Anyone ride up at Chequamegon lately?

[thebionicman]

I am heading up there over the Fourth, and just wondering if anyone has a trail that I should hit up. I plan on riding the Ojibwe Trail, anything else? I would imagine conditions should be pretty good since they have been having the same weather as us. TIA.

[Magic]

Eric, I was riding up there last fall and bought all the trail maps at the New Moon bike shop. The shop is just out of Hayward. If you would want to pick up the maps. Or check out the Camba website to see the trails. The new and improved Rock Lake trail is now open. That trail is worth the ride. Other than that check out all the trails you can. You can't get bored with what's out there. Have a great ride for the 4th.:eyeroll:

[thebionicman]

I was on the CAMBA website, it says that the Rock Lake trail is going to be closed on July 10th. I was just wondering if that means the old trail is boring and they are making a new one? Thanks for the info. I am staying in Minong so I should be able to get over and ride quite a bit.

[Tim Wegner]

I have spent a lot of time the past year doing design work on the Rock Lake trail. It is being converted to single track. I would guess it is being closed on the 10th of July so they can do the finish work on it without having to watch out for bikers. Some of the segments were finished last year and are open but not sure which ones. The other trail near telemark is supposed to be awesome--haven't ridden it yet myself. If the rock lake trail is open it would be a fun ride. We built some good exposure into it as well as some nasty rock gardens. The forest manager said we could use any features we wanted in trail construction as long as it would last forever hence no log piles on the new trails. Stop at New Moon or the bike shop in Seely and get some maps and ask for their favorite rides.

TW

[Rocky Mountain]

The Ojibewe is probably the most technical trail. I have not ridden the "new" Rock Lake trail sections so I can't compare. For an epic ride the North Country Trail is worth a try since it has 30+ miles of singletrack.

A group of Mpls and Chicago riders are going to be hitting the CAMBA trails over the holiday weekend. If your interested stop by campsite #3 or 8 at the Namekagon Lake campground. I drive a gold Tacoma double-cab so just look for that.

[GearDaddy]

I'm going to be up there for the Holiday weekend too. I rode up there about a month ago, including the Ojibwe trail, Esker trail, Lake Helene/Fire tower/Birkie trail, Frost pocket, and more. The Ojibwe trail is definitely the most technical singletrack, and it is now a fully completed loop of 12 miles! The Esker trail seems back to its old self again, after some years of logging effects. I didn't ride Rock Lake this time, but I did late last fall. The new singletrack on Rock lake is mostly in the first few miles, then you jump on parts of the Glacier trail, then the last half is pretty much the old Rock lake trail. I'm sure it's changed some more, but it was still a fine ride.

If you're coming from Minong, then you might want to check out the Delta cluster and the West Fork trail for some fun singletrack, as you're not that far away. The North Country trail is really great too, but be prepared to climb some hills.

There is also some new singletrack in the Seeley Cluster. I haven't had a chance to ride it yet, but it is apparently about 8 miles of fun stuff. The directions are to go east on County 00 from Seeley, then turn onto old County 00 (a dirt road eventually). The trail begins pretty soon right off of old 00. You can ask the good people at the Seeley bike shop for more info, as I found out that somebody who works there helped build the trail.

[GearDaddy]

Great weekend for riding! I managed to ride every day.

Friday was the best weather. I rode the outer loop of the Namekagon cluster, including the new Rock Lake trail. The Namekagon trail was looking a little overgrown with all the rain, but still good. Patsy lake was great as usual. The new Rock Lake trail has some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the new singletrack sections, which add up to about half of the trail now, are really fun. Very "morc-ish" in the style of trail. The bad news is that the rest of the trail is essentially the Glacier trail. So, the heart of all of the challenging stuff on the old Rock Lake trail (i.e. the section past Rock Lake) is no longer part of the trail. In fact the literature at the trailhead says that the old Rock Lake trail is off limits to riding. Bummer! There was actually no need for a granny gear any more!

On Friday I also checked out the relatively new singletrack at Seeley Ski trails. It is an 8 mile trail that follows sections of ski trail and then shoots in and out of sections of tight singletrack. It's a fun and challenging trail, requiring some granny gear along the way. To find this trail take Hwy OO east from Seeley. Very soon there is a right turn onto old Hwy OO. Follow this for a mile or so, and right where it turns to dirt is the trailhead. Just follow the black & white arrows for the 8-mile singletrack.

On Saturday I did a combination of Ojibwe trail at Telemark and trails that took me up to the Seeley fire tower. It was a pretty intense 23 mile ride. The Ojibwe trail was great as usual. It is a 12-mile fairly technical trail, so you'll go slower than usual. But it is rideable almost entirely in the middle-ring. Singlespeeders will like this trail too.

On Sunday I actually did a road ride, due to all the rain on Saturday night. Very nice. Smooth roads, light winds, and you can't beat the scenery in the National Forest.

On Monday I snuck in a nice spin at the OO trailhead on the Lake Helene, Fire Tower, Winding Pine, and etc. Always a great area to ride when things are soggy on the singletracks.

[ryno lite]

Buck, we'll have to check out the Seely trail when we're staying up there.

[Rocky Mountain]

The group and I hit Rock Lake on Friday as well and parts of this trail is so new in alot of areas that it was difficult to get any momentum. By next year it should be in really good shape. No more bombing hills to make it up the other side.

Dan, you should of jumped in with us because our schedule was about the same as yours. We rode the Ojibwe on Sat and ran into some bear hunters. This trail kicks my *ss every time but I enjoy it.

In the parking lot afterwards we could of sung Karokee with some people who had a motorhome parked out there. Now thats some vacationing fun when you can sing Karokee out in the woods!

[GearDaddy]

The group and I hit Rock Lake on Friday as well and parts of this trail is so new in alot of areas that it was difficult to get any momentum. By next year it should be in really good shape. No more bombing hills to make it up the other side.

Dan, you should of jumped in with us because our schedule was about the same as yours. We rode the Ojibwe on Sat and ran into some bear hunters. This trail kicks my *ss every time but I enjoy it.

In the parking lot afterwards we could of sung Karokee with some people who had a motorhome parked out there. Now thats some vacationing fun when you can sing Karokee out in the woods!
On Friday I didn't see a single soul in 30+ miles of riding. The Rock Lake lot was empty. I was riding right in the middle of the day. It always amazes me how little numbers of people I see riding the trails, especially during beautiful weekends in the fall.

On Saturday I was also thinking that I was the only person left on earth, until the last few miles where I finally saw a few people going the other way on the Ojibwe trail (I usually go counter-clockwise). They turned out to be the only people I saw the entire weekend.

Yeah, I need to hook up sometime. I haven't even been to Levis-Trow this year! I assume you rode on the NCT? If so, how was that?

[Rocky Mountain]

Planned to ride the NCT on Sunday but after the heavy rains the night before the group went hiking at the Copper Falls. I think the Cable area received 2" of rain Sat. night.

The weather was perfect this past weekend and the parade and fireworks were an added bonus.

This Labor Day weekend I am going to plan a ride to Milaca or Levis-Trow depending on what everybody else wants to do.

[Magic]

Hey Jason, keep me in the loop on Levis for Labor day. Thanks