Personal snow bike trail

[us56456712]

We don't have the usual amount of snow. It's been just above freezing for 3 days so we only have about 6-8 inches of snow in the woods. 85 miles west they have feet and I rode in that Wednesday. It was soft and very difficult to ride in, 4 pounds of pressure. I though I would build a trail here at home today so I took my 4 wheel drive truck and did 5 in and out passes on two parallel two track bush trails. They are very hard now. Then I took my 4 wheeler and made 4 in and out passes on narrow trails to make connectors. I cleared the deadfalls and rode it this afternoon. It was great, but more snow will make it impossible for me to continue to groom. Right now it is rock hard and Map MY Ride came up with 3.80 miles for the loop. Not to shabby for very little effort. It starts at my back door.

 

[horsefarmer]

Not much snow here by the southern UP border with WI. Was below normal but dry and now above normal and supposed to be above freezing every day in the next week. Sunny days too. Gonna try for a road ride today.

 

[MojoK]

I tried for one season to keep a short 1 mile loop open here in CT on private land, I think it lasted until mid January when we got 10" of dry sugary snow. You really are bound by what the weather lets you get done. You've built an awesome base though....good on you.

I know a couple of places that have older, narrow track snow machines for grooming the single track. Probably can be found for a couple hundred bucks. I'm pretty sure Kingdom trails in VT uses them. The up-side is that, besides being able to navigate the narrow trail, the small ones can be muscled about enough to pack trails across side cuts in the hill without going off camber.

 

[us56456712]

Not much snow here by the southern UP border with WI. Was below normal but dry and now above normal and supposed to be above freezing every day in the next week. Sunny days too. Gonna try for a road ride today.
View attachment 87595

Where are your studs?

 

[us56456712]

I tried for one season to keep a short 1 mile loop open here in CT on private land, I think it lasted until mid January when we got 10" of dry sugary snow. You really are bound by what the weather lets you get done. You've built an awesome base though....good on you.

I know a couple of places that have older, narrow track snow machines for grooming the single track. Probably can be found for a couple hundred bucks. I'm pretty sure Kingdom trails in VT uses them. The up-side is that, besides being able to navigate the narrow trail, the small ones can be muscled about enough to pack trails across side cuts in the hill without going off camber.

We have a lot of miles of pro groomed snow bike trails up her but the closest one is 60 miles away. They have difficult long hills for a snow bike. Mine only has 4 steep short punchy hills, perfect for a snow bike. I'm going to stop using it once we get our regular snow, but for now it's great.

 

[sandman]

I struggled making the 3 mile trip to the beach yesterday , in my flip flops . Almost dove into the ocean , but the 80 deg air was to cold .

 

[us56456712]

I struggled making the 3 mile trip to the beach yesterday , in my flip flops . Almost dove into the ocean , but the 80 deg air was to cold .

Gosh, where is this, Australia? It hardly ever gets 80F here, even in the summer, Lake Superior keeps us cool. If it gets 80F, or god forbid 90F, then all you have to do is go to the Lake shore and it will usually be 70F. The last 3 summers it has mostly been in the 60sF, perfect for biking. No sweating, shorts, short sleeves and no gloves. 60sF are perfect for biking. Swimming, try inland lakes or go to Lake Michigan and swim at the mouth of a river. You might be able to tolerate that, but I doubt it. Young people who have been up here for awhile can swim in Lake Superior, but I can't. I used to jump off ice flows as did my Mother, but we did this as kids. In the spring my kids used flip flops to stand on ice flows in inland lakes and use sticks to push them around drifting around the lake and crashing into stuff. If they lost a flip flop they couldn't stand on the ice and they had to dive for it. I watched from the shore and got some chuckles watching.

 

[sandman]

Creating memories with others is what life is all about . I grew up in Lansing and miss the snow not the cold . The only thing I remember about the up is the good deer hunting trips , we took with my father . For almost 40 years now I have lived in New Smyrna Beach Florida , called the shark bite capital of the world .

 

[LukeTheJoker]

That trail is very cool.

 

[us56456712]

Creating memories with others is what life is all about . I grew up in Lansing and miss the snow not the cold . The only thing I remember about the up is the good deer hunting trips , we took with my father . For almost 40 years now I have lived in New Smyrna Beach Florida , called the shark bite capital of the world .

Come back, Munising is tourist crazy in the summer as the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is the 5th most popular National Lakeshore. We did a lot of shenanigans at deer camp this past November. The young guys called us 70+ year olds wimps because we like the sauna to be only 150F. For revenge I stoked it all day and got the 212F glass bubble thermometer almost pegged to the top a half inch above 212F. The glass was probably ready to explode. You had to wet your hair with snow and wear cloths in there to keep the radiant heat from the stove from burning your skin. You had to drape towel over your head and face. One guy made the mistake of trying to put his hand in a water bucket to wet his hair, burned his hand. A plastic water bucket melted above the level of the water. Alcohol was involved. I hunted the most, got an 8 pointer. We are the black fly bite capital of the world.

 

[us56456712]

That trail is very cool.

I rode it again today. 11.4 miles or 3 loops. Its hard and good. I finished taking out the brush that was slapping my face. No goggles required now. Our long range weather forecast is for warm weather through January 5th and then who knows. Places with more sun will be bare ground by then but it should remain hard if I keep riding it as it will get below freezing at night. Best riding has been in the AM so far. I might luck out and have a nice snow bike trail for sometime.

 

[horsefarmer]

Got the old Cannondale out for a cruse yesterday. It broke 40 deg F yesterday with sun and not much wind. We have not seen much sun here in the last month and has been pretty dreary. It's a small (13") frame so I ordered a 450 mm seat post. Stylin' wide white 700c tires courtesy of a Mallwart huffy.

Almost dumped it in our icy driveway tho as not running studded tires, LOL.

 

[us56456712]

View attachment 87651 Got the old Cannondale out for a cruse yesterday. It broke 40 deg F yesterday with sun and not much wind. We have not seen much sun here in the last month and has been pretty dreary. It's a small (13") frame so I ordered a 450 mm seat post. Stylin' wide white 700c tires courtesy of a Mallwart huffy.
View attachment 87652
Almost dumped it in our icy driveway tho as not running studded tires, LOL.

It's amazing that 55 miles south of me, where you are, there is almost no snow. 85 miles west there is still over a foot, despite it being warm and only one real storm. If you ride everyday and it gets icy you probably need to invest $200 in studded tires. I think you are far enough south on Lake Michigan where you get more ice than snow. $200 is cheaper that a trip to the ER. Ha

 

[RustyGold]

We are suppose to get 3-6 inches of liquid snow tonight...

...we rarely get the white stuff in the valley (snow is ~40min drive away from ~Nov to ~Apr). On a positive note, we don't have to groom the trails .

Jason

 

[horsefarmer]

Incredibly our temp has hovered around freezing for days now. Weak sunshine thru clouds not enough to clear ice and snow from our long driveway. Our back roads are in pretty good shape due to plowing and salt. Biggest fear is black ice on the back roads where trees shade the pavement from the sun...

 

[us56456712]

Incredibly our temp has hovered around freezing for days now. Weak sunshine thru clouds not enough to clear ice and snow from our long driveway. Our back roads are in pretty good shape due to plowing and salt. Biggest fear is black ice on the back roads where trees shade the pavement from the sun...

So far no bare spots on my home built snow bike trail but it's getting thin.

 

[sandman]

We are having heavy rains and tornado warnings today . Not the best day to take a ride .

 

[us56456712]

We are having heavy rains and tornado warnings today . Not the best day to take a ride .

We had bad weather then too. Rain, rain and more rain. Puddles on top of ice, then in the PM the whole mess turned to slush. Friday it snowed and the slush made the snow wet and then it all froze. Bad rutted driving. I'm not sure if I need to ride my fat bike or my studded mountain bike, Both will work but perhaps the studs will be better until we get more snow. No snow in the 10 day forecast.

 

[us56456712]

We got a lot more rain, like 2 inches. The snow held, but low spots had puddles on top of my hard packed snow. Then we got wet snow so I packed it. The wet came through the snow and now it is a sheet of pretty smooth ice. The good news is it froze now so it's got a hard base. This should be good for further packing, as long as it doesn't get warm again. Great fun riding, and packing for that matter. I wonder how long I can keep pacing with vehicles before I have to resort to snowshoes? I got slightly stuck two days ago with my ATV and again in my 4 wheel drive truck. It's getting to the point where these will not work. Normally this time of year everything would be butt deep in snow but so far it's been an El Nino winter, warm with low snowfall. Good for snow bike trail building with minimal equipment.

 

[us56456712]

Its so hard I am riding my mountain bike on it with 26 x 1.75 studded tires. A little exciting at times when the front wheel slides around a little on the ice. Even the narrow parts in the woods where I only pack it with my ATV are hard enough to give me no problems. It snowed last night and today but I think I will still be able to pack it as the base is so hard. I shouldn't sink in and get stuck with my truck or ATV.