With winter just around the corner many of you may be looking at buying a snowmobile.  Whether you are a first time buyer or adding another sled to your garage here are some valuable tips for finding the right snowmobile for you.  

1. Fall is a sellers’ market and spring is a buyers’ market, but either way most sleds will be overpriced:  If you are looking at getting a sled now you are looking at one of the worst possible times.  Fall is a sellers’ paradise.  Everyone has the bug to get a sled for the upcoming winter, the only possible worse time to buy a sled is if the winter came early and there was a ton of snow on the ground creating a high demand.  The one thing that you can be certain of at any time of year is that most of the sleds out there will be overpriced.  It seems most sellers either think their sleds are worth more than they are or they are throwing out a ridiculously high price to see if anyone bites.  This usually results in a sled sitting there unpurchased for a long time.  The truly good deals get snatched up right away so if you see one go check it out before someone else does.  I’ve seen sleds sell within five minutes of being posted and I’ve seen others sit there for months- both of these scenarios have one key ingredient- price.  If the price is right it will sell fast.  If you wait until spring you will always find the best deals.  As the snow melts people get desperate to sell their sleds before they have to store them for the winter.  This is also a good time to get a new sled from a dealer for the exact same reason, they don’t want to have any previous years’ carryover sitting in their storage area so they are willing to make a deal.

2.  Target the right sled for your needs:  This is a valuable piece of advice.  What are you using this sled for?  What is you riding style?  Are you a trail rider, a ditch banger or a boondocker? Do you put on a ton of miles or do you just go on the occasional weekend ride?  Do you need a wok horse that pulls trailers of wood or a fish house?  Luckily the manufacturers have filled every imaginable niche: Trail sleds, touring sleds, one up touring sleds, crossovers, utility sleds, mountain sleds, you name it they make it.  When I first moved back to Minnesota and got back into snowmobiling I was at a point in my life when the right sled for me was a touring sled.  I had a young daughter and I figured I would either be riding with her or my wife.  I bought the touring sled first and it wasn’t long before my wife decided she wanted her own sled so all three of us could go at once.  She was a fairly aggressive rider so I bought her a sled that not only matched her capabilities but one that I could ride just as hard with my buddies.  A few years later my daughter decided it would be much better to ride her own sled than to be on the touring sled with mom or dad so I bought a fan cooled sled that could be driven slow, was easy to start, and was light enough to get unstuck easily.  Pick a sled that best meets your needs and your current lifestyle.

3. Research:  One of the best tools I’ve found for evaluating a potential sled is doing some research.  If you know a reputable sled mechanic, ask him what he thinks of the sled you are considering- if you know someone extremely knowledgeable on snowmobiles ask them.  Several years ago I was on the fence about buying a particular sled and I called someone who had a wealth of knowledge about that particular model and brand and he told me to jump all over it- so I did and it turned out to be a great buy.  The internet is another fabulous tool.  You can look up old magazine reviews about your sled when it was new and better yet there are a ton of snowmobile forums out there that can answer just about any question you may have about engines, reliability, durability- the list goes on and on.  The more knowledgeable you are going into it the better off you will be.

4. Bring someone with you that knows what they are doing:  Speaking of experts if you know someone who knows a lot about sleds bring them with you. It’s always better to have two sets of eyes.

5. Inspect the underside of the sled for damage:  This is a big one.  It pays to look under the sled for signs of damage.  I’ve seen trashed belly pans, dented and torn steel and aluminum, bent trailing arms and A arms, dented shocks, you name it. The worst I had ever seen was a tear in the frame that ran all the way from the belly pan to the tunnel.  From up above the tear in the metal was completely concealed by the motor but looking underneath you could see that the underside of the sled had suffered severe damage.  Check the inside of the tunnel also.  I’ve seen my share of bent frames and wrecked heat exchangers.

6. Look for signs that the sled has been stored outside:  On of the worst things you can do to a snowmobile is let it sit outside all summer long.  I’ve never quite understood this one. For some reason people have this mentality that they can leave the sled right where they parked it on the last ride of the season.  They don’t cover it, they don’t get it off the ground, they just let it sit there all summer getting rained on and having the hot summer sun beat down on it relentlessly.  Would you take your motorcycle and just leave it in your yard exposed to the snow and cold all winter?  Of course not- so why would you do this to your sled?  Snowmobiles like summer sun and weather about as much as Frosty the Snowman does.  If your snowmobile had a choice it would pack it’s suitcase and head north for the summer.  Snowmobiles are specifically designed to endure the harshest winter environments.  All the parts of a snowmobile from the engine to the track to the frame were designed to work optimally in temperatures below freezing and more specifically below zero.  Summer sun and heat quickly degrade the hoods, windshields, seat covers, tracks, handgrips, wind deflectors and brake housings. You can always tell a sled that has been stored outside unprotected because all of these things will be deteriorated or discolored and faded.  If the windshield and headlights look like they need that headlight lens restorer it is a good chance that sled has been outside for a while.  You will see small cracks in the finish of the hood and the seat will be cracked or torn.  Also the brake housing on the handlebars will be faded- this is especially true on Polaris models.  The tracks will show signs of dry rot if they have been sitting on the ground for any length of time and quite often you can find decaying leaves or pine needles in the nooks and crannies of the sled, especially in any exterior seams like under a headlight.  If all of these signs of outdoor storage are present don’t just walk away- RUN!  Because that sled is an endless disaster waiting to happen.  

7. Mileage:  Look at the odometer, get the mileage and ask if the engine has been rebuilt.  The average 2 stroke snowmobile engine usually needs a rebuild around 5,000 miles.  If it hasn’t been done it will probably need to be.  4 strokes can pretty much run forever, giving them a distinct advantage here.

8. The best sleds go fast in the fall:  Even at this time of year there a good deals to be had and if you find one, don’t hesitate because everyone is out there looking right now.  In the spring you can take a little more time and negotiate a little harder but in the fall if you have an opportunity take it before it is too late.

Following these tips can help you avoid problems and find a snowmobile that will provide you hours of fun this winter. Good luck!

Someone asked me during the season last year why I don’t do any blogs on racing or race drivers. I told them that there are lots of websites you can visit to read about the latest racing news and snowmobiletrail.com is not one of those sites. We are also not a big magazine site that has info on all of the latest and greatest snowmobile technology to hit the market. We don’t ride on brand new factory set up sleds (don’t get me wrong we’d love to do that but there aren’t any factory reps beating down our doors to give us a new sled to demo). We have wives and kids and regular jobs. Just like you we have a variety of snowmobiles in our garage- some newer sleds, some older sleds and of course a couple of late 90’s Polaris Indy 500’s because it’s virtually impossible not to somehow wind up with one in your garage. We ride on the weekends and holidays and every moment we get on the saddle is a moment we cherish. Our staff is lucky enough to have the great fortune of living in Northeast Minnesota and having our base of operations a stone’s throw away from the iconic C.J. Ramstad North Shore State Trail so we can literally walk outside of our office, start up the sled and hit the trail any time we want to. We know that most people in Minnesota aren’t that lucky and a weekend ride means loading up the trailer and taking a road trip. We also realize that for the majority of Minnesotan’s that means trailering to our neck of the woods in early and late winter as we get snow sooner and it stays longer than anywhere else in the state.

We created snowmobiletrail.com because we wanted a website that could tell you where you are, what the trails are like and what you can expect when you get to where you are going. We wanted a site that could help the average snowmobiler get the most out of their trip, a website created by snowmobilers for snowmobilers and that is what you see here. It is our goal to help you get the most out of your snowmobiling experience and this blog is just one more tool in our efforts to provide you with the best website possible. I’m not going to tell you about racing or about the newest sleds from the big 4, what I am going to tell you is something that relates to you, the average rider. We have staff members on the trail every day of the week so we can provide you with the best and most up to date information possible. I also like to impart a little bit of history in the blog because I think it is important to know about the people that laid the groundwork for our trail system and the genius minds behind the snowmobile itself. All of those snowmobiling pioneers worked to create one of the most fun and rewarding winter activities of all time. Knowing where you came from helps you appreciate where you are going. I hope you find this season of the Northeast Snowmobile Blog informative and entertaining. All we need now is some snow!

There are a number of factors that you can look at to determine the overall health of the snowmobile industry. Dealers and manufacturers look at sales, states look at registrations, and snowmobile publications look at subscriptions and website hits.  I look at a different barometer when I analyze the industry’s health. It is a number that is somewhat unscientific and admittedly was created in my own 2-stroke clouded mind but it is also a number that I think best reflects the true health of the sport. It is a number I call Snowmobiles Available for Use, or SAU.  The SAU number is derived by assuming that the average lifespan of a snowmobile is about 15 years.  Of course a properly maintained sled can last much longer than that but we must also assume that many sleds were ridden extremely hard or not maintained properly or were wrapped around a tree somewhere.  All of this puts the average lifespan of a sled at about 15 years. The reason the SAU number is so important is because it can dramatically affect the economic impact of the snowmobiling public on winter economies. A perfect illustration of the impact of SAU could be seen last winter.  In 2013 there were 157,106 new snowmobiles sold worldwide. However, worldwide snowmobile registrations increased by over 700,000 sleds.  The reason for this disparity was because of the large SAU number.  Although there were over 150,000 snowmobiles sold there were an additional 550,000 snowmobiles sitting in peoples’ garages that were available to use.  When the snow arrived, those sleds were brought back into action creating an enormous winter economic impact. It is estimated that those 550,000 sleds coming back online generated an additional 2.2 billion dollars of economic activity.

Over the years snowmobile sales have experienced two significant peaks.  In 1971 worldwide snowmobile sales reached a record 495,000 units.  After 1971 there were a number of factors that played into the rapid decline in snowmobile sales.  In 1973 the EPA instituted new regulations for snowmobiles which forced the manufacturers to invest millions of dollars in the development of new technology, dramatically increasing the cost of a new sled and forcing several of the smaller companies out of business. The gas shortage of the late seventies and out of control gas prices severely cut into peoples’ disposable income and made the idea of using a short supply of gas on a recreational vehicle like a snowmobile seem illogical. Double digit inflation and unemployment meant less people were able to afford a new sled. The trail system we have today was just in its infancy. The sleds that were being produced had many reliability issues, and most importantly there was a string of poor snow years. 

Although the eighties saw an economic boom the same could not be said for the snowmobile industry.  Sales in the eighties reached an all-time low and all but three manufacturers went belly up. In fact Polaris was in danger of being bought out by Bombardier and only the federal government stepping in to block the takeover kept us from having just two sled manufacturers.  Although new sled sales bottomed out, all was not lost for the sport because the SAU number was at an all-time high.  In 1984 roughly 4.4 Million snowmobiles were available in the marketplace and the majority of those were early seventies models which were now piloted by teenagers.  This boom in teen snowmobiling in the eighties later led to the second peak of snowmobile sales in the mid-nineties as these teens became adults and the target audience for the snowmobile manufacturers.  Other factors also played into the 1990’s sales boom.  The 1980’s had seen manufacturers trying to develop good trail sleds – and they were successful.  Unfortunately, when these trail sleds got off of the trail they instantly buried themselves.  The increased horsepower being transferred to inadequate tracks and suspensions resulted in these sleds trenching right to the bottom of the snow pack.  You were often told “Whatever you do, don’t go in the deep snow with this sled.”  Imagine, snowmobiles that performed terribly in snow!

By the nineties the manufacturers had created sleds that performed better and were far more comfortable to ride than their 70’s and 80’s predecessors and although they still weren’t the greatest deep snow sleds, they could get the job done.  Snocross racing expanded rapidly in the nineties giving the sport some much needed exposure.  The improvement in ride technology combined with what was now a well maintained trail network in the US and Canada further fueled the boom and, most importantly, a few consecutive good snow years sent the snowmobile market rocketing upward with a peak of 260,375 snowmobiles being sold in 1997.

In the 2000’s outside forces again began to plague the market along with the manufacturers themselves being their own worst enemy.  In the 2000’s the name of the game was power.  In the early 1960’s snowmobiles typically produced about 6 to 8 horsepower, by the 2000’s that number had jumped to 150 hp.  It didn’t take long for the consumer to realize that these high powered sleds came with their share of drawbacks. For one, they were extremely heavy and difficult to get unstuck. Secondly, they got about 10 MPG – not a good thing with gas prices pushing $4 a gallon. Third, there were very few places that you could actually use all of that power. And lastly, they cost an arm and a leg to buy and maintain.  Additionally, Ski-doo’s new rider forward design that appeared in the 2003 model year sent the other manufacturers into a tailspin. Worldwide sales numbers bottomed out again at 111,492 in 2009 and the snowmobile manufacturers had to reexamine their strategy.  Much like the auto industry that had produced a fleet of gas guzzling SUV’s and trucks, the snowmobile manufacturers had produced a fleet of high powered high fuel-usage rockets.  There was a push to develop more efficient two stroke engines that burned less gas and oil, along with improving four stroke technology aimed at making a light weight more powerful and fuel efficient 4 stroke engine.

Over the past few years we have seen a resurgence of smaller 600 sleds with new chassis technology, better fuel economy and best of all smaller price tags.  All of this innovation helped increase sales even though snowfall rates weren’t the best.  Now as the aging 1990’s fleet is coming to the end of its lifespan, we should see an uptick in new sled sales as more of the old traditional sleds are replaced with newer rider forward technology sleds.  This combined with a good snow year last year pushed worldwide new sled sales to 157,106 for 2013.  Are we seeing another resurgence of the snowmobile market?  The resurgence of new sled sales would suggest that we are. However, the SAU number is declining and new sled sales have not matched the rate of decline, so even though sales are up there are less snowmobiles on the trails.  Hopefully the new influx of fuel efficient inexpensive sleds and a few good snow years will get the sport back to where it was in the 90’s.  Only time will tell.

September. The leaves on the trees start to change color, the temperature starts dropping, kids go back to school and football season starts.  September is a time of transition.  Not only does it signal the end of summer (which this year seemed incredibly short and considering we only had about three hot days I question if we actually had a summer at all in northern Minnesota) but it also signals the unofficial beginning of snowmobile season with the onset of the Sno Baron’s Hay Days event in Lindstrom on the first weekend if the month. When Hay Days ends dealers go back to their stores and start winterizing boats and personal watercraft.  Lawnmowers are put away and snow blowers come out of storage.  Semis start showing up in dealer parking lots with the newest lines of gear and, more importantly, crates full of new sleds for the showroom floor!

September is also the time that things start heating up for the snowmobile clubs around the state.  Trail cleanups begin and prep and repair work starts taking place on the groomer.

September marks an exciting time for snowmobiletrail.com as well.  This is the time that we start planning our weekly rides and my boss throws a rough list of articles and destinations that he thinks we should tackle for the upcoming season, and believe me when I say we have some great stuff planned for you this year starting with the launching of our new snowmobiletrail.com video channel on You Tube where you will get to see firsthand some of the places we travel to throughout the winter.  We will also being doing some video reviews of some new sleds as they become available to us.

This is also the time that blog season starts for me so you can expect a steady flow of articles coming your way including some preseason Destination and Trail In Focus articles to help you plan some of your early season trips when the snow arrives.  We are also going to be doing more vintage sled articles and articles on some of the 2015’s.  We have an exciting winter planned for you so stay tuned!

Welcome to the first installment of our feature series “Vintage Sled.” This will be a regular feature next winter joining the “Trail In Focus” and “Destination” articles along with the latest snow conditions, ride recaps and whatever else comes across our 2-stroke exhaust saturated minds. For this feature, I will be highlighting random vintage sleds for random reasons- could one of your old sleds be featured? Tune in to find out.

Being an ex history major I feel that it is important to know where we came from in order to better understand where we are going. The history of snowmobiling is a fascinating one and I continue to be blown away by the huge leaps forward in technology that the sport takes on an almost yearly basis. This may be one of the reasons that vintage snowmobile shows have become so popular- despite the nostalgia of looking at the wide variety of sleds that existed during snowmobiling’s first golden age, you can also see some important milestones in snowmobile development. Here are just a few things that we take for granted now but at the time of their inception were cutting edge technology.

1. The “modern” snowmobile.

Yes, there were snow traveling vehicles before the first Ski-Doo hit the snow but nothing that looked like this. The first Ski-Doo served as a template of how snowmobiles should be built: engine in the front with a clutch and drive belt system powering an endless rubber track and two skis in front to steer with. The Ski-Doo was so successful and dominated the market so thoroughly that other snowmobile manufacturers were forced to copy Bombardier’s design. Although technology has advanced dramatically over the past 55 years, the basic concept dreamed up in Joseph-Armand Bombardier’s mind has not changed.

2. Slide rail Suspension.

When Arctic Cat rolled out the first slide rail suspension in 1967 on the Arctic Cat Panther there were many people that wondered how two metal runners could provide a better ride than bogey wheels. Multiple sets of bogey wheels had been the only way to support a track and now Arctic Cat had to convince us that not only was a slide rail a better way to support a track but that it provided a more consistent and comfortable ride as well. Just like the first Ski-Doo, Arctic Cat’s suspension proved to be so successful that eventually all of the other manufacturers were forced to follow their lead and Arctic Cat shocked the execs at Bombardier by riding the slide rail suspension to market dominance by the mid 70′s.

3. Independent Front Suspension.

A product of the racetrack and an idea that had been toyed with by other manufacturers in multiple forms with various degrees of success was finally perfected by Polaris and confidently brought to the consumer market with their 1980 TX-L Indy. Like most new innovations, the Indy had its share of naysayers. Critics were convinced that the trailing arm was just too odd looking and that it could easily fall victim to rocks and stumps. Luckily for Polaris, critics and competitors do not make the buying decisions- consumers do, and once the snowmobiling public experienced the Indy’s vastly superior ride quality, they flocked to Polaris in droves and Indy’s flew out the door as fast as Polaris could make them. The groundbreaking front suspension of the Indy combined with the growing organized trail systems in Canada and the US launched snowmobiling into its second golden age in the 90′s. Polaris enjoyed market dominance for over a decade making the Indy the best selling snowmobile model in history. While Polaris was riding high, the other manufacturers scrambled to catch up, working on multiple IFS designs of their own. Arctic Cat held fast on its A arm suspension eventually perfecting it and the A arm has since replaced the trailing arm in all of today’s sleds.

4. Rider Forward.

The running theme here is sleds that bring something to the market that forces everyone else to follow suit. Ski-Doo did just that in 2003 with its MXZ on the new rev chassis. As with the slide rail and the trailing arm, the Rev Chassis was met with a huge up swell of resistance. It looked way too funky for traditionalists and when you sat on it in the showroom it felt more like a motorcycle than a snowmobile. The other manufacturers scoffed at the radical Ski-Doo design, content to keep punching out the tried and true traditional looking sleds. Just like the aforementioned Indy, however, the Rev chassis proved its worth on the trail, delivering a ride that was beyond compare and far beyond the capabilities of the old design. Overnight Ski-Doo catapulted to the top of the market leaving the other manufacturers in shell shock and scrambling to catch up.

What new innovation will be next? What groundbreaking technology will usher in the next chapter of snowmobiling? Only time will tell, and someday even the technologically advanced sleds of today will have the “Vintage” tag on them.

April gave us a little bit of extra riding with a storm on April 3rd that dumped an additional 11 inches of snow on Duluth. Naturally I showed up at the Snowmobiletrail.com headquarters with my backup sled after blowing up my primary sled just a week before (ironically during another Thursday late season storm). This storm had some real teeth, featuring high winds and an inch an hour snowfall. This made visibility a little bit tough- all you could see of the guy ahead of you was the track he left behind preceded by a cloud of snow dust with an occasional flicker of light in the darkness. The farther we rode the deeper the snow became- at first just three or four inches, then five, then six, then seven, until at last we were plowing through over a foot of fresh powder, enough to make it come over the nose of the sled and blacken out your headlight. Who would have ever guessed we would be stand up powder riding on April 3rd! After 47 miles of trail breaking and busting through some four foot snowdrifts that occasionally cropped up over the trail we decided to call it quits both for the night and as it turned out for me- the season.

After a week of forty plus degree temperatures and the fact that it is nearly mid April it looks like the winter is over. It should be noted, however, that as of this writing, there are still 26 inches of snow on the ground and most of the trails up here still have snow cover. Since the end has come, the question for most snowmobilers is Now What?

This is always a confusing time of year for me because all winter long my weekends have been planned out- now I am suddenly left with two whole days a week to get things done. First I put my gear away, making a note of things I need to replace, then I buzz down to the dealer to catch any awesome end of year clearance sales they may have going on. This is when I always find some really cool things for dirt-cheap. Then of course, there is the spring preview of the 2015 sleds. Now that my old Indy has gone to snowmobile heaven, I might actually take advantage of one of the snow check deals. Spring is a good time to buy sleds because the dealers are desperate to get rid of non-currents or if you are going to go new, you can get great incentives on spring buy sleds along with some features that are not offered at any other time of year. If you are in the used market, it is also a good time to gobble up sleds that no one wants to store for the summer.

Once all the snow melts and things dry out a bit I give my sleds a good head to toe wash and wax, summerize them and put them away for the summer, this is usually when I find out that I really destroyed something on my sled during the season that had gone unnoticed because it was covered in snow and ice. Sometimes if I have major work that needs to be done I will do it now so when next season rolls around I am ready to go. Trust me, you don’t want your sled in the shop undergoing a major overhaul when an early season snowstorm hits, especially when you have friends that come over on their sleds and ride around your house several times to remind you of how much fun you are missing out on.

If you are involved in the local clubs, you usually start looking at potential trail work that needs to be done over the summer or groomer repairs. There are also a number of snowmobile charity events out there that start planning for the next season once June hits. I will also start roughly mapping out my weekends for the upcoming season so I can have a game plan in place once it snows. At the beginning of each month I fire up the sleds, it helps keeps things fresh and moving and helps avoid problems in the fall.

After a summer of mowing the lawn, fishing and going to the beach the leaves will start changing and before you know it Hay Days arrives and you start watching the forecast for snow. Every once in a while you can check back here and see what crazy snowmobiling stuff I’m writing about in July. The best way to be alerted to things is to “Like” us on facebook so every time there is a post it will give you an alert. Believe it or not, I still have some stuff to write about to put a bow on this season. Stay tuned!

The winter of 2013-14 has come to a close- the grant-in-aid trail portion of it at least (grant-in-aid trails close April 1st regardless of snow conditions). The far northern reaches of the state are still expecting a ton of snow this week making for some extended saddle time. As for me, my riding is pretty much done- I’ll tell you why in a moment.
Although this winter’s length was somewhat normal compared to the past two awful winters we have had, it was still anything but a normal year. It all started with a massive 28 inch snowfall the first week of December laying down what would prove to be a fantastic base. Snowmobilers all across Minnesota were rejoicing- finally a winter with snow! But then the cold set in… for four months straight. All through Northern Minnesota records fell like dominos: most days in a row below zero, most days with below zero temperatures, numerous daily low temperature records, coldest December, coldest January, coldest February, coldest start to a winter, coldest start to a year, the list goes on and on. Although the cold and snow gave us some of the greatest and most consistent trail conditions I have ever seen, the cold kept many of the less hardy snowmobilers from enjoying them. My wife and daughter, both avid sowmobilers, bailed out on me several times because of the cold. As for me I’ll ride through pretty much anything, but lets face it- it is a lot more fun to ride when it is 20 above zero than it is to ride when it is 20 below zero. Despite the cold I would still take a winter like this one over the past few winters any day.
Then came last week- an end of week snowstorm dumped another eight inches on us and the snowmobiletrail.com staffers went out for one of our famous late night rides. The conditions were amazing and I can honestly say it was one of the best rides I had had all year long. We were on the final stretch heading toward home and BAM! my old Indy rolled to a dead stop. Yes ladies and gentlemen, after 7720 miles my Indy was no more. Ironically this was going to be its last year anyway as I was planning on upgrading in the fall but still you hate to see your sled go out that way.
Just because winter is over doesn’t mean that things aren’t still happening at snowmobiletrail.com. There are still a few more blogs coming your way and we will be making more improvements to the site over the summer so stop by and check out our progress. Next year we have a full slate of articles for you. Starting in October we will be ding a heavy dose of trail in focus and destination articles to get you primed for winter.  Also on tap will be our new vintage sled feature which will be starting within the next few weeks- all of that and trail updates and ride recaps and of course some snowmobile history lessons too, not to mention the regular old blogs that come up when I have to vent about something. Stay tuned- we’ve got a lot of stuff coming up for you next winter ad even a few tidbits this spring and summer. Until next week- if you still have snow- USE IT!

3/24/14
First a quick trail update. We are expecting even more snow this week so we anticipate that the trails will once again be spectacular all weekend. It looks like temps will start creeping up into the 40′s on Sunday but the base is so good you won’t have to worry. Enjoy what may be the last weekend of riding.

As the snowmobile season draws to a close, I look back on the year and wonder what I could have done differently. One of the things I always look at is whether or not I used my brief winter window wisely. Officially, the snowmobile trails in Minnesota are open from December 1st through March 31st. This leaves you with four months of snowmobiling- weather permitting. Best-case scenario you get roughly 16 weekends to ride. Inevitably some sort of family event always crops up and limits your time even further, add in the fact that some of us feel the need to torture ourselves with horrible Vikings games every Sunday and you’ve lost even more quality riding time. I am lucky because my “job” for snowmobiletrail.com requires me to “work” every weekend, so all of my friends and family know what I will be doing every winter, but most snowmobilers are not that lucky. How many times have you been sitting somewhere thinking to yourself “I should be riding right now but instead I’m doing this?” We have all been there and some things cannot be avoided, but others can. Over the years, I have developed a system that can help the average snowmobiler maximize their saddle time.

1. LET EVERYONE KNOW YOU ARE A SNOWMOBILER: Most people have some sort of passion or obsession and their friends and family are usually aware of it. Take for instance a Green Bay Packers fan. All true Packers fans are good at one thing- letting everyone on earth know how much they love the Packers. Walk into the home of any Packers fan and you will see an assortment of Green Bay Packers hand towels and beer mugs, bathroom garbage cans and Christmas ornaments, sweatshirts and hats, and no Packers fan can be truly happy unless they have a nativity scene in their front yard at Christmas time with a baby Brett Favre- errr, baby Aaron Rodgers in place of the baby Jesus. You cannot work with these people without them telling you how great the Packers are all week long and then having them make excuses as to why they lost every Monday. This is a perfect example of letting those around you know what your passion in life is- no one calls a Packers fan during the game on Sunday, no one bothers to invite them to anything that conflicts with game time- because everyone knows that they are going to waste their entire Sunday getting up at 7 AM to listen to the Packers pregame show, watch the game and then spend the rest of the night listening to the post game show. Use this same strategy as a snowmobiler and everyone will know not to bug you on the weekends. They will know that from Saturday morning until Sunday night you will be out on the trail.

2. PLAN THINGS FOR THE “MUDDY” TIMES: Three of my regular riding buddies all made huge errors this winter- one of them sold his sled in the middle of the season because he needs to pay for his wedding (which is in the SUMMER), my second friend went out of town to visit friends over the weekend and my third friend had his in-laws over for dinner on a Saturday. My three friends have two things in common- first their priorities are totally screwed up and secondly they all missed out on some of the best riding conditions of the year. I understand having to sell your sled for wedding money (although it does seem extreme) but at least wait until the end of the season. He claims he wanted to be sure it sold- well of course it sold it was the middle of the season! April and May are great times to get all of your social obligations and honey do projects out of the way. During the melt you cannot snowmobile anymore and your yard is too wet to start any yard work so you might as well take care of all of your other social obligations. This is the time to plan those weekend “out of town” trips to visit friends (especially if your friends live in West Yellowstone) and unless your in-laws usually arrive at your house on two brand new Ski-Doo Renegades then they can wait until spring to come over for dinner!

3. HAVE AN ITINERARY: Before the start of each season we sit down as a family and decide where we want to go and what we want to see over the course of the winter and then we start inking those rides in on the calendar. Sure we have plenty of off the cuff spur of the moment type rides but between my family, snowmobiling friends, and my snowmobiletrail.com schedule I pretty much fill up every weekend before the season starts. When you have a snowmobiling itinerary for the year you can pretty much let everyone know when you will be unavailable because you will be riding.

4. GET YOUR FAMILY INTO THE SPORT: The best way to avoid conflicts is to get your family and friends hooked on riding. I was lucky enough to marry someone who loves to ride and can’t wait for the first snowflakes to fall- luckily this trait has been passed down to my daughter so I always have someone to ride with and very little that takes precedence over riding.

Just because winter is ending doesn’t mean the blog is ending. Keep checking in for new articles and new updates for what will be coming up for the 2014- 2015 season.

Nearly all of the Arrowhead received 5-8 inches of snow on Friday. That combined with temps in the low twenties all weekend promises to make this one of the best riding weekends of the year. If you aren’t riding you should be!

Once again the National Weather Service dropped the ball. For days we heard how this huge snowstorm was going to dump a ton of snow on Northeast Minnesota- besides a swath of a good 8 inches south of Duluth this storm was a big dud with Duluth getting around an inch and points farther north getting a dusting. So where does that leave the trails? We did go out and ride Wednesday night and the trails were quite nice- icy under that dusting of snow but there is still a great base. If you have a studded track you are in great shape for the weekend- without studs your back end may be sliding quite a bit in the corners. Overall the base is still fantastic- roughly 12 -14 inches in most places. There are more rumors of a significant amount of snow falling from Duluth to the Canadian border on Friday but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Snowmobilers are a strange breed, at least to some folks. While most of the “normal” people grow tired of winter, the die-hard snowmobiler gets slightly depressed when the thermometer creeps above the freezing mark and the snow banks stat to recede. This pain comes from the knowledge that it will be at least another seven or eight months before the snow flies again and they have to spend all of that time looking at their sled sitting undercover in their garage, replaced by the lawn mower and weed whacker. This winter looked like it was well on its way out as we jumped from the twenty below zero range right into temperatures in the mid forties. No teens or twenties here- just winter coming to an abrupt end. Of course, we thought the same thing last winter. I took my obligatory last ride of the season, parked the sled and watched all of the snow melt off my deck. Then one day in April I grabbed my video camera to catch some shots of the huge April snowflakes falling from the sky- 52 inches of snow later I had put another 300 miles on my sled! These late season snows gave us two of the craziest riding days we had all year including one where we got caught in the storm and the visibility got so bad we began wondering if we would find our way back to snowmobiletrail.com headquarters.

So here we are in the midst of another forty-degree stretch wondering how long the trails will be open only to find ourselves back below zero a week later with a potential monster storm looming on the horizon. I guess Mother Nature doesn’t give up that easily. Who knows we might have a couple more weekends left of riding after all!

Trail Update- We don’t really have to do trail updates this year because we’ve had 80 inches of snow so far and its been so cold that practically none of it has melted. Lets just say that everything in the Arrowhead is awesome- quite frankly none of us can remember when the trails have been so consistently perfect, unfortunately temps that constantly range in the twenty to thirty below zero range makes riding a little less enjoyable.

Once in a while you hit the trail just because you feel like going for a ride and you really don’t have a specific agenda, but most of the time you have a plan, whether it be a specific route or destination. This is why we have started our latest blog feature called “Destination” where we highlight a location that you can build your trip around. Some of these places you will have heard of, but some of them you have not. In our hours on the trail we run across some obscure places that most riders don’t even know exist. As the Northeast Minnesota snowmobile blogger it is my job to let everyone else in the state know about the must sees when they come to our neck of the woods. It is our mission at snowmobiletrail.com to help maximize every snowmobiler’s enjoyment of the sport, that is why we are always adding new features and new data to the site and why we have created the “Trail In Focus” and “Destination” features on the blog. Our first “Destination” feature is on the Trestle Inn, perhaps the most iconic stop in all of Minnesota. As the website that was created by snowmobilers for snowmobilers we felt it only fitting to highlight the place that coined that very phrase: “Built by snowmobilers for snowmobilers,” The Trestle Inn.

A BRIEF HISTORY

If you have ever been on a snowmobile in Northeast Minnesota you have undoubtedly heard of the Trestle Inn, unless you have been living under a rock. As I mentioned in my previous blog about the North Shore State Trail, the DNR’s original plan was to build a trail from Duluth to the Canadian border, theorizing that once the trail was completed it would result in locals getting together to build a system of feeder trails. They were correct in their assumption. Two huge snowmobile enthusiasts Lee Schumacher and his son Kurt were pivotal in punching a trail from their year round home and business, the Crooked Lake Resort, to the North Shore State Trail. In the Process they came across an old railroad trestle that was part of the old logging railroads that used to traverse the area in the early 1900’s. With permission of the DNR they disassembled the trestle and hauled the timber to their resort. With the later completion of the Tomahawk trail which runs from the NSST to Ely, the Schumachers decided to put the old railroad timbers to good use and build a place for snowmobilers to stop and relax on their long treks. In 1985 the Trestle Inn was completed and as the Schumacher’s predicted was soon over run with snowmobilers. For a more detailed history you can read the complete story online at www.trestleinn.com

KEYS TO SUCCESS

The Trestle Inn owes its success to a number of factors One major contributor is its location: right on the iconic Tomahawk rail, and when we say right on the trail we literally mean it – the trail runs through the Trestle Inn Parking lot (a parking lot that rarely sees a car). Second is the atmosphere- this place was built for snowmobilers and they pride themselves on that fact- if you were to drive to the Trestle Inn in a car or truck in the middle of winter it would be kind of like the guy that gets his Picante sauce from New York City, everyone stops and looks at you like you are some kind of freak. And lastly is the food- in the business of pleasing snowmobilers you have to have some good grub to keep them happy and the Trestle Inn delivers like no other.

OUR TRIP TO THE TRESTLE INN

When we decided to make a run to the Trestle Inn we wanted to get the most out of our day so we trailered up to Finland and launched our sleds at the CJ Ramstad North Shore State Trail. The section of the NSST from Finland to the Tomahawk intersection is a staff favorite and we try to start our rides from there at least a few times a year. Once you get on the Tomahawk you are in snowmobiler paradise- long stretches of pine lined trails that flow over gently rolling terrain. Before you know it your at the Trestle Inn amidst a slew of other sleds. It looks big from the outside but it is surprisingly cozy on the inside. As with all good snowmobile bars there is a place for your gear, beyond that is the bar and a few tables and then the kitchen. The second floor is home to a large banquet room that can be reserved for large groups or events.

We sat at the bar and perused the menu- all of the regular fare: burgers fries etc but then as you neared the bottom of the menu you see the Train Wreck- a beef patty and a bratwurst patty- with bacon sandwiched in the middle and the whole thing is covered in cheese- we couldn’t pass that up. When the bartender came to take our order he asked if we wanted our Train Wreck with Casualties. “What’s the Train Wreck With Casualties?“ my buddy asked. “It’s the Train Wreck… With Casualties.“ Well that cleared things up. We eventually figured out that the Train Wreck With Casualties is the Train Wreck burger with whatever else the cook wants to throw on it. I wasn’t feeling too adventurous so I stuck with the regular Train Wreck- my buddy got the Casualties- and let me tell you there were lots of Casualties. He ate the thing with a fork and knife all the while saying out loud “How can I eat this thing?” I watched in awe as he shoveled in fork full after fork full. “I know I should stop but its too damn good,” he said- and he ate the whole thing. We thought it was best to sit for a while and let some of the casualties work through his system before we hopped back on the sled.

We spent the next half hour people watching. There was an endless stream of riders coming and going. This truly was a snowmobile haven built for snowmobilers by snowmobilers.

Eventually we got back on our sleds and enjoyed some more of the trails in this part of Minnesota that gets more snow than almost anywhere else in the state. It was one of those days where you could have just kept riding and riding but unfortunately we had other obligations to attend to and eventually we reluctantly returned to our trailer and went home.

What did we learn from all of this? First that a trip to the Trestle Inn needs to be on every snowmobiler’s bucket list if nothing else just to ride the Tomahawk Trail- and secondly that there can be a lot of casualties in a Train Wreck!