We got back from our trip a few hours ago. We were supposed to go up last weekend, but the warm up ruined it so we went up this weekend. Im glad we did. We left Wednesday after i got out of school, and got to Waters at 10:30.
Thursday we got up, put our stuff in the truck, and parked the truck and trailer at The Waters Inn. I had a backpack, and dad had a bag on the back of the XLT and we set off. I was on my sled, my brother on dads 700(which now has 9300 miles), his wife was on his 03 Supersport, and dad was on our XLT Touring. Our plan was to ride north up to the bridge, get trailered across, and then go to Munising. There werent to many people out, and it was really windy. A lot of the trail was drifted over, so we got to ride drifts for a while, but other areas were bare. It took us a while to get to the bridge, and from there it was a lot of railroad grades. As we got farther north the powder got deeper and deeper. We stopped at a bar and got some drinks, and talked to a group of guys with a map that were also heading to Munising. It was getting dark, so we decided to leave. 2 of the guys left before us. Dad had told them to go down county road 450 to Munising because it was a short cut. There was a foot or so of powder on it so it was a fun ride, until we came up to a guy standing in front of a Vector that was buried. It was one of the guys we talked to at the bar. The stretch of road we were on, went into a open area and the banks were about 4 feet up. It was powder from the road up to the banks. He didnt know the powder was there until he hit it, and tried turning and powering out. He was really close to where the woods was and it wasnt blown in. Dad sent my brother out to make a path around the guy to try to get us through and to help get the sled out. My brother bounced off a bank and went down into a channel that wasnt blown over and got his sled stuck. We got the Vector out, and pulled my brothers Supersport up out of the channel. The guy was with a friend on mountain sled who had went on to see if he could get out of the powder, so we dont know where he was. After that we went to the Bear Trap, then to the Super 8. We rode 260 miles that day.
Friday we woke up to a couple inches of fresh snow. We headed out and back south. We played some more in powder, but we were mainly trying to make our way south so we werent out all night. We were going along a trail, and came up on a bunch of old sleds and people. We walked around and looked at them, and watched them ride. It was cool seeing them. We kept heading on, and came up on a bunch more old sleds creeping down the trail, and some broke down. We saw one sled that died, and the guy was trying to start it while holding somebody's ski. We went on down the trail, and saw a guy balancing a sled on one ski down a trail, first time ive seen it done. We had found where the random ski came from. The trail was decent down to Waters, and we loaded up the sleds and headed to Fayes hotel in Grayling for the next two nights. We rode another 260 miles.
Saturday we get up, and the guys next to us from Ohio said that they were expecting a big snow soon. My dad, brother, and I headed out and rode around Grayling. We rode a bunch in the woods, the artillery base, down to Lovells, and back. Dad was done riding for the trip, so we rode and meet him to eat lunch, then headed to Extreme Powersports. It was snowing good so we beat dad there. We decided to take a shortcut through the woods, but where we crossed the creek it was open water so we turned around. On our way back down the trail i saw a long line of odd looking headlights. The lead sled was a Dragon, and the rest were Rush's. We stopped and watched them and they looked like they were smooth. Im not sure where they came from though. We went to Extreme, looked at sleds, and headed back to Grayling. We rode probably 150 or so miles that day.
This morning we packed up everything, and my brother and I headed on to Houghton Lake. Dad and my brothers wife were in the truck and were going to pick us up around Houghton Lake so my brother and I could ride more. First we headed down ditches into Grayling to find a shortcut to the trail. We couldnt find a way to get over to the trail, so we had to go all the way back and pick up the trail behind the motel. After a while we found our way into Grayling, and some of the roughest trails ive seen. We fueled up and headed on. There was a lot of powder along the way, so we hopped off and road in the woods a good bit. Im not sure how many miles we rode today. Total my brother and I rode 730 or so miles total in around 3 days.
Im glad we went this weekend, but the trails were packed because of the races. A lot of people out on the trail who thought they were on a race track.
