Iron River

More pictures out here.

Great snowmobile trip to Iron River WI last week Wed PM to Saturday AM. Stayed at the Lumberman's Inn in Iron River for probably the last time. It used to be a great little motel with a nice restaurant next to it, but I suspect the mild winters of the past 10 years didn't do it any good.

Thursday AM was a bit chilly with about zero degrees as we went out to an excellent breakfast at the Rustic Roost. The Apex was a little cold blooded to start and we had to give it 10 min before the "wait" light went out, but it was fine the rest of the day. Drove over to Washburn and stopped for coffee. Rode up to Red Cliffs and made sure there had been a lot of folks on the ice (there had) before heading out. Got about 1/2 mile out and went into panic mode. The wind had cleared big sections of ice completely, 100 yards or more of pure black ice ... gave me a VERY uncomfortable feeling. Would have liked to have turned around, but really didn't want to because it SEEMED that those "might be thin", although one couldn't see just how.

About 2 miles out, off the end of one of the Islands, there were some guys fishing and I just had to stop to see if there were any known problems with the ice. Turned out that it was the In Fisherman trying to do some filming. I ought to have asked which stars were out there, but I was too interested in the ice. We were on 14" in 150' of water, it was one of those black ice areas, you could look right through it and see little bubbles under the ice -- not that comfortable of a feeling. That was least ice they had found, and they said folks had been driving all over for a month at least, if our sleds went through it had to be our time to go! We continued on down to the Bell Street Tavern on Madeline and had their excellent sweet potato fries.

Rode back over to Bayfield next to the ice road and enjoyed the great trails back to Iron River . 150 miles for the day. Some other guys from work were up there staying up near Washburn, but had a sled problem so I hauled their sled back up there in the trailer, about 80mi round trip, but nice to do a good deed for a fellow rider. We went out and ate at Deep Lake Inn, really super steaks, nice place. Slept like a rock.

Little trouble getting the Yamaha started again in the AM and we were all the way to me trying to tow the heavy beast and I burned my belt on the sled a bit. Learned a lesson when I changed it out on Saturday and rode down by Preston, even though it looked just fine, the new belt was MUCH smoother. Rode up to Port Wing and had a nice big blueberry pancake for beakfast. Six guys in their 20's eating in the next room having bloody mary's and talking smart -- having a fun time being young. We took off and rode on super trails across Valhalla over to the Pub and Grub near Washburn and had a nice lunch, then rode back into Iron River.

Sledding buddy was tired, so I stole the Apex and rode to Superior and back. Haven't been on it in awhile. I love my Fusion for seating position, ride, power, and especially lightness on the twisties, but on a flat firm trail the Apex is scary smooth. I like to cruise at 60 on my sled ... it feels great and that is fast enough. The Apex at 80 feels just like my sled at 60 ... it is like moving from a little rattletrap car to a nice SUV, it seems like you are crawling. I tried to still drive 60, but most times I would look down and be between 70-80 and have to slow down again. On the way back there was a .5 mil stretch where I could see there were no deer around and I had drove it going the other way for awhile -- 103MPH on a sled, fastest I've ever gone on one and it didn't even seem scary to look down -- no vibration, no ski chatter, no sense of it being "topped out" at all. With those snow conditions I have no doubt that one could get to 120MPH or more on that sled. Amazing.

Ate over at Ashland next ot the Best Western on the S end of the bay. Tasty, probably stay there next time we go up. Slept pretty good, but sleds were arriving every now and then after 12 with loud pipes and riders including the last set at 3AM. Got up and hit the road at 7, stopped for a good breakfast in the cities, pulled into home at noon. Marla wanted to ride, so I swapped her sled on the trailer, replaced my belt and we went down and put on 60 mi down by Fountain, Preston, Lanesborro with dinner at the Branding Iron in Preston.

Great snowmobile weekend, the 4-stroke Apex 150 HP Yamaha is easy to love when the trails aren't too twisty.