Woodland Snowmobile Rentals

Grayling, Michigan
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Archive for the 'Trail Conditions' Category

Warm Weather, Marginal Trails

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

36 Def F and sunshine right now. It’s a beautiful day, as long as you’re not snowmobiling. This warm weather and sun is really going to beat down on the exposed trails that are already a bit brown. That brown snow will absorb the sun’s heat better, and pretty soon it’s wet [...]

Poor to Fair Conditions in Grayling

Friday, February 12th, 2010

I’ve put off updating for a while here, because it’s a bit unclear what to say. There is a bit of snow on the trails. Not too much, but enough for the groomers to run. Ice is still a major problem, and the frequency of accidents the past few weeks is what [...]

Winter is back, but not quite enough snow yet

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

9 Deg F and a 20 mph wind right now, it sure looks and feels like winter is back. We’ve had lake effect snow the past 2 days, but not much total accumulation. If you are out riding you’ll probably blow through this new snow and find ice / icy hardpack underneath on [...]

Warm Weather and Poor Conditions in Grayling

Friday, January 15th, 2010

32 Degrees now, and things are warming up too much to recommend riding this weekend. 37 was the high yesterday, with a low of 30 overnight, not low enough to really freeze everything back up. Snow that is on the trails gets real mushy at these temperatures, and conditions can deteriorate rapidly. [...]

A little snirty, need a bit more snow in Grayling

Friday, January 8th, 2010

A week has passed since New Year’s Day, but we’ve only seen an inch or so of total snow in that time. We would certainly like some fresh snow on the trails, as what is there is getting a little brown with sand/dirt mixed in (snirt).
All the guests we’ve had this week have reported [...]

More Snow, Better Conditions

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

We’ve had all our snowmobiles out Monday, Tuesday, and today, and have gotten largely positive reports back from the riders and other guests we have this week. With about 6 inches of new snow this week and 10+ inches on the ground, the poor conditions of Christmas day are mostly covered up and gone. [...]

Snow, Rain, or Sleet? It’s Rain Today

Friday, December 25th, 2009

The forecast for the past few days was calling for some uncertain type of precipitation on Christmas Day. It’s not uncertain any more — it’s rain and 35 degrees in Grayling right now (1 pm Christmas). The radar map show the rain moving out in the next hour or two, but it looks [...]

Need More Snow

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

Well, it’s not the nicest timing to write this on Christmas Eve, but the trails are getting pretty brown and snirty out there. Today I rode 80 miles, breaking in one of our new machines. Tough job… I rode Grayling – Frederic – Waters – Lakes of the North – Starvation Lake [...]

Good Conditions despite thin base

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

We’ve had guests and renters out on the trails Tuesday and Wednesday, and everybody is having a good time. Trails are good, if a little brown, and traffic is light. I think this may change after Christmas, depending on the weather for the next few days. Trail conditions seem OK now, but [...]

OK to Good Conditions this Week in Grayling

Friday, December 18th, 2009

It depends on who you ask…
Our rental customers and guests this week have all had a great time, “best ride of our lives” one of the guys said. We’ve gotten a bit of snow in the last week, but not enough to totally eliminate the brown spots that were out there last weekend. [...]

First Big Storm of the Season

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

It’s been quite a snowstorm in the Grayling area since Tuesday night. We had about 6 inches or so early this morning. It’s a bit hard to tell because of all the wind. Saw and heard plenty of thunder and lightning this morning also, it seems like a wet, heavy snow today. [...]

2010 Season Opener — still waiting …

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

There was an inch or so of snow on the ground for December 1. Just enough to get the county snowplows out and make driving a bit messy, but not like the past two years where snowmobile trail grooming started promptly on the first of December.
We’re not expecting too many changes for the upcoming [...]

Warm and Wet Weather in Grayling

Friday, March 6th, 2009

It’s 45 deg F and foggy this morning, and it’s been above freezing since early yesterday. It looks like the warm weather will continue into the weekend, and things will be too wet and sloppy out there for good riding.
Earlier this week we had three mornings in a row with temperatures around -20 F, [...]

Wet last night in Grayling

Friday, February 27th, 2009

It looks like there was more rain than snow last night in the Grayling – Gaylord area. The forecast had called for a lot of either rain or snow. It started off as snow last night, but turned to a bit of rain in the middle of the night. I don’t think [...]

Snow and Ice in Grayling

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

It’s sure snowing today! We’ve had about 6 inches of snow since this morning, and Diane is out plowing our lot now. Conditions look good, but there is still ice in some corners. Norm, Herb, and Martin reported finding a bit of ice in the corners today and yesterday. It seems [...]

Trails look better than expected

Monday, February 16th, 2009

There was very little, almost no snowmobile traffic this past weekend, due to the extremely warm weather and melting we had last week. Things have frozen back up, though, and we’ve gotten a bit of snow over the past few days.
I noticed the Jordan Valley groomer running on the Blue Bear Trail Saturday [...]

Not enough snow for this weekend

Friday, February 13th, 2009

We’ve only gotten an inch or two of new snow over the past few days around Grayling, since the weather finally turned cooler. It’s not enough to get the snowmobile trails back in confidently rideable shape, so we’re waiting for more snow.
The National Weather Service Snow Depth Map shows around 6 inches on the [...]

Warm Weather Coming

Friday, February 6th, 2009

It looks like warm weather is coming on Saturday, and again early next week. We may have to cancel rentals, if it really does get up near 40 degrees, or rain comes.

Still Winter, Tall Snowbanks, We Have Insurance!

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

We’ve been moderately busy and winter continues to chug along in northern Michigan. We’ve had a bit of snow off and on, and still have plenty of snow on the trails. The National Weather Service shows around 28-20 inches of snow cover, but it seemed like more when I was out show-shoeing last [...]

Continued Good Snowmobiling in Grayling

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

There was a fair amount of traffic this weekend; we’ve actually been pretty busy non-stop for the past week or so. All our riders and guests have had good reports of the trails and conditions. There were some rough trails again on Saturday, but that’s to be expected with the fairly high traffic. [...]

Good Trail Conditions in Grayling

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

We’ve been getting a little snow most ever day since the warm weather around Christmas / New Year. We’ve had snowmobiles out every day and talked to guests out riding the trails. Everybody has had good things to say about the trails and trail conditions. Even last Saturday night we heard good [...]

Better Conditions

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

We’ve heard good comments from all our guests that have been riding the past two days. A few corners are worn down from over-eager, over-powered snowmobilers roosting through the corners. Monday I talked to the trail groomers, Keith and Tom, as they were out working the trails. They said that the grooming [...]

Slow Re-Freeze

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

After yesterday’s thaw, today we have snow and cooler weather. The temperature is around 30 Deg. F, so the ice and slush is freezing, but slowly. It might take a day or two for enough snow to fall and enough freezing to occur for the trails to be usable again. So right [...]

Rain and 40 Degrees

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

8AM, and the temperature is already up to 46 Degrees. The radar map looks like a good bit of rain is coming. The snow depth is large enough that I think things might be OK in a few days, but for today snowmobiling is definitely not a good idea.

Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 25th, 2008

A very Merry Christmas from all of us at the Woodland Motor Lodge and Snowmobile Rentals! Its certainly a winter wonderland up here, with another foot or so of snow since last week. Trail conditions are excellent now, and traffic looks relatively light for the next week or so.
One point of concern is [...]

A Little Snow, Better Conditions

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

We asked some guests staying with us how their snowmobile riding went on Tuesday. “Hey, we had a great day!”, they said. What about the ice? “We haven’t been snowmobiling in 15 years, so it was all fun!”.
It’s not much but that’s the only first-hand report we’ve gotten since the warm-up and [...]

Icy Trails

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Sunday’s high temperature was about 39 degrees, and we got a bit of rain. Monday morning a cold front came in and everything froze very quickly. This morning I walked out on a few trails, #7 in Grayling, #679 and #7 in Frederic. Trails were very hard with ice, although they had [...]

Perfect Conditions

Saturday, December 13th, 2008

We’ve gotten more snow over the past week, a foot or so. The snow is now around thigh-deep.

The groomers have been running (except, perhaps, for Gaylord’s now-defunct grooming club…) Traffic has been extremely light, and conditions are pretty much perfect. The snow is already deep enough that you have to be careful [...]

2008 / 2009 Snowmobile Season Opens with a Bang!

Monday, December 1st, 2008

For the second year in a row, our club’s trail groomers started operating on the first of December, the day trails officially open. Snow depth is about a foot according to the National Weather Service, although it seems like more. We’ve plowed about 4 out of the last six days, and already have [...]

Spring!

Friday, March 14th, 2008

43 Degrees and raining in Grayling now. Every day’s high temperature has been above freezing for most of this week, and through the weekend that should continue. Surprisingly the trails have been OK up till about two days ago or so.
We had two groups of Germans in this week, Daimler-Chrysler employees. [...]

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