Heavenly bliss in the northwoods of Minnesota!

I woke this morning thinking about the start of a new year.  2012....hmmmm?    What are my goals for the year?  What are my wants and desires for myself personally and professionally in 2012?  Then it dawned on me....it was supposed to snow overnight!  I jumped out of bed and quickly went into the living room to open up all the blinds that give a beautiful of the lake.  Then I saw it.  It was snowing!  Not only that, but I could barely see across our small bay due to the blowing snow.  Suddenly it didn't matter to me what my longer term goals were for 2012.  All that mattered at that moment was how quickly I could get my family up and around to join me on the lake for a long day of riding.  Here's a shot of the bay just after I opened the blinds.  I know it looks cold and blustery to many of my friends and family who think I'm crazy.  But to our family, this is what we love.

Now this year is not unlike all years when we really aren't real sure what the snow and ice conditions will bring for our season of snowmobiling.  We never really know until after the new year if the snow conditions are going to be good for trail riding, lake riding, both or none of them.  Every year is different.  When we bought our lake home in 2003, a local neighbor told us that every year would be different, but we really didn't know what he meant until the last few years.  Now that we've had our place for several years, we know he was right.

It's so true that each year brings a different frozen lake and different trail conditions to become familiar with.   The difference between last year and this year is complete and opposite ends of the spectrum.  Last year at Thanksgiving we had so much snow our neighbor was having trouble finding places to push the snow away from our cabin so that we had room to park our vehicles when we made it up north for a weekend.  This year I don't think he's had to plow yet.  Furthermore, last year brought with it getting stuck in our own yard, getting pulled off the groomed trails into deep trenches, large patches of slush on the rivers and lakes that were all due to having too much snow.  You see, when there's too much snow on top of the ice you experience areas of heavy slush that can sometimes be one to two feet deep.  This can cause a snowmobile to become stuck/sunk in the slush.  It sounds like a bad thing (and it can be) but we would definitely rather have the problem of too much snow than not enough snow.

This year we've all been stressed about not having enough snow.  The good thing about not having early snow is that the ice on the lakes and swampy areas freeze really well.  The snow acts as an insulator, so this year the lake froze early.  Now....here's the bad part about the year.  In addition to not having snow for lubricant that the sleds need for coolant and for the groomers to make the trails smooth, the large amount of ice on the lake has cause multiple and large ice ridges all over our lake.  Anyone riding the lakes right now needs to be extremely careful and respectful of these ridges.  Ridges bring with can do damage to sleds.  Fortunately for us, the snowmobile clubs on the lake do an excellent job of staking our lake with reflector stakes that help snowmobiles and ice fisherman not get lost in the dark.  The stakes also guide you around the ice ridges so that you don't get in a bad situation.

Because there's not enough snow for the trails to be groomed yet, today we rode about 60 miles around our lake.  There were times when there were white out conditions due to the high winds and snow falling.  The stakes definitely helped to guide us to our different destination places around the lake.  My adrenaline got going more than once today due to ice ridges we had to ride over, slush and even open water to riding through. 

My husband, Randy, almost always leads our group and then I go second behind him.  The first patch of open water was in Oak Narrows.  It was only a small area about 4 feet wide by a foot deep, but it's still open water and is a little unnerving to ride a heavy sled through.  I've always been told, "when in doubt, just hit the throttle."  That's what I do then.  As soon as I suspect open water or a potential hazard, I hit the throttle to get through it quickly.  I learned early on in this hobby that if you let off the gas, that's when you get buried in deep snow or have issues.  So today was a breeze for all of us.  Being experienced riders, we hit the open spots at about 50-60 mph and had no issues moving through the open spots.  No problem....in fact, as I move through hazards I find myself screaming "woohoo!" in my helmet.  It's a serious rush for me.  Love it!

Another open patch at Moccasin Point and and an ice ridge with slushy water thrown all over my visor and sled I was ready for my first beer of the day.  What's great for us is that we now have been on the lake long enough over the years to have made friends and acquaintances with others who have property up here.  When we stop places, we rarely don't see someone that we know.  Today was no different.  We stopped three four different places on the lake and saw people we knew at all four places.

The Landing was our final stop of the day.  It's one of our favorite spots to stop due to the great appetizers and drinks they have to offer!  It's also convenient to gas up the sleds before hitting the Arrowhead Trail (located just northwest of The Landing).  We stopped for a cold beer and restroom break before heading back to the cabin before dark.  What a fun day with the family.  I'm still praying for many more inches of snow so that we can enjoy the trails together in the coming weeks before spring.

Here's a shot of Shelby and I as we made it back to the cabin.  It's always good to know you've made it back at the end of the day without any mishaps or issues.

Come join us for some fun sometime soon!