It has been another strange winter here in Northern Michigan and
one week into January there was still very little snow anywhere.
I was getting a bit worried about snow for our annual U.P. snowmobile tour
this season and watching the long term forecast daily. Then, a week before our
trip, the state went into a deep freeze with record lows and lots of lake effect
snow fall across the Lake Superior belts. The morning we left it was 10 below
as we crossed over the Big Mac to watch the sunrise.
All along M-28 the snow was coming down as we drove west and as we pulled out of
Munising, after breakfast, we hit a white-out all the way to Marquette. Huge waves were crashing
over the ice caves along the shoreline and the strong north wind hurled freezing spray into the air
and across the road as we drove. It was a nervous 30 mile drive that took over an hour.
We were sure glad when we got away from the lake shore and on to the
Maple Ridge Resort on
Lake Michigamme, our home base this trip.
After throwing our bags into our rooms we all unload our sleds for a quick test ride
out on the lake. This trip there would be four of us. My usual riding partner Fearless Fred Hollerback of Alanson was along
riding a 500 MXZ Ski-Doo. His son Fred Jr. riding his newly rebuilt and hopped-up
600 Yamaha Triple and his friend Steve Howard riding a 600 and his new 800 Polaris
came along with us this year. They had never ridden the western U.P. and after hearing about our
previous exploits they decided they had to go. I, David Gabrish from Petoskey
would be riding the Artic Cat 4 Stroke Touring. Someone had to haul gas and supplies
for the others. I also wanted to get a good idea of the gas millage since I would reach the break-in
period of 2,000 miles on this trip. Arctic Cat claims 24 MPG but I think they tested that
on hard pack snow or ice with no resistance. I have been getting closer to
19 to 20 MPG in normal conditions. This trip however should be anything but normal.
|
content property of
Michigan Interactive™ ©since 1995 all rights reserved
