Page 9 - TheFebruarySnomad

Seney or Bust

The SnomadS descended upon Seney in force with 42 people riding on
Friday, 38 riding Saturday and 7 of us stuck it out and rode on Sunday.
Friday and Saturday, we broke out into four groups. Bill Chatfield led a
back-country group each day. Steve Shickel, and Mark Stuhldreher both
stepped up and led a group each day. A big Thank- You goes out to these
three people, without your leadership, I would have been forced to lead a
much larger group each day.

Friday started off in the usual manner, meeting up behind the fox. There
were snowmobiles everywhere… people were having a hard time finding
an empty place to park, there were so many of us! (Not complaining!)
After the safety brief and grouping up I led my group out of town up 431
(Along M77) until we got to Sunken Lake Rd, the new trail 440. Turning in
on trail 440 we were met with smooth, fresh groomed trails. We rode out
440 along the new trail and across the two brand new bridges. Many of
you have ridden this route either with me or Ron S. or any of our other
trail leaders. The first bridge was always just barely wide enough for a
sled, and the second bridge… if you have seen it in the summer (Like I
have) you likely would not have crossed it. Well, the two new bridges are
amazing, large and above all – sturdy!

Trail 440 dumps you out on 43 halfway between Seney and trail 88. We
headed north, grabbed 88 to 888 then out Adams trail to the Kingston
Plains and out atop Franks Knoll. We rested there while two of our new
members (John and Tori) went out and played in the powder and drifts.
Us older folk watched while the kids played in the snow.

We left the Plains and headed out to H58 but not before I and a couple of
my group cleared the trail off the plains of some deadfall and wicked over-
hangs. Thankfully I carry a battery-operated reciprocal saw. From there
we stopped off at Hurricane River Falls for a break then on into Grand Ma-
rais for lunch. The ride back from lunch was pretty straight forward, out 8
to 888 to 88 then down 43.

February 2020 The Snomad Page 9