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Northern Minnesota Snowmobiling
Lodging Destinations and Trail Information

March 11, 2011 We have received a few inches of fresh snow in the past few days. Yesterday and today look like absolutely beautiful days. We probably got 5+ inches of snow here along the mid trail area. Closer to Grand Marais I heard amount of 8”+ in some areas. The groomers have been out grooming the trails back into shape after the weekend. The new snow has been a big help as far as getting the trails in better shape. I know the trails were pretty beat-up last weekend. We hope to get the trails back in to shape for another couple of weekends if the weather holds. The temps are absolutely beautiful for riding. Images of snowmobile trail groomer driving by the lodge the other day. Report by Forrest - Hungry Jack Lodge Gunflint Trail, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

March 3, 2011 The current conditions are still holding up pretty descent. They are still grooming on a regular basis. We did receive about an 1”-2” of snow last night. We could still use a little more to get the trails back to the condition they were earlier in the year. Overall the riding is still very good.  The trails have their rough spots but things are looking much better this year than last. Last year at this time we had about 3-4 days of riding left, then the ice was off the lake on April 4^th. That was the earliest spring I have ever seen. We should be sitting good for the next couple of weeks unless we get a crazy warm spell. If you are looking for a last minute getaway give us a call as I have a couple of cabins left for this weekend. Report by Forrest - Hungry Jack Lodge Gunflint Trail, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

February 20, 2011 Went out of Silver Bay and went up the North Shore State Trail.  The trails were pretty hard and solid due to the recent warm up which melted the top layers, and the two day "instant" freeze, so they were great for us, almost like road surfaces, but we are studded up pretty good.  Anyone who rode the trails that didn't have studs were doing some sliding around due to the hardness, and we heard several complaints about hyfaxes and engines overheating. Scratchers would have helped those folks.  This long weekend brought lots of people out, the northern trails up until now had been almost deserted, and the snow had been good all over the state until this past week.

We rode up and into the Tofte area, went down into Tofte to get fuel, and took the Eagle Trail from the NSST to the Leveaux and Fox Trails, all of which were smooth, but some had icy spots and thin snow cover.  The week before, the snow was fabulous when we were up there, but the main Lutsen access trail from the NSST was being used as a logging road, and I'd probably stay off of that one, it was pretty rugged looking. I'd recommend either the getting on Leveaux trail via a different access, or the use Caribou Trail to get down into Lutsen.

We went back out of the main Tofte Trail onto the NSST, traveled west, and veered onto the re-routed Tomahawk access roads, and wound up at the Trestle Inn for lunch.  Met up with some friends there who recommended the Tomahawk and Timber Wolf trails, so after we left, we got on those.  They were in good shape, but hard in many places, traffic was prolific along the Tomahawk, and we made good time.  Our final trail, the Moosewalk, was the best of all of the trails we rode that day, and an absolute blast to ride.  The snow was much better, and almost perfectly smooth.  We got a total of 135 miles on.

Sunday, Feb 20th, we got on the North Shore State Trail from the Martin Road parking lot.  The trail going north showed many bare spots and some exposed corners with ice, and some had dirt, grass, and a few rocks showing through, too.  Icy corners were prevalent, until we got up by the Normanna pit, and the snow was marginally better from there all the way up to the second shelter, where it started getting pretty good.  It was very nice north of the Pequaywan intersection, all the rest of the way until we got close to Two Harbors.  There were a couple thin spots in the thick pines that were kinda icy.  We went down to fuel up at Dixie's, that access was getting a good workout, as it was getting a little bumpy this morning. We turned around and went back down the NSST going south from there, and headed into the Pequaywan trail.  My buddy saw a big, lumbering moose, standing on the NSST, just about a mile north of the intersection into Pequaywan!!  The moose quickly strode off into the woods as he came up on it. 

The Pequaywan trail was recently groomed and a real hoot to ride on, the trail was smooth, the snow was good and not many blown out corners made for some great riding along there.  We had lunch at the Pequaywan Inn and eventually went back to Duluth for the end of the day, got a total of 120 miles on.

A little side note here.  During the last two days, we saw dozens of places all along every trail we rode that there had been some trees (some were very large) that had fallen down from the big wind over the previous days, and had been quickly removed and cleaned up.  Our hats off to ALL the people who took the extra time to keep these trails in good shape and for making them SAFE!!  THANK YOU!! Report by Dick T., Duluth, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

February 20, 2011 Launched from Silver Bay and hit the Moose Walk trail then the Timberwolf Trail to Tomahawk and went to the Trestle Inn for lunch.  Then headed up towards Lutsen....stopped for gas in Tofte and back down the NS Trail to Silver Bay.  The trails were very firm and pancake flat with barely enough powder on top to lube the slides and keep the sled cool.  This made the trails quite fast and yielded good fuel economy.  Overall, a total of 148 miles which equaled a fantastic day of riding. Report by Tim M., Duluth, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

February 18, 2011 Well things are still holding up ok, we did see some pretty warm temps yesterday. The snow has settled some but things will be cooling down tonight with snow expected tomorrow. I had a group ride in yesterday and they said the trails were still holding up pretty good. We will be having live music both Fri and Sat nights this weekend. On Sat. the Cook County Snowmobile Club will be hosting their annual drag race. Racing starts at noon, registration is starts at 11 am. Report by Forrest - Hungry Jack Lodge Gunflint Trail, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

January 26, 2011 We received about 4” of fresh snow Sunday night. The snowmobile trails are in excellent shape. Snow levels are pushing close to 3 ft or better here at the mid-trail area. Come up and see us if you are traveling this way. Images from Jan 26th, 2011. Report by Forrest - Hungry Jack Lodge Gunflint Trail, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

January 18, 2011  Hello Snow Enthusiasts, Old Man Winter has been sending us gifts of snow this season. We have received close to 10-12” since last Wednesday. It never seemed to snow extremely hard just steady for 3-4 days. Snow levels in the mid-trail area are in excess of 24” with even more snow between Mid-trail and Grand Marais. The snowmobile trails are in excellent shape. Trails were groomed yesterday afternoon and this morning. Come on up and see us.  Hope to see you soon.! Report by Forrest - Hungry Jack Lodge Gunflint Trail, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

January 10, 2011  Conditions are still excellent. Our snow levels around the mid-trail area, are around 24” The trails are being groomed on a regular basis. The Cook County Ridge Riders snowmobile club has been doing a lot of trail maintenance this season, with almost 8 miles of reconstruction of the Gunflint Snowmobile Trail. They are also working very hard on brushing back the trails. If you have snowmobiled in Cook County previously you will see great improvements to our local trail system. The improvements will continue. Come on up and see us here at Hungry Jack Lodge. Check out our entertainment flyer pdf about our dinner special, happy hour and live music by the band ' D'MERRIT. ' I hope the New Year has been good for everybody. Have a great day!  Report by Forrest - Hungry Jack Lodge Gunflint Trail, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

January 10, 2011 West Duluth Trail from the Piedmont access and the Hermantown Missing Link trail to Pike lake area is in good condition with a few icy spots and some thin spots.  Be sure to stay on the trail in low land areas, as much of the rain we received after Christmas has created slushy conditions under the deeper powder snow.  Report by Vic K., Duluth, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

January 06, 2011 The Yukon Trail has been groomed from the North Shore State Trail to Knotted Pine and the trail is in great shape, lots of moose tracks but none seen.  The Castle Danger trail was also groomed yesterday, it's in good shape, but has icy areas so please be careful! Report by John B., Two Harbors, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

January 03, 2011 Well it is still winter here on the Gunflint Trail.  We did not get much rain when it got warm.  If anything the little bit of rain we did get really helped the trails to firm up the base we already had.  We had 2 storms that came through and dropped 6”-8” of fresh snow.  The groomers are out this morning getting the trails back into shape after the weekend.  We had quite a few sledders come through last week and overall the trail reports were excellent. I have heard snow conditions around the Mid-West have deteriorated almost entirely. Report by Forrest - Hungry Jack Lodge Gunflint Trail, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

January 02, 2011 Rode from Grand Marais to Trail Center via the Gunflint 'G' trail on Dec 31st.  The snow conditions from Grand Marais up the hill were horrid due to the rain received on 12/30/10.  Two of the four snowmobiles overheated due to low snow conditions.  Once we got to the Gunflint'G' trail/North Shore state trail intersection snow conditions improved tremendously.  The 'G trail' had adequate snow coverage but was bumpy in spots.  We were planning to head to Gunflint lake but the trail past the Trail Center turn-off were bumpy so we turned around.  Rode the Expressway back to Devil Track and conditions were very good.  Devil Track Lodge management were nice enough to let us leave our sleds at the lodge so we didn't have to ride back down the hill.

1/1/11 - Rode the North Shore State Trail (NSST) down past Lutsen and then turned around and took Lutsen Access into Lutsen Resort for a meal.  Returned back to Grand Marais on the NSST and conditions were very good with portions freshly groomed. Consider trailering sleds up over the hill from Grand Marais until the town gets new snow.  It's possible to ride but there's not much snow for hifax lubrication and cooling sleds. Report by John M., Owatonna, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

January 01, 2011 Went to our cabin west of Grand Marais and rode from there to Devil Track on 12/27 (North Shore State Trail, Lutsen trail system, and X trail), and to Lutsen Ski Resort (Lutsen trails and NSST) for lunch on 12/28 with my family.  All the trails we rode were groomed and in good to very good condition.  A few sticks from summer sticking up in the trail as you get closer to Lake Superior (within in 1-2 miles) Shoveled my deck at the cabin about 30" on the ground at our place.   Saw a total of 5 snowmobiles while riding on the trail!   Report by Jeff H., Ostego, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

December 24, 2010 I would like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Well out of the last blast that came through we only received about 2 inches here at Hungry Jack Lodge.  A little closer to the lake snowfalls were pretty substantial in the elevations over Lake Superior.  I would safely say we have about 18-20” here at the Mid-Gunflint Trail.  Just driving from the resort to Grand Marais, you can see a difference with the banks along the road.  I would say there are areas that range from 24”-36” maybe even a little more.  Just about 100% of the trail system has been groomed.  There is one section of trail that still needs some good freezing before the groomer can cross.  So far I would say the trails are in excellent shape for this time of year. Happy Holidays!!  Until the next snow fall, be safe.  Report by Forrest - Hungry Jack Lodge Gunflint Trail, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

December 19, 2010 started out from Duluth and rode to the Pequaywan Hoyt Lakes Trail. Took that to the Brimson trail. Rode north on the ungroomed Yukon trail to the spur trail that connects back with the North Shore State Trail. Then rode up to Finland, had lunch and rode the North Shore State Trail back to Duluth. 175 miles. All trails except the Yukon were anywhere from smooth to a little bumpy. Trail snow depth was mostly good but a little thin in just a few spots. Report by Jon W., Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

Saturday, December 11th... Five of us put in at Silver Bay and had the trails pretty much to ourselves.  We went up along the Moosewalk Trail which was very nice.  There were plenty of sled tracks everywhere, and the trees were beautiful and still covered with the recent snowfalls.  Some whippy branches and sticks were poking out of the snowy trails. We saw some logging operations and the Moosewalk Trail was a little difficult to follow.  We wound up on some logging roads which had machinery in operation, then eventually got back onto the North Shore State Trail, which had not yet been groomed, only "packed".

There appeared to be about an average of about a foot of snow along the sides of all the trails where no one had ridden, and many of the buildings and picnic tables had a solid foot of snow built up on them.  The North Shore State Trail was a bit more bumpy, with several smoother sections interspersed from Finland to the turn-off where the NSST meets the Tomahawk trail.  We then followed the Tomahawk, which was horrible and severely bumped up. 

The Trestle Inn was relatively quiet today, and the bartender said the swamps still hadn't frozen up so the grooming hadn't gotten started.  We ate lunch and fueled up the sleds there, then headed west, took some forest roads to bypass the Tomahawk, and got onto the Timber Wolf Trail, which appeared to have been groomed recently.  We got back on the Moosewalk and around towards Silver Bay. Just as we were getting back to the access into Silver Bay, we saw five sleds on the trail, making a total of 13 for the entire day. 

I'd rate the Moosewalk an 8/10, the NSST a 5/10, the Tomahawk a -3, the Timber Wolf a 6/10.  Saw one bushy wolf crossing the NSST as we were getting out of the Finland area around noon. Report by Dick T., Duluth, Minnesota. Send your report to us!

December 5, 2010 Rode 50 miles on Dec 5th. on the Pequaywan Hoyt Lakes Trail, down to the north shore trail. took the north shore trail to Duluth. Plenty of snow but no groomer yet. Trails were bumpy but rideable. I have seen worse. Had to turn around near hawk ridge because of running water/mud although, you could go through it if you really wanted to.  We need some cold weather to get everything frozen and those groomers out!!  Report by Jon W., Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Send your report to us!