With Jan and I heading to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico next week, I wanted to get in one more trip up north to get in some riding. My friend Steve built a beautiful cabin on Big Lake, one of the lakes on the Cisco chain just west of Land O' Lakes this year and he and some friends were up riding since Friday. I arrived on Saturday and we planned to ride together Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Steve's friends who were up for the trip and staying at his new cabin were: Jim from near the Twin Cities in Minnesota and Jamie and Dale from near Delavan in southern Wisconsin. Steve also had his two sons up for the weekend, Jack and Collin. I've ridden with Steve, Jamie and Jim a couple times in the ... read more

Ray, my next door neighbor, joined me on this trip to Land O' Lakes, WI. We met my good friend and past co-worker, Rich at the Gateway Lodge on Thursday evening. Rich is one of the original Snowhawgs and founder of the Snowhawg Racing Team. In the past, Rich campaigned sleds in drag races around Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. He had a lot of success and his favorite was winning the beer can trophy for the championship of the Delaware Days Races organized by the Range Snowmobile Club in South Range, MI. He has since retired from racing and limits his snowmobiling to trail riding. I guess we are all getting a little older. It's probably time to explain the origin of the nickname "Snowhawg" that I use for email and was the name of our ... read more

I got up early this morning to get over to Keweenaw Motorsports to pick up the new sled. Of course I had to drop off my machine for some minor maintenance that turned out to be a little more than minor. As a matter of fact, it's going to stay here through the holidays waiting for some parts. So, I'll be coming home with only Jan's new sled. I hope she let's me ride it! Oh, that's right. I rode it 60 miles today.....just to break it in and make sure it'll be good for Jan. It's a 2009 Skidoo MXZ Adrenaline 600 Etec----They sure have long names for these things today. They used to just be Panther or Blizzard in the old days. It was a beautiful, sunny day up here, just perfect with temps ... read more

I'm staying at the Ramada Inn in Hancock right across the bridge from Houghton for this trip because it is close to Keweenaw Motorsports. That's because I'll be picking up Jan's new snowmobile there Tuesday. It's a 2009 Skidoo MXZ 600 Etec. That's why I've got the 2007 Arctic Cat F8 for sale on Ebay. It's Sunday evening and I had a real nice uneventful trip here from home. Dry roads and clear weather. This is the first time in a number of years that there was actually snow cover all the way from home to here. It made me remember one of my adventure snowmobile trips that I never was able to do. When I was younger I wanted to ride a snow machine from Northern Illinois to the UP, but there was never a ... read more

It's been snowing like crazy the past day and a half. As of this morning, I estimate we've gotten 20 inches of snow and it's still snowing. One of the girls here at the Parkview said they are supposed to get over 3 feet by Saturday. It's deep and beautiful. Still very few snowmobilers so I was breaking trail through about 2-1/2 feet of snow in a lot of places. My passenger side windshield wiper quit working, so I started out my day driving 23 miles up to Houghton and got it fixed at Keweenaw Automotive. So, after that little diversion, I started riding around 1:00 PM again. With all the new snow, I headed south and made a familiar loop for me. I rode 16 miles down to Mass City and gassed up there. I ... read more