Reporter:boulderwi
Trail Conditions: Early Season
Snow Cover: 10-12″
Date of Report: December 18, 2025
Area Report:
Welcome to the 25/26 snowmobile season! Our trails will be opening on Friday, 12/19 at 8:00
am.
After the Thanksgiving snow storm, we have spent over 700 manhours of clearing our trails in
the last few weeks to get ready for the season.
All of our trails have been cleared and panned to get ready for the opener. They will be in early
season riding condition and you may encounter some forest debris on the trail and will
encounter some thin spots due to all the heavy equipment used to clear the trails.
Our trail conditions will range from fair to very good depending on the trail. Best riding will be
on our road trails which are Nixon Lake Road on 8E, Keego Road on 2W, Old B on 6E, and Day
Lake Road on 8W/51. Trail 8W from Boulder Junction to Manitowish Waters will have some thin
spots in the hills.
Please ride safe and be aware of some remaining trail debris that will go away with more snow.
Look for an updated opening weekend trail report on Monday, December 22nd.
Landy Roepke
BJSC Trail Manager
News and Reports:
Boulder Junction Snowmobile Club events:
*All Season: Gooch’s Pizza Fundraiser*
1/18 Breakfast at Boulder Beer Bar 8:30am
2/12 Spaghetti Fundraiser at Rustic Roadhouse 4-7pm
2/15 Breakfast Fundraiser at The Guide’s Inn 8:30am
2/21 Trail Side Brat Fry at the Groomer Shed 11am
3/7 Cabin Fever at Gooch’s 2 4pm
Snowmobile Information:
Stay up to date on trail conditions and the latest news by signing up for the snowmobiling ENewsletter here.
Reporter:SaynerStar Lake Barnstormers
Trail Conditions: Early Season
Snow Cover: Minimal
Date of Report: December 18, 2025
Area Report:
The Vilas county trail system will officially open at 8:00 am tomorrow (12/19/25) morning!
Warmer temps these past few days have not been welcome. Our minimal base has gotten thinner and the rain today is not helpful. We had intended to do some additional panning today, but that would likely do more damage than good. We’ll need to have colder temps before we go back out.
If you plan to ride these next few days, please be aware that the conditions are not ideal. We need several more inches of snow to completely fill remaining ruts and to provide a good solid base. You’ll see better conditions in the northern parts of our system.
Please DO NOT cross any lakes that have not been marked!
Remember, riding off of a designated trail is trespassing! Please be respectful of the property owners that allow trails to run through their properties.
A huge thank you goes out to dozens of volunteers that helped us clean up all the damage from the Thanksgiving snow storm. We could not have gotten the trails ready this soon without you.
Ride RIght & Ride Safe!
Mark your calendars for these upcoming Barnstormer events:
Wednesday, December 31 – Breakfast at Sayner Pub from 9:00 – Noon. Blessing of the sleds at 12:30 under the arch.
Saturday, January 10 – Brats on the trail at TIN #217 from 10:00 – 4:00.
Saturday, January 17 – Breakfast at Stillwaters from 8:00 – 11:00.
Saturday, February 7 – Chili dump at The Murm from 2:00 – 5:00.
Sunday, February 15 – Pizza fundraiser at Hillside Tavern from 4:00 – 8:00.
Saturday, March 14 – Drawing for Snowmobile Raffle at Sayner Pub at 5:00!
Reporter:Toulish1
Trail Conditions: Closed
Snow Cover: 612″
Date of Report: December 18, 2025
Snowmobile Information:
OK snow fans, the Vilas County Alliance has decreed that we will open trails tomorrow, Friday. CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION. Stay off of the lakes. There is not a lot of snow in some spots, so ride casual. Even though the Raven Lake area trail is cool, and wide open, there are a LOT of big rocks on the side. Same holds true for the trail that runs from East Boundary up on 5 towards Gresham Lodge. The sign “Stay on the trail or stay home” can read “Stay on the trail or wrassle with a rock”. Also, please take note of the tons and tons of timber our clubs moved off the trail. WOW – those people, and a lot of old timers to boot, cut a LOT of busted trees. Stay safe, have fun, and keep doing your snow dances. Mr. Bigg
Reporter:Phil
Trail Conditions: Fair
Snow Cover: There is snow….but less than last weekend
Date of Report: December 18, 2025
Area Report:
Frosty Club trails are open to ride north into Michigan. The rest of Vilas County opens Friday at 8AM-FINALLY!
News and Reports:
Snowmobile safety class Dec 27 at 8AM
Music Trivia Dec 27 at VFW. Doors open at 5:00 PM
Reporter:Skinner
Trail Conditions: Closed
Snow Cover: 8+
Date of Report: December 18, 2025
Area Report:
Cedarville Snowtravelers trails are CLOSED. It is 41 degrees at 7am this morning with fog and light rain, needless to say our trails took a hard hit over night. The trails all had been rolled and were in real good shape, we are hoping that the base we built will hold up thru this. We will update when things change.
Reporter:Holly t
Trail Conditions: Closed
Snow Cover: 6-8 inches snow cover – more east & north – panned
Date of Report: December 18, 2025
Area Report:
12/18/2025 – 6:44am – 36 – Sleet changing to SNOW late afternoon, early evening
SNO-EAGLES
EAGLE RIVER TRAILS
ARE CLOSED
The Vilas County Snowmobile Alliance agreed to open the Vilas County Snowmobile Trails are 8am Friday, December 19. Trails are in very early riding condition. Eagle Lake & Catfish Lake are NOT OPEN due to unsafe ice conditions. Here is the official announcement by the Vilas County Forestry, Recreation & Land Department
Trails have been panned with the exception to trail 10/13 aka Wisconsin River Bridge just north of Eagle River. As you ride you will run into all types of conditions. Very early riding to slow down & ride right More SNOW moving in later today. No totals. Then SNOW Friday night into Saturday. Weather guys are reporting couple inches. Cloudy for the most part through Christmas. Best riding is NORTH.
Have been a few changes to the 2025-2026 Sno-Eagles map.
Right click on photo to enlarge
Think Cold! Are You Doin’ A Snow Dance!
Holly Tomlanovich
Sno-Eagles Snowmobile Club
Proud Groomers of THE SNOWMOBILE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD® – Eagle River
Remember……Wherever you are RIDE RIGHT & SLOW DOWN
News and Reports:
SNO-EAGLES & EAGLE RIVER EVENTS – Everyone & Anyone Welcome – Member or Non Member – Check out www.snoeagles.org for more details. Click Events
Snowmobile Information:
Wisconsin Snowmobile Registration
Discount Trail Pass for Snowmobile Club Members – $10 – Time to join a club!
Standard Wisconsin Trail Pass – $30
Out of State Trail Pass – $50
Vilas County Map It Trail App GPS style app of all trails in Vilas Cty. Plus includes the brown 3 digit emergency numbering system. If an emergency happens call 911 & give them that number. Find you quicker.
Groomer Tracking Systems (GTS) Gives you trails groomed in last 24, 48 & 96 hours
Reporter:snobuddies
Trail Conditions: Closed
Snow Cover: 4-6”
Date of Report: December 17, 2025
Area Report:
Here we go, the Vilas County trails officially open at 8am on Friday December 19th.
This is going to be early season riding with a lot of thin areas of snow. Swamps have been packed down, but are thin for snow coverage. With all the down trees across the whole county, you will find several areas with sticks and mulch on the trails. All the clubs have spent several days to weeks cleaning up to get to this point.
Please stay on the trails, riding off the trail to get fresh snow is trespassing and what leads to us loosing trails on private property.
If lakes aren’t marked with barrels, please stay off till they are marked. Don’t stray away from barrels on marked lakes.
There is a couple of systems that will clip the area, but only calling for 1-2”.
News and Reports:
Snowmobile Information:
Check out our clothing, merchandise, raffle tickets and more on our website https://conoversnobuddies.com/shop
To see where the Groomer is at, check out Groomer Tracker Half the cost of the app comes back to Conover Sno-Buddies to support grooming operations.
Reporter:Snogoer1
Trail Conditions: Good
Snow Cover: 12-28
Date of Report: December 17, 2025
Area Report:
Lots of progress on our trail system, there are still a few outlying trails that are still closed so please read what trails are open or closed.
8- Open/ Groomed
8a- Closed
9- Open/ Groomed
9a- Open/ Groomed
10- Open/ Groomed
10a- Open/ Groomed
10e- Open/ Groomed
11- Open/Groomed
12- Closed
12a- Open/ Groomed
12b- Open from town to Dear Lodge, Groomed
14- Open/ Groomed
17n- Open/ Groomed
17s- Open/ Groomed
19- RR #2 is Open/ Groomed, 19S to Vilas closed
19b- Closed/ Partially Groomed
20- Open/ Groomed
21- Closed/ Rolled
51e- Closed/ Partially Groomed
182b- Open/ Groomed
182- Open/ Groomed
Closed = Impassable, trees & Brush or trails leading to lakes.
Partially Groomed = Wet Swamps, no access with Tractors yet.
Groomers are holding off tonight due to the warm temps today, we don’t want to risk damaging the base we have, trails are holding up well, one more warm day tomorrow and forecasts look great going into the holidays!
Our crew is out working nonstop, we are continuing packing swamps and clearing trails. If you’d like to help clear brush we still have two trails left that have major damage that more help would be greatly appreciated, please reach out to our Trail Boss.
Stay off the lakes, ice is not safe at this time.
Reporter:Colleen
Trail Conditions: Early Season
Snow Cover: 6 – 8 inches
Date of Report: December 16, 2025
Area Report:
The most recent report from the Iron Range Trail club is the following. Trails are officially opened on the West side of the county. No word on the East side of the county as yet.
Trail #2 is cleared from Minnie Lake to Trail #107 intersection and groomed
Trail #107 to Kenton still has trees down and is being worked on. Trail #107 had to have an excavator come in to help with the removal of some of the trees near Kenton. As soon as the trees are completely removed Iron Range will begin panning and grooming this trail.
Trail #15 N. to Sidnaw is open and cleared, however this trail has not been groomed with concerns to wet areas not frozen as yet.
Trail #111 – to Amasa is opened but not groomed
Trail #116 to Young’s has been groomed to the Chicaugon lake Inn. There is a big mud hole just past the motel over the bridge, that is not frozen or rideable at this time. This trail has not been completely groomed.
Trail #15 S. to the Wisconsin border is open but not groomed due to a large wet swamp that is not frozen enough to get a groomer through by the Caspian City Hall.
Updates will continue to be shared as conditions change. We currently do not have any updates that we can share from the Chippewa Sno-kats Trail Club at this time.
News and Reports:
Ski Brule Mountain is open and continuing to make snow as the temps allow. Be sure to go to their website to get a current updated ski report.