Weather Forecast for Weekend/Early Next Week

From 9 and 10 News:

"Saturday a system moves in from the West that will bring snow showers to Northern Michigan. Some of these snow showers could be heavy at times reducing visibilities and creating slick roads. Winds will also be gusty out of the West/Northwest at 10-20mph. Highs Saturday will be in the low 20s to low 30s. Sunday will bring lake effect snow showers with a few bands that could be heavy at times. For the most part Sunday will be a brief break from systems as another low pressure system will be moving in Monday afternoon and Tuesday bringing another shot of snow to Northern Michigan. Highs will remain in the 20s for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday."

Good news as we need more snow on the trails. We need "system" snow - all we have gotten is lake effect fluff that looks great but doesn't pack down to much. At least it is staying cold this week and next so we aren't losing anything.

Pretty sad when the Tahquamenon Race can't hold their event in January this year - unheard of. In 12 years of the event, they have postponed once, never cancelled. They are looking at Feb. 12th as an alternate date - let them know via their website email if you might be interested. http://www.tcsdr.org/

Baldwin Snow Conditions

The single digit temps and today's sunshine are setting up the trails nicely. We got about a foot of snow in the past 6 days - powder but we've been packing it and it is finally setting up.

The photos below are from the east loop - glorious sunny day to take a run with the dogs. Tomorrow is "A" team day - more mileage, more dogs.

Happy trails, wherever you are!

8" of snow so far...more in the forecast.

What a difference two days make!

We have 8" of snow since yesterday - heading out after work to begin packing it into a trail.

You can find the Northwoods Cam Network on www.johndee.com - once you open the NCN - click on either Irons or Baldwin (Wolf Lake) to see the "proof."

Yucky New Year

A quick note to confirm that yes, the trails are trashed from the rain and warm temperatures on Thursday and Friday. Patty and I got in some good mileage on Thursday in the mist and fog.

We are forecast to get a little snow every day for the next week but no big accumulations. We'll have to wait and see what the second week of January has in store for us.

Wolf Christmas reading; Trail Update, kids and sleds

I heard this on NPR today, it's about 6 minutes long...enjoy.

December 25, 2010

Weekend Edition's ambassador to the world of children's literature, Daniel Pinkwater, reads his Christmas tale, "Wolf Christmas."

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/25/132324290/Daniel-Pinkwater-Reads-Wolf-Christmas

I've been running 6- 8 dog teams on our trails with the sled for about 2 weeks now. We have a 3-4 inch well-packed base on most of the trails. Looking forward to going out tomorrow, with the Skandic, and getting a total mileage on the old and the new trails to the west. Plan on running dogs after that.

A few people are going to be on the trails here this next week. You are welcomed to join us!

The Totten kids are available, as needed, to be snowmobile escorts if anyone wants one - they have been getting some experience following or leading sled dog teams for me. They LOVE to drive the snowmobiles and they have passed a Snowmobile Safety Class this month. Donations for (of) gas accepted. :-)

Here's a photo of Ashley Totten's first sled "drive" with 3 dogs. Below that is Ashley and Jesse following me through Coyote Pass.

New Trail Section Opened Up!

We went out with 3 snowmobiles and 5 people on Sunday afternoon and got the new section of west trail opened up. Yahoo! The Totten kids and I scoped it out on Saturday to make sure the pink ribbons were still in place. Here are some photos.











View looking south - too much snow-fog to see how far the view extends (miles.)

Trails are groomed!

Most of the trails are groomed, with about a 3" packed tight base.






Let the sledding begin!