It’s a short walk from my home to the Pence trails. I took my avalanche shovel and my medium Yoop-Scoop and by noon, I had the access to the trails, over the plowed berm nice and gradual.

Boring - something most people just don’t notice - but the trail accesses off of the streets of Montreal can be really challenging to older folks or young skiers without a lot of experience if they’re three and four feet high with hard, plowed snow. We’ve seen berms as high as five feet over the past 40 years.

The Wisconsin County Forest system is unique in the world. Nowhere else do county governments manage such high quality public timber. The Iron County Forest is the 3rd largest county forest in Wisconsin. It has the most northern hardwood acreage (hardwoods require more hands-on labor to manage). ICF not only supports back country skiing, it administers over a million dollars of timber sales annually, almost 300 miles of motorized trails, numerous campsites from walk-in sites to full hook-ups. The Forest maintains many boat launches, 50+ miles of county forest roads, and Saxon Harbor (a safe-haven harbor on Lake Superior).

…“ I turned East on the Main Stem and tracked down to Hoyt Rd. The east half of Uller and the K Spur are nasty-nice; but be warned. Those eastern tracks are ‘semi old-school “…

“ There are days where I just don’t want to start up the Gator or the Alpine. I don’t want to lug a chain saw and gas and oil out into the woods.

Then there’s the fact that parts of our trails have not been skied or groomed for a while.

Such was the case today… ”

Another million dollar snow; but more important, the temperature dropped just enough to allow us to groom and set track.

It’s a fairy-tale forest out there. Every twig, every branch has an ermine collar on it. The new snow is fine grained and fast, yet forgiving. The trail edges are good and hard. Our snowshoers and dogs have excellent going under these conditions. We saw quite a few folks out there today enjoying the scenery, breathing some fresh air from Canada and getting out of the house.

Good for you!

Also, a huge thank-you to everyone who’s visited the new website, clicked around and even donated!

“I had the privilege of meeting with Andrea Newby (administrator of Gogebic Range Health Foundation) for a few pictures as she officially gave the Rangers a check for $4750 today. Their foundation supports healthy outdoor activities for people in the Gogebic MI/Iron WI area. They’ve spent the last few years distributing grant funds to many local groups and clubs. Their financial contribution will be a huge help to our needs for equipment, fuel and infrastructure improvements for the next few years. Look for some improved signs, water crossings and trailhead information. We’ll also spend some of their funds for extra grooming during this gosh-darn pandemic. “…

… “But hold up there; why not, we just do it in a different dimension. In stead of digging down to all the root collars of all the trees that need to be removed, dragging stems and branches off the trail in snow half way up to your knees and getting soaked in sweat and snow, why don’t we work up the trail like we did back in the early ‘70s?” …