Riding with the SnomadS
A Keweenaw/Western U.P. Adventure - January 2008
By Ray Williams
February, 07 2008
The January thaw had came and gone, the cold air from northern Canada was back and the lake effect snow was once again, piling up. To date, this winter, over 10 feet of snow had fallen and melted on the Keweenaw Peninsula but the last week had brought three feet of new snow with 14 inches falling just two days prior to our arrival at the Ojibwa Casino Resort in Baraga, Michigan.
Twelve Snomads had trailered the 500+ miles for five days of the best riding Michigan has to offer. Vince Cytaki, Russ Demers, Matt Baxter, Dick Woodruff, Don Delcourt, James Payton, Dennis Grant, Keith and Kevin Kish, Brian Wright, his guest Marcel Killingberg and myself. It was an impressive line up 3 Ski-Doos, 3 Polaris’s, 6 Yamahas and no Cats. As with many Michigan snowmobilers, a few in our group had never been west of Marquette. There seems to be always an abundance of snow and good trails in the central U.P. snowbelt which stops a lot of snowmobilers from trailering any further west; the extra money spent on gas is well worth it.
Tuesday, our first day, we rode out of the parking lot at 8:45am. It was a sunny 3 degrees and our destination was through the Huron Mountains to Big Bay for lunch, return down the Burma Trail to Champion then west through Three Lakes, Nestoria and back to Baraga. The trail to the east leaves the Casino property and parallels M38, down some side roads and through some backyards, turns south and follows M41 through L’Anse and onto Trail 14 to Big Bay. The 6 miles of trail through Baraga and L’Anse is often in poor condition with snirt and concrete making for a very painful passage, but the recent heavy snowfalls made for an excellent trail through the two villages.
With 12 riders, I didn’t expect to go 5 days without incident, but I didn’t expect our first breakdown only 10 miles into the first day’s ride. Just outside of L’Anse, Don Delcourt’s 2007 Yamaha Attak overheated. Sometimes snowmobiles are just like babies and need to be burped. Fortunately that’s all Don’s sled needed, after checking the coolant reservoir and finding it full we proceeded to alternately lift the front then the rear of the sled to remove the air lock that had lodged in the cooling system. The trick worked and we were on our way.
The 56 mile trail to Big Bay was almost too perfect. It had been groomed during the night and with no traffic, the cold temps had set the trail up like cement. Due to some logging the trail detoured us around and to the south of Mt. Arvon. Mt. Arvon is Michigan highest point at 1,979 feet. Interestingly enough up until 1982, neighboring Mt. Curwood, was designated the highest point in Michigan until it was accurately measured to be one foot shorter than Mt. Arvon. The detour added a few miles to our ride and unfortunately routed us around the trail I had planned to take.
to Arvon’s summit.
We arrived in Big Bay about noon and headed for the Thunder Bay Inn for lunch. The historic Thunder Bay Inn was built in 1910 by the lumber barons of the time. It was originally used as a warehouse, general store, office and barber shop for the lumber companies that were the mainstay of the economy in the Upper Peninsula at the turn of the century. In 1940, Henry Ford purchased the Inn, along with most of the town, and renovated it to serve as a vacation retreat for himself and his executives. Rooms were upgraded, sinks and more bathrooms were added, and a private dining room was built to accommodate the auto baron.
The Hotel was also the 1959 setting for some scenes in the classic film, "Anatomy of a Murder". The novel and movie were based on a true incident which took place in Big Bay. The present day pub was built onto the hotel for the filming of the movie. It sported a pink paint job to make it look better in black and white on a movie screen. The hotel was purchased by its present owners in 1986 and restored to the old-era look and feel. It was then renamed the Thunder Bay Inn, the fictional name of the hotel in the novel and movie.
The Inn’s pub is spacious and well staffed with great food at reasonable prices. The service was timely and we were allowed to wander around upstairs and view the 12 unique guest rooms all furnished with antiques and furniture from the 40’s.
Leaving Big Bay we passed the (in)famous Lumberjack Tavern where the 1952 actual murder of bar owner, Barney Quill, took place, as depicted in the movie. Briefly, it seems an Army officer’s wife was allegedly mistreated and taken advantage of by Mr. Quill. Upon learning of the transgression, Lt. Fred Manion walked into the tavern and shot Barney dead on the barroom floor. Rent the movie, it’s a great American classic starring James Steward, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara and is directed by Otto Preminger.
Meanwhile, back on the snowmobiles, we headed out of town to the east, and looped around on Trail 310 south then west to Trail 5, the Burma Trail. The Burma Trail is a 40 mile twisting trail that travels south to Champion and intersects with Trail 8. It will definitely give you an upper body workout that will require a hot tub at the end of the day. Trail 8 parallels M28 West on a rugged rocky scenic path that passes Michigamme, Three Lakes and Nestoria to where it then turns north, away from M28 for some fast road riding alongside old US41.
It was 5:30pm and we arrived back at the Ojibwa after a 165 mile shakedown ride to prepare us for the saddlebag adventure we would begin in the morning. It was now, however, time for a that medicinal soak in the hot tub followed by a gourmet tombstone pizza in the Casino’s bar/grill/bowling alley and a good night’s rest.
A dusting of snow had occurred during the sub zero night and once again we left the parking lot at 8:45am with our saddle bags strapped on and another sunny morning at zero degrees. The temperature would hit a high of 9 for the day but it didn’t really seem that cold with the low humidity.
Our days destination was Hancock, only 80 miles away, so we could take our time and explore a bit. To get further north, first we had to ride south 20 miles to the Sturgeon River Gorge Road which would take us north alongside the Sturgeon River Wilderness Area in the Ottawa National Forest. With gorges and canyons up to 300 feet deep, the deepest valley in Michigan, has been formed by the Sturgeon and Little Silver rivers as they flow north to Keweenaw Bay. Along this route is one of my favorite views, rivaling the view from Brockway Mountain Drive and the Lake of The Clouds Overlook, it’s a little noticed trail leading to the Bear’s Den Overlook. Here you are very high up on a steep bank, looking down and out across the Sturgeon River Gorge onto a sea of treetops and the Sturgeon River. All the camera’s were out and clicking during this stop.
Continuing north past Silver Mountain and crossing M38, we stopped at the bar in Alston for hot chocolates and coffees. We had ridden 35 miles and were only 12 miles down M38 from our starting point. Upon leaving Alston, it was a fast smooth ride north then west, on Trail 109, arriving in Twin Lakes at 12:30. After gassing up we had lunch at the Parkview Lodge and Grill, a newer full service year round lodge.
From Twin Lakes it’s a fast 21 miles up the Bill Nichols trail through Toivola, Painesdale, and South Range to Houghton/Hancock. A couple miles south of Houghton 3 Polaris’s and the 2 Ski-Doos left the group to visit their related dealership’s to attend to minor ailments their sleds were experiencing. The Yamahas continued on to the motel and to their related dealership across the street.
It’s an incredible view riding into Houghton from the South, you ride in high on a ridge following and looking down at the Portage Waterway and the city of Hancock across the water (ice). You descend into Houghton next to the Waterway and ride through a marina, a park and over the famous Portage Lake Lift Bridge. The bridge opened in June 1960 with four lanes of traffic on the top level and a railroad crossing on the lower level. It became the worlds heaviest aerial lift bridge. Snowmobiles now cross over on the lower level with snow being dumped and groomed on the trail portion.
We checked into the Hancock Ramada Inn, unloaded our saddlebags, and waited a while for our Snomads to regroup. At 4:00pm we rode east through Hancock and onto a local trail, continued through Dollar Bay to Portage Lake. Crossing Portage Lake to Dreamland, I wanted to (a) see if the ice crossing was safe (it was) and (b) if the trail I planned to take in the morning was good (it was great). We continued north to Lake Linden then back south to Hancock via Trail 3. It was 5:30pm, we had ridden 120 miles of excellent trails for the day and did some exploring. It was a good day.
Thursday morning, as we all assembled in the breakfast room, we were aware that the Keweenaw groomers, both of them, had been broken down since Friday. No grooming had occurred to the north, our planned ride for the day; this was not good. A report from another snowmobiler, who had been to Copper Harbor the day before, warned us not to go, it would be a long bumpy, spine jarring 150 mile day. There was also a report that Keweenaw County had borrowed a groomer from Houghton and had been working through the night to smooth out the major trails. With a hope and a prayer we left the Ramada at 8:15am, temperature at 3 degrees, for our ride to the tip of the peninsula and back.
We retraced our scouting route from the day before through Dollar Bar, across Portage Lake to Dreamland then onto a tight, twisting local trail that leads north to what is known as the South Gay Trail. The trail is not named for what some might think it is, but rather a small unincorporated community named Gay. Gay is mostly a ghost town now having been named after it’s founder Joseph E. Gay. Gay was the president of the Wolverine Copper Company and Mohawk Mining Company. The Mohawk Mining Company built a stamp mill in the community in 1898. The residual stamp sand dumped into Lake Superior increased the town's area greatly. Today, only the large smokestack and the ruins from the stamp mill still remain. The only remaining business is a bar, which is called appropriately, The Gay Bar.
Gay is locally celebrated for its annual 4th of July parade. The "Gay Parade" as it is referred to locally, attracts up to 8 times it's population. Up until 1998, the 4th of July celebrations culminated in a ceremonious lighting of the smokestack. Old tires and diesel fuel produced thick black smoke that could be seen for miles out in Lake Superior. This activity was halted due to pollution concerns........HELLLOOOOOO!
The South Gay Trail enters Gay over tens of acres of the dumped stamp sand which forms a high cliff right up to Lake Superior’s edge. It also creates a hugh snowmobile playground with deep snow, rolling hills, and no stumps, boulders or trees ot worry about. As we entered the area, not a sled track was visible.
It was 10:30am and The Gay Bar’s parking lot was deserted. My first thought was that the bar had joined the “ghost” status of the rest of the town but with the sound of 12 snowmobiles pulling up the lights came on and the door was opened before we could get our helmets off. We all piled in for a warm up and 12 hot chocolates. A pellet stove was fired up and we all amused ourselves reading the different tee shirts and hats available for purchase.
We departed after a group photo shoot in front of the bar and continued up the peninsula 25 more miles to our lunch and gas stop at the Bear Belly Bar & Grill at the Lac La Belle Lodge. It was 12:30 when we all stomped in and were quickly served our lunch by an ex Marine cook and his wife. The food was good and the restaurant overlooked the frozen, snow covered shores of Lac La Belle. It had warmed up to a sunny 17 degrees, we had traveled 60 of our 150 miles and the trails were so far so good.
Continuing on, our turning around point was still 20 miles to the east, High Rock Point, at the end of the Keweenaw Peninsula. The trails were still good until we got to the five mile long High Rock Trail. Snowmobiling is often destination driven, you leave Point A and go to Point B then return to Point A or go on to Point C. After riding 75 miles we weren’t going to be easily deterred from reaching our goal (Point B), and the end of the peninsula, High Rock Bay. We paid dearly for our determination, riding 5 miles up and 5 miles back on a trail that hadn’t probably been groomed all season. But it was worth it! A scenic and unique view of Lake Superior awaited us there. A walk to the waters edge and a hop onto a small icy island, surrounded us on three sides with waves, swells and ice chunks in constant motion, it was truly an awe inspiring view. It was now time to head back (Point A), we could go no further in the direction we had traveled all day.
We had rode up the less traveled eastern side of the peninsula and we were retuning down the highly traveled western side. If the return trails had not been groomed, our earlier 10 miles of moguls would seem like a cakewalk.
We left High Rock Point, passed through Copper Harbor, Michigan’s northern most community (1990 miles north of Miami) and headed west up Brockway Mountain Drive. The drive is a nine mile scenic route that runs atop the spine of Brockway Mountain. It rises 735 feet above lake level and on a clear day you can see Isle Royale, 56 miles away.
After admiring the view from the top, I lead the group down the western side of the drive but unbeknownst to me, half my group didn’t see us leave. The trail down the west side and back to Hancock is not as visible as the trail down the east side and that’s the direction the other half of the group went, led by Dennis Grant. You disappear fast when taking the trail to the west and when Dennis looked around all he saw was the trailback to Copper Harbor. The sweep rider, Vince, thought I was leading everyone back to Copper Harbor for another one of my hot chocolate stops. Meanwhile, myself and my half of the group was tearing down the trail toward home. Slowly but surely our group riding protocol began to work. The protocol calls for keeping the rider behind you in sight, that is, occasionally making sure a rider is behind you, if not, stop. I call it “keeping up with the rider behind you.” The last rider in my group, James Payton, was the first to stop as it wasn’t long before he realized there was no one following. We all eventually stopped and James had a good idea that every one else had went the wrong way down the trail. Turning around he hi-tailed it back, finally catching them outside of Copper Harbor and turning them around. It wasn’t long before we all were on our way in the same direction and thankfully riding on a recently groomed trail, following US 41 all the way back to Hancock. We arrived back in Hancock at 6:00pm and had dinner at Gino’s Italian Restaurant. From the restaurant it’s only a mile to the Ramada Inn and we once again indulged in a medicinal soak in the hot tub and off to bed.
Friday morning temperatures were warming up. It had reached a high of 17 degrees on Thursday and at 7:30am, it was already 11 degrees. Today would pretty much be a travel day from Hancock to Silver City. It’s only an 80 mile trek so I had some alternate routes in mind to add about 70 more miles to the trip.
After retracing our route south from Hancock to Twin Lakes we hopped on a 35 mile wilderness loop, Trail 13, which took us north again, close to Lake Superior and in a circular route west and south to Greenland. In Greenland we gassed up at the Yamaha dealer who invited us all to take a test drive on a new Yamaha Nitro, a torquey, light weight, fuel injected, 130 HP, snowmobile that you could easily kill yourself on. It was probably a great sled for the younger crowd who have a greater sense of immortality than most of us do.
From Greenland we once again reversed our course and ran about five miles back towards Twin Lakes, up Trail 3, so we could pass over and view the three Firesteel Bridges. These bridges are perhaps the most impressive snowmobile bridges in the state. Originally constructed as railroad trestles, the old railroad bridges have been converted to recreational use. New railings and decks were placed on top of the railroad ties with much of the construction work being done by local snowmobile clubs under the DNR’s snowmobile grant program.
The Firesteel Bridges move more than 46,000 snowmobiles and 4,000 ORV’s per year, high over two branches of the Firesteel River.
Returning to Greenland, we had lunch in a small diner and decided to take the longer route to Silver City, through Ontonagon. Well, not exactly through Ontonagon anymore, but past it. The swing bridge over the Ontonagon River, in downtown Ontonagon, is being dismantled and has been replaced with a new bridge, south of town. The new bridge on M64 includes a path for pedestrians, bicycles, and snowmobiles. Ontonagon is now on a dead end street. The new bridge was nice and it was safe but I’ll miss the old route through the business district and over the swing bridge or through the marina and over the frozen river.
From Ontonagon we traveled south then west on Trail12. Turning north on Trail 1. The last 8 miles to Silver City had more snow then I had ever seen there. Often the lake effect snow passes over these lakeside trails and starts dropping a few miles inland but that was not the case this year.
We arrived in Silver City early enough to check in at the Silver Sands Motor Lodge, unload our bags and head for the Lake of The Clouds overlook. Kris & Ed LaCount own and operate the Silver Sands and the nearby party store and gas stop. Ed is the grooming coordinator for the Silver City area and has the trails groomed every night.
Arriving at the park entrance with plenty of daylight left we ran up the 8 mile stretch of groomed, M-107 to the scenic overlook. From the overlook, one looks down at the lake, from a dramatic rocky ridge. The lake is situated in the Big Carp River Valley between two ridges and surrounded by virgin wilderness. It is fed from the east end by the Carp River Inlet and the outflow from the western end is the Carp River, which empties into Lake Superior. It is truly one of Michigan’s most famous and spectacular views. We were all awed by the view except for one member of our group, Keith Kish. Part way up the road he had blown off a frisbee size piece of his track at about 70 MPH. Incredibly, the track stayed intact and he was able to slowly limp back to the motel. The day’s ride ended at the Foothill’s Restaurant in Silver City where we informed the manager that we would be back in the morning for breakfast.
The next morning Ed and Keith got the disabled sled loaded on Ed’s trailer and for not much more than gas money Ed delivered them both back to the Ojibwa in Baraga. The rest of us loaded up and pulled out around 9:00AM. It was again sunny, 20 degrees and expected to go to up to the high 20’s.
Leaving the Silver Sands we rode south then west, following South Boundary Road. The road follows the southern boundary of the Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park, almost 35 miles to a spot where the Presque Isle River empties into Lake Superior.
At the Presque Isle campgrounds we hiked 200 or so yards to visit two of the waterfalls near the mouth of the river. Sturdy boardwalks and stairs follow the riverbank for close up viewing of the falls. Leaving the campgrounds we rode south on a trail that runs along side County Road 519. It was a little rough but the road made for a smooth alternative. Most of us chose the trail though and about 15 miles south we were stopped by two snowmobilers attending to a third who was laying in the middle of the trail unable to move without a great deal of pain. My GPS was able to pin point our location for the 911 operator and fortunately CR 519 was plowed and only a few yards from the trail. Apparently the injured rider hit a bump pretty hard and was launched over his snowmobile onto the trail. The trail was hardpacked and he must have landed pretty hard. He was lucky though he wasn’t run over by his own sled as it continued on without him coming to a stop 20 feet past him. Soon the first responder showed up, a State trooper, then the second, a county deputy sheriff, then the third, a DNR officer and finally the EMS ambulance. Shortly the trooper dismissed our group and we were on our way, a little more mindful of the bumps.
Continuing south we soon crossed M28 and turned east. Arriving in Wakefield around noon, we filled up the sleds and had lunch at the Korner Kitchen, another snowmobile friendly diner with good food and fast service. Just east of town we connected onto Trail 8 for a 25 mile fast and smooth ride to Bergland and on to points east. Eighteen miles from Sidnaw we passed high over the middle branch of the Ontonagon River, on another rails-to-trails railroad trestle that had been incorporated into the 50 mile trail that runs from Bergland to Sidnaw. The bridge offers an impressive view of Agate Falls, a picturesque 40 foot waterfall near highway 28 and a short, off trail ride, takes you down under the bridge and to the banks of the river. There are almost 200 named waterfalls in the Upper Peninsula and the frozen winters offer an unsurpassed beautiful and unique view of these waterfalls.
We arrived in Sidnaw a little before 4:00PM and gassed up once again. It was only 25 miles to Baraga but there was a detour ahead of us that had closed down an 8 mile stretch of the trail. Not knowing where the detour would take us, the gas investment turned out to be money well spent. The detour added another 25 miles to our return, routing us back to the west, way too far north then east and south. We almost completely circumvented the entire Sturgeon River Wilderness area and were thankful for the extra gas.
Arriving back at the Ojibwa, a little after 6:00pm, we loaded up our trailers for the journey home in the morning and retire to the comforts of the resort. Our five day adventure had taken us 800 miles through the most scenic and exciting trails Michigan has to offer. Snowmobiling through the Western U.P. brings alive a true appreciation for the slogan, “Winter Wonderland”.
Ride coordinater - Ray Williams
