St. Ignace Trail Report – 04/03
OK, so here it is on April 3rd, and last night I went out for my first ride of the season. A quick little trip after work turned into a 122 mile trek. We left Iggy went out the Cedarville connector to M-134 and 16 mile rd, off trail across to the Kenneth and the RR Grade, off trail across to the Truck trail, out the Caffey to Rexton, down to Epoufette and back to Iggy along our Western loop. Overall 122 miles, and maybe total of 4-5 miles of sub-standard trail.
The Cedarville connector- East Lake Rd is down to mostly gravel, shoulder riding required.
Off trail – snow still really deep, knee to waist in most places, and got stuck once.
Truck trail is starting to get a bit choppy, but really ridable. The areas that the logger had previously plowed are getting pretty icy, but ridable.
Caffey trail going to Rexton has been plowed by the loggers, and there are section that are kinda bad, about 100 yards that are fresh and mostly down to sand – passable but I would not recommend going that way.
Up by Rexton, the sides of the rods are of course about shot.
Going down from Rexton to Epoufette, that stretch that the loggers plowed is down to sand, a really tough mile there. This trail isn’t packed as well as ours is, and consequently is much looser and has some sand mixed in.
From Epoufette East it is in really good condition, flat fast lots of snow and only maybe 1 or 2 small slush spots.
From the Trail stop in towards Iggy, again in really good and fast condition, all the way to the junction of Castle Rock Rd and Round Lake Road where we found a surprise – a Damsel in Distress.
Apparently she was looking for a place to go hiking and drove her small SUV all the way out Castle Rock Rd, she didn’t make the corner and was down to the frame. We brought her back to town and hopefully friends will get the car out today. but Castle Rock Rd now has a few ruts in it, not really bad, but not nearly as nice as when we went out earlier in the day.
The RR Grade from Iggy to Castle Rock Rd is got some decent side rollers in it, and at the bottom of some are slush holes that will only get worse. Maybe 1/3 of this 4 miles is in OK shape, defiantly not ‘good’
Looking at that, I have no idea what is going to happen for sure. I figure we will get 1-3′ of snow on Friday which will freshen things up. Everything is still freezing at night, so we are in a preserve maybe Mid-March type of weather/riding pattern. Would I ride this weekend? I did yesterday and had a blast, this weekend will be fine. Sides of roads are hit and plowed roads are a bit tough and getting icy, so what should you do this weekend? RIDE! One more good weekend left, probably 2 questionable ones after that.
Suggested routes for this weekend? You can park at the ice rink lot right in Iggy, and deal with the slush for the first 4 miles (not too bad) Choose your trip to Trout Lake (getting into town, trail is bumpy but snow covered), leave there and go across to Rexton, down to Epoufette ( deal with 1 mile of tough logger plowed trail with some sand), and then back along the Southern route to Iggy. Probably a good 80-90 mile run and should be some pretty good trails.
If you want to go North, then leave Iggy, take the Western side of the lower loop – trail 471, then take 2, and go North, usually I would recommend the caffey (#2) up to Rexton here, but today I say stay North, and connect up with 473 (TASA powerline/swamp trail) to go over to Rexton, then North from there.
I talked to a guy who ran 190 miles yesterday from Moran up to Paradise and he said for the most part it was flat snow covered fun with maybe a total of 4-5 miles of crap with roads and plowed stuff.
Flat out – if you want to do some spring riding there are some great trails left, and some great DEEP off trail stuff too, right on the South side of the UP.
Base: 16 inches
Snowfall Past 24 hours: 0 inches
Last Grooming: 3-30 – Sunday night – all trails.
Current Trail Conditions: Fair
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