the EUP and NLower providing some trail improvement to spots like Emmet County.  The system stuff is headed in tomorrow for the weekend but early predictions of accumulation are spotty at best.  As for now, all's clear on the Western Front and until that changes, the Christmas melt might need the New Year to soften the ride with new snow.  Still, we're miles (of rideable trail network) ahead of the last several years, so strap on a pillow and get out there!  Call your destination chamber or snowmobile club for specific trail reports as conditions are too scattered for a general concensus.

JCM  12.27.07  16:41  www.johnmclintock.com

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

OFF TO THE RACES...

For the first December in years - perhaps since Keith Gornick lent me his Range Rover to get in and out of Otsego Club Resort during the 59" of November lake-effect in '96 - snowmobile trails, including the base-elusive rail routes, are looking mighty good.  Whether or not this Red Wings/Pistons-esque start will resemble something closer to the Tigers second-half of '07 (Mets, nothwithstanding) is yet to be seen.  Suffice for now, sledding is a "GO" throughout most of Northern Michigan.

Typically in the early season, we're focused on the lake effect along the Superior Coast... like 12-gauge spray from Topinabee Gary after lunch at the Breakers on Mullett Lake... scattered mounds of accumulation carnage here and there; total miss of the action everywhere else.  Traditional big guns like Big Bay, Munising and Grand Marais have started out well, yet it's the rookies that have come to shine in this opener.

Where on earth did the Celtics come from this year?!  So is the case with Ishpeming and the UP's southern coast, and the LP's southern swath of Clare and Cadillac.  I've taken Ishpeming off my prayer list for December and we hear the MSA is taking her off the endangered list as well.  Cadillac claims to have it's best start in... well, Ever!  I hunt just W of Cadillac in the perpetual snow-trail campfire town of Boon and no knee-high boots are gonna get me muzzleloadin' in them woods this year!  No surprise, where you hear about the serious car accidents; sadly, it often relates to improving trails.

"Yeh, I wuzza travlin' o'er har, see, and the flakes wuz da size ah hockey pucks, coodn't see a-thang... den it dun turn to a frozen rain I's tell ya - hittin the winshiled so dag nabbed hard dat I's taught it was lead spray from Topinabee Gary's 1906 Sears 12-guage.  So we's got a hockey rink dab nabbed on top of dem snow piles... it wuzn't fit for man nor beast, I's tell ya."

Ah, maybe so, friend, but the sledder knows that's a recipe cooked up by Mother Nature that just might win the Michigan Trail Fair!

Enjoy this early blessing of snow; keep it safe out there!

- JCM  12.20.07  13:03  www.johnmclintock.com