Need Ashland Co. info for Fri 18th

[mikay]

My wife and I are riding from Prentice (Price Co.) to Cornucopia (Bayfield) on Friday, if conditions permit. Price opens today, Bayfield is open, Ashland opens supposedly on Friday.

If anyone has any snow reports anywhere along Hwy 13 (Butternut, Glidden, Mellen, Marengo areas) it would be appreciated!

[mikay]

No one up in that area???

I did find out one important tidbit... In PRICE CO., the Doc Frye trail that connects Lugerville with Fifield is closed til at least mid-January because of a culvert project that Plum Creek has undertaken.

This is kind of a big deal as it's the main corridor artery going north out of Phillips. You can still go north via Solberg Lake area, but it's a lot of monkeying around and a great propensity for non-locals to get lost.

Anyway, this detour will add about an hour to our trip.

[Dirty Birch]

I found this:
ASHLAND COUNTY SNOWMOBILE TRAILS

SNOWMOBILE TRAILS OPEN DEC 14TH AND WILL START GROOMING SUNDAY THE 20TH. LETS PACK THEM DOWN.

On this site:
http://clamlakewi.com/news.shtml

Which differs from what is here on the Ashland County Page:
http://www.snowtracks.com/wisconsin/ashlandcounty.htm

You might try contacting:
http://www.travelashlandcounty.com/c...formation.html

If it works out for you there is a rustic bar/old hotel that served us pretty good food last year. I think it's called the Cayuga Hotel Saloon.

[mikay]

I found this:
ASHLAND COUNTY SNOWMOBILE TRAILS

SNOWMOBILE TRAILS OPEN DEC 14TH AND WILL START GROOMING SUNDAY THE 20TH. LETS PACK THEM DOWN.

On this site:
http://clamlakewi.com/news.shtml

Which differs from what is here on the Ashland County Page:
http://www.snowtracks.com/wisconsin/ashlandcounty.htm

You might try contacting:
http://www.travelashlandcounty.com/c...formation.html

If it works out for you there is a rustic bar/old hotel that served us pretty good food last year. I think it's called the Cayuga Hotel Saloon.

Thanks!

After looking this over, I think the Ashland Co. site is correct. Clam Lake's probably was updated earlier in the fall, and gave the 14th correctly as the first date that they could legally open the trails (thanks to the DNR having yet another antlerless hunt the 12th and 13th in an effort to slaughter the last remaining 3 deer still alive north of Hwy 8 to get that under the table bonus from the insurance lobby). I'm hoping that they're delaying opening to the 18th in order to groom during the week and set up a base.

Well, I'm hoping, anyway. We'll check out the Cayuga...

[mikay]

Heading out 7 am tomorrow from Price Co.

Will Ashland be open as advertised? Anyone?

[mikay]

Update:

Trails did open on Friday. However, there was a rock the size of a big pumpkin in the exact middle of the trail just north oF Glidden along Charles Wolf Road. It was covered in snow and it cost me a trailing arm and the rest of our trip.

This rock was not embedded in the ground, there was no hole where it had been after my sled moved it about a foot. Someone placed that rock there, on purpose.

I'm lucky to not have been hurt worse than a nasty bruise on my leg.

There were a set of blazers on posts about 10 yards from the rock, I pulled one out of the ground and my wife and I piled snow around it til it stood on it's own to mark the rock.

We then had a friend with a trailer fetch us and we instead went to Cornucopia via car. On Sunday, we swung down Charles Wolf Rd. to inspect things and the rock and blazer on post were still there...fortunately there were no new tracks indicating anyone else hit it.