LET THE BODIES HIT THE… SNOW

SOUTH TRAILS CLOSED SATURDAY
FROM 9:00AM – 2:00PM

BUT WAIT… WE HAVE AN IDEA… START YOUR EX30 EARLY FROM THE SOUTH TRAILS TRAILHEAD

JUST DO US A FAVOR… AND DON’T DISRUPT THE EH WINTER EXPERIENCE, EH?

PR23 ULTRA UPDATE

The route you’re looking at above (screen shot from Strava) is the route we’re working on right now, but before I get to that part I want to go back to the beginning.

We’ve been working on the Ultra for a few months. You probably saw the initial route – big and burly – connecting Marquette to Big Bay to Humboldt to Ishpeming. Remote and wild. Damn near 10,000 feet of elevation, a true masterpiece of pain. We had support from the DNR and the Board representing all of the snowmobile clubs. We submitted the necessary permits and sent in a check.

This next part is important. I want to qualify a couple things. I’m going to share an objective assessment of what happened and where we’re at. I don’t think there’s a bad guy, therefore, you won’t hear me blaming anyone. This is an overview of what I know and where things stand – with that said I will continue. As I said earlier, the DNR and snowmobile board supported the event on snowmobile trails – until a group of people complained. They put pressure on a club President. The club President pulled his support of the event. When he pulled his support the DNR pulled theirs. Again, no bad guys here. This is the way things work.

Let’s stick to the facts. Why did people complain? That’s complicated. For starters, there’s some bad blood out there between the motorized and non-motorized crowds due to things that happened many years ago. Long before 906AT and you, but it’s still there and we’re gonna have to deal with it. They brought up concerns with safety, expressed dissatisfaction that bikers don’t pay for the trail, and said it was illegal. This is the complicated part. Non-motorized use of snowmobile trails on state owned land isn’t illegal. It is illegal for non-motorized use of snowmobile trails on private land because the easements only cover snowmobiles. Hold on, it gets better. There’s an exception to the rule: Trails 82 and 417 are part of the Iron Ore Heritage Trail, and that’s open to non-moto use year round, even in the winter. I’m not going to tell you where those trails are… you can go look if you’re that interested. What I am trying to tell you is – it’s complicated.

Anyway… we have an event to run and if anyplace should have a winter ultra it’s the g-damn U.P. We spent the last ten days looking for an alternative and found one. The plan as of 11:08pm tonight is: You’re gonna start out at Otter Lake Campground near Munising. You’ll head west on Sixteen Mile Lake Road. Eventually you’ll hit the Coalwood Grade – unofficial and ungroomed. We are gonna groom it for you. Onward to Chatham. You’ll have some options for resupply if ya need it. Westward some more via seasonal roads. You’ll have to jump onto 94 for a short stint before hitting Sundell and riding north. We’ll start grooming where the plow turns around and take you north into Deerton. When you hit Deerton (and you will because no one will quit this early) you’ll follow the Deerton Sand Lake Road until you jump onto Trail 417. Now you’re heading west. You’ll ride past Lakenenland. Eventually you’ll hit Harvey. There are resupply options if you need and can find them. After that you’ll head toward South Trails and eventually link up with the Iron Ore Heritage Trail. You’ll ride west until you hit the Smith Gravel Pit. You’ll need to be careful here as you take their road to the highway. You need to cross it and jump onto 502 which will take you to 510 which will take you to (eventually) Red Road. Evan has a camp out there somewhere.The rumor is they have beer – and a fire. When ya leave Evan’s place it’s gonna be a minute before you see civilization again. We have to groom ya a connector so you can get over to Wolf Lake Road which will take ya south eventually to Trail 82. If ya get there (and we hope you do) you’ll head east (finally) to Ishpeming. If ya thought the worst was behind you – you are wrong. Now you have to RAMBA… if ya wanna get to the end.

The route is a wild combination of roads, fat bike specific groomed trails, and state snowmobile trail. I’m taking a wild stab in the dark here but I’ll say the 140-mile route is damn near 55% groomed fat bike trail, 20% snowmobile trail, and 25% a surprise.

How serious are we about making this happen for you? We’ve dedicated damn near two weeks to finding alternatives. We bought a groomer. We found a sponsor to lend a Skandic to pull the groomer. We’re all in.

Are you?

More to come. Stay tuned. Call TP if you have questions.