Temps were 1 below this morning groomers have been out overnight and today after yesterdays high of 30. Trails are in excellent shape except we have one water spot on the Kinross to Raco trail. You can go around it on your sled but the beaver are keeping the water flowing so it won’t freeze. We are going to remove a portion of the dam this week to change the flow and hopefully it will freeze.

We now have a marked trail that will be groomed on occasion to get to parts and service at Chippewa Motors. it comes into the back of their lot from the east side of M-129 when you come out of the woods.

Sault Ste. Marie to Brimley, Trail #8 –

Base 3- 5 inches -Trail is in Excellent Condition. Watch for logging trucks the last 2 miles before Brimley, they are using the grade to haul, so a portion is plowed.

Brimley to Raco, Trail #8 –

Base 3 – 6 inches -Trail is in Excellent Condition. When going across the bridge in Brimley make sure you go with the flow of traffic!

Raco to Naomikong Trail #8 [where Paradise meets us], Trail #8 –

Base 4 – 8 inches – Trail is in Excellent Condition. Lots of snow out here but watch for blowing and drifting snow in open areas.

Sault Ste. Marie City Trail, Trails #497, #449, parts of #8 & #49 –

Base 3 -5 inches – Trail is Good to excellent condition. The wet spots have frozen over and trail is groomed all the way to the Antlers Restaurant and up to the I-500 Track.

We now have a marked & groomed trail going to Chippewa Motors. It starts once you come out of the woods east of M-129 off #449. It comes into their parking lot from behind if you need parts or service.

City curfew is from 1 am – 6 am. Remember most City streets are open to traffic 20mph, stop at all intersections, and ride on the right hand side of street not on side walks. Watch for closed streets that are posted, mainly around the hospital, university, and state trunk lines.

Sault Ste. Marie to Kinross, Trail #49 –

Base 2 – 5 inches – Trail is in Good Condition. We groomed the compete section a couple of times over the weekend and the last of the wet spots are frozen.

When the trail is running along roads make sure you go with the flow of traffic on the right side of the road.

Kinross loop & south to Pickford, Parts of Trail #49, #472, and #494 –

Base 2 – 4 inches – Trail in Fair to good condition. There is less snow the farther south you go but enough to ride.

Kinross to Raco, Parts of trail #472 & #480 –

Base 2 – 6 inches – Trail in Poor to Fair Condition. One water hole left by the bridge that you can ride around.

The Downtown Trail is signed and groomed starting the 16th of January.

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Holiday weekend traffic. Haven’t seen it in a while, but it was defiantly here. Our trails for the most part got hammered with what little snow we have. All of the traffic drove the RR Grade down and we now have some rocks poking through headed into Iggy. The outer trails were stutter bump city for all of the traffic and the very warm temps. Forecast was saying close to 32d but when the groomers rolled on Saturday evening it was 37d and raining. That kind of weather was really difficult to take care of stuff – the town groomer reported problems laying a trail, and the Brevort groomer felt he was causing more damage then good and aborted his run after working the South section. Consequently the Northern sections of our trail were not groomed at all for Sunday and I know they needed it. It stayed close to 32d most of the day, but the groomer was able to run later last night – I have not heard from him how things turned out yet, I will update when I hear more.

Now for the bad news: It was warm enough over the last week that we lost almost all of the ice. There is no ice bridge to the island, and there was no ice in the bay for pond hockey yet. We did get some new bay ice in lat night, but they are strongly considering 2-3 backup locations, and that final decision will be made on Feb 1.

Some of the trails are beat, some came be groomed back up. I want the groomers to make a couple of overall trips to cover everything to find all of the bad spots so we can report back. The forecast is OK temp wise, although a bit warm, but there is basically no snow in the forecast for over a week. Next weekend we will very likely we working with what we have now. I will send my most experienced groomer drivers out over the next couple of days and all we can do is see what happens.

Randy, Dave and I spent 11 hours on Saturday repairing and maintenance on Groomer #6, so it is all set and growling along again. Both machines are up and running just fine and will be working things over here and there this week. Stay tuned for more info as I get it.

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