Michcanska Adventure 2023

I became a charter member of MichCanSka in 2010, when the club was formed. I bought my first snowmobile in 1966 and I’ve been riding ever since. I went to Alaska with the club in 2010 and loved every minute of it. “He’s the fire chief.”

This morning we left the Northshore of Lake Superior and headed northwest to Iron Range country. Our first stop was up on Tofte Peak, an easy to sled to overlook just a few miles from the hotel. Probably the best viewpoint of the trip.

A long ride to lunch. We had all of our lunch stops planned ahead so that they could easily accommodate us. After lunch we rode the Lake trails into our hotel in Tower.

Our hotel in Tofte was the AmericInn. A great place to stay and sled from.

In Tower we are staying at the Fortune Bay Casino. Another great place to sled from.

Our trail from Tofte to Ely is known as the Tomahawk Trail. Not sure it would ever have been called that, if they named it today .

I’ll post a video from the top of Tofte Peak next

Matthew Pattullo – He has been on one ride before this one with Mishcanska. He is 16 and his favorite part of riding with this club is helping people get unstuck….Uncle Pete! Matthew has a tendency to collect things along the trail…see picture below.

Meet Julianne (Julie!)

Julie has done 3 MichCanSka rides to date. She has been riding 50 years. She was a Yama Mama this year! She works hard in the background to keep her brother Pete (Trail Boss) in line and gives him (Pete) grief for trying to get everyone fed and back on the trail at lunch!

Julie was our correspondent on this trip and worked hard each night getting a little info on each rider. She rode the first five days of the ride and could always be found handing out some Jack Links Treats. I’ll ride with her anywhere!

julianne

Scary…. This is what pops out of her helmet

March Already! When we first planned this trip, I suggested that we do it at the end of February, and of course the problem could have been an early melt. But that we have not had. The Snow conditions are great .

Today we split into two groups. Pete led the first group up to Grand Marais and back. On the way back he rode some local trails and had a few great viewing opportunities. Miles for these guys was 100.

Hughie took the long haulers up to the border and back riding some of the great trails up at Grand Portage. Unfortunately there is a connecting piece of this route that sees very little groomer activity…… So we had 20 miles each way of back breaking bumps. Because we were doing 2 night stays, we did not have our gear with us, which made it a lot easier, on the humps. Miles for this ride 230.

Randy Belliel. Been a Snowmobiler for more than 40 years. MichCanSka member for 12 years and completed the last Club trip to Alaska. He is currently running as the SWEEP for the MN ride. Thank you Randy for keeping the group of 18 riders together!

Pete Pattullo- Trail Boss, Safety Chief, GPS Master and Gadget Guy! Pete has been riding 55 years and loves to coordinate these events. Thank you Pete for always keeping us safe!

Hughie- The leader of the pack, Scout, Boondocker, and borderline crazy:). He has setup great stops, meals and trails. We can’t wait for rest of trip!!! Big thanks to his wife for letting him go on trip! Hughie is also the reigning 2022 MichCanSka Uker Co-Champion!

Good morning,

We all arrived in Two Harbors, MN, on Sunday Feb 27. We choose to start the ride on a Monday to avoid the weekend traffic. On the first day we ride up to Finland for lunch at the 4 season supper Club. Great lunch spot. The Snow was great, trails were recently groomed, the riders all found their preferred location in the pack. Most of the riders have Uclear communicators. Pete, is firm supporter of this technology to keep the group safe and together. For The first two days of the ride we were be traveling along the Lake Superior Shoreline, providing some great scenes.

We arrived at our designation hotel in Tofte, at 4pm, and had in-house Pizza for dinner.

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