We sent all our snowmobiles out this weekend, with a group with long-standing plans to come up here. This may be the last trip of the season, though, depending on what the trails look like on Monday. There is a little snow in the forecast, but not really enough to build up a rideable base starting with mud. North of Gaylord might even be worse – check out the photos we just uploaded to our web site.

Off trail riding is still probably OK, and we’re thinking of sending next week’s groups off-trail in the army lands east of Grayling. Yep, that’s you, Herb.

–Rob

From Ilene at the Visitors Bureau and Keith from the Snowmobile club:

Groomers are running. From Keith, groomer driver for the AVSA…Trail #47 to Lovells is in good shape most of the way but the snow gets a little thin the closer you get to Lovells. Trail #7 is cleaner with the addition of the couple of inches we received this week, but still with some snirt showing. Trail #679 and #79 are white and mostly smooth with very few bumps at the moment. Traffic should be light over the weekend. Be very, very careful of the ice under the snow. There have been accidents because in some areas you can stop easily, and other areas where you just slide. Err on the side of caution and slow down!!

We had an ice-induced accident just a week ago, so we’re still a bit nervous at having our sleds out there. I think we’ll let them out this weekend, but Be Careful!

Not sure if we’re renting out machines for this weekend yet. We’ll have to see if we get more snow tonight and Friday, or if we get some positive reports from people out there.

If your snowmobile has studs or you are riding off-trail, perhaps conditions would be better.

More updates soon as we learn more about the conditions.

For example, the stretch of trail south of Gaylord along Otsego lake normally gets quite a bit of traffic and looks more worn. Thursday afternoon, though, it looked nearly as brown as the paved road next to it.

We’re letting a few rental snowmobiles out to a group that will be riding over around Mancelona / Alba. I think we’ll leave the rest of our machines parked, though.

More updates when winter returns….

All the guests we’ve had this week have reported fair to good conditions. Generally the reports are of smooth trails, but a little dirty, and occasional spots of dirt and maybe ice.

We would like more snow, but there isn’t any in the forecast for the next week. We still have our rental snowmobiles going out, but we may be replacing some slide rails next week.

I’ve been playing around with a new Flip video camera, intended to be an easy way to get videos up on Youtube for the Grayling Visitors Bureau. First attempt at a video from last Sunday is up on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Mt7_KS3Z0. We also uploaded a few photos from last Friday and Saturday, in our Photo Album on this site. The photos make things look pretty nice. Indeed, off-trail conditions look pretty much perfect, it’s just a little snirt on the trails.

Traffic has been fairly heavy, with the Christmas break bringing a lot of people to the area. This may pick up quite a bit with more people coming up for a long New Year’s weekend.

The weather forecast calls for continued cold temperatures, and lake effect snow off and on through the next week. Good news!

Phazers
We’ve begun renting the new Phazers we’re trying out this year, with a mostly positive response. A typical conversation goes like this:

• Renter: “I have to ride that ugly thing? It looks like a bug!”
• Us: “I know, just try it out. Oh, and slow down for the corners, and lean into the turns to prevent tipping.”
• Renter: “OK, whatever…” (now renter goes off for the day).
• (… time passes … Renter returns…)
• Renter: “Wow, that was fun! This little bug runs great! Hey, you really have to lean into the corners, though.”
• Us: “Yeah, we know, glad you had fun.” (and we’re glad the machine came back in one piece…)

So, the Phazer is a different machine than the traditional, sit-down-low sort of sled. With a higher center of gravity and much more suspension travel, it’s great in a straight line or cruising down the trail. Aggressive cornering requires the rider to get off the seat and lean into the turn, though, to prevent lifting the inside ski or worse. But you wouldn’t perform any ‘aggressive cornering’ on a rental machine, would you?

Also, Since the Phazers are new and have a higher purchase price than the Supersports, we strongly encourage renters to buy the new insurance we’re offering.

The National Weather Service snowdepth map shows 10 inches or less on the ground everywhere from Grayling up to the eastern UP. On my 80 mile ride yesterday I saw fantastic riding off-trail, but plenty of brown snirt and a bit of dirt on the trails.

If you’re already heading up here on a trip, you’ll likely find plenty of good riding in off-trail areas like the Army land just between Grayling and Lovells, but not so much on the trails. If you’re deciding whether or not to come up this next week, well, it doesn’t look so good now. We wish we could say different, but that’s the way it looks from here.

Merry Christmas to all, and high hopes for 2010!

Photos here are from 24 December, trails northwest of Grayling, Trail 4 through Lakes of the North:

So hopefully the weather will bring us snow in the next few days, and not freezing rain. I’ts 28 Degrees out right now, though, so it could go either way…

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Accidents

In other news, there were two accidents on Tuesday, 22 December 2009 in the Grayling area. One fatality. Both accidents involved inexperienced riders on powerful snowmobiles. Remember folks, these machines don’t stop as fast as they accelerate. And trees are hard.

from http://www.crawfordsheriff.org/Press/2009/122209.htm, photos on the website.
Crawford County Sheriff Kirk Wakefield states that Crawford County Sheriff Deputies along with the Frederic Fire Department Snowmobile Rescue were dispatched to an accident which had occurred on snowmobile trail 679-9, which is located in the Deward area of Frederic Township, Crawford County, at approximately 11:49 am. Upon arrival, it was found that a 68-year-old Ohio woman (name withheld pending notification of family) was deceased. The woman died on impact after striking a tree on her snowmobile. Investigation found that speed and inexperience was the reason for the accident. Alcohol was not a factor. It was reported to Deputies that it was her first time on a snowmobile. The snowmobile was 800cc Arctic Cat crossfire.

from http://www.crawfordsheriff.org/Press/2009/1222a2009.htm
Crawford County Sheriff Kirk Wakefield states that Crawford County Sheriff Deputies along with MMR EMS and Frederic Township Fire rescue were dispatched to a snowmobile injury accident in Grayling Township on Lewiston Grade Road. Investigation showed that three snowmobiles were traveling down Lewiston Grade Road at a high rate of speed and missed a corner that was marked. All three drivers drove of the road and into the woods, all being thrown from their snowmobiles. The three female drivers were transported to Grayling Mercy Hospital to be evaluated for their injuries.

Investigation found that speed and inexperience was the reason for the accident along with listening to IPods while driving also contributed to the accident. Alcohol was not a factor in the accident, all three snowmobiles were 800 CC snowmobiles and all three drivers were teenage girls from Ohio.

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. The brown spots and snirt seem to be more to the east of Grayling, and less to the west, as is usual. Sunday I was riding the roads and two-tracks through the army land east of us, and had a fantastic day.

Traffic is pretty light, and the weather forecast says “chance of snow” every day and night for the next 7 days, with cold temperatures straight through. The NOAA snow depth map shows about a foot on the ground(crh.noaa.gov/apx/?n=snow_depth). Groomers are running, including the clubs new tracked John Deere (our second one, new this year).

So, groomers are running, our snowmobiles are out every day, everybody is happy (well, except M from Ohio, who ran his sled into a tree…), and there’s lots of snow.