Moving to twin cities, what to expect?

[sledparty]

My wife and I are going to be relocating to the twin cities area in about a month. We're from the Washington and currently Boise and are in to mountain riding, hills, backcountry. I personally am a hill climber and like to play in the trees and bowls all day.

Do these areas even exsist in MN? I've heard it's pretty much just flat and lots of trail riding. We currently own mountain sleds with 151 to 163" tracks. I also heard most guys in the midwest just run short tracks.. Eeeek!!

Just trying to plan ahead. If I can't sell a 163" sled in MN I might try to get rid of them here and start over fresh at the new casa.

 

[bboll]

Minnesota riding north of Interstate 94 is trail riding through forests, south of 94 it is open prarie, ditch riding. No hills. Plently of guys willing to buy your 155"+ sleds in MN. Many guys just trailer to the mountains for a week long trip. I live in MN and my only sled is a 163", which only gets ridden in the mtns... pick up a cheap trail sled for the weekends in MN. Many sledders in MN but tough snow years lately.

good luck

 

[dejoli]

Also, many head up to the UP of Michigan for a weekend trip. There you can run forest service roads (non-groomed and typically powder) and tree running vs. just hitting the trails.

Most areas in MN don't allow off trail riding, but Iron County in WI and UP does.

As said as well, you can sell the 155+ sled here. There were so few deals here that I drop to far west Montana and back to pick up mine.

 

[dejoli]

Also, start planning your annual trips out west as the rest of us do to get to real snow and real riding

 

[Pro-8250]

You won't be happy with the riding here then. The way it's been going, forget about riding anywhere south of Duluth for the most part.
Checkout, http://www.snowmobilevacation.com/trail_conditions/index.html
It is lake, river, and trail riding in a very beautiful part of the country.
I guess they just got 12+ today. (1-29-2013)
Keep your mountain sleds like the rest of us do and head west. We just don't have winter anymore.

 

[cheetah]

Ditto like everyone else has stated, the last 2 years. The snow conditions have been terrible in MN. Only riding currently is on the North Shore or the UP. And since those are the only 2 areas ride-able right now, they get bounded by sled traffic....

 

[scotts-doo]

I also travel out west to Cooke and TWL, but if you like off trail riding, down logging roads and just through the woods period, there is some good riding in the UP and up by Orr MN. When we got all that snow about 2-3 years ago, I went up to Orr, MN and just had a blast up there. Off trail everywhere and deep. I am aware that the last couple years have been bad though. The same up in the UP by Twin lakes. A 155 can be used here. The 163 might be a bit aggressive for MN. Just my two sense.

 

[sledking]

There is no use for a 155"+ sled in MN unless you plan to take it west every year. What I did is have a mtn sled and a ditch banger. If your going to live in Minneapolis you will most likely have to trailer anything to get out of the city. Riding in MN consist of ditch banging and trail riding and thats if we get barely enough snow to ride...If your coming from the west I am sorry but you will be greatly depressed at what snow is around here

 

[moneypit16]

Minnesota Riding

I do not even license my snowmobile in Minnesota any more (2008 M8 153) basically drive it around the yard once before it goes in the trailer and out west. The good news is there is a fair number of riders around here that go out west (Snowies, Tog, Cooke, Steamboat). Snowmobiling around here involves alot of going to the next bar down the trail and its all short tracks.

 

[sledparty]

Thanks for all the helpful replies, for the most part the comments recieved were to be expected. I think I'm going to sell my dragon, keep my nytro and my wifes 700 summit. Got too much into my nytro and love it way too much to ditch now. Guess it will be a lake bound wheelie machine and drag rocket now

 

[duece1]

Sorry man - MN riding is not good!! As a kid not knowing any differnt it was lots of fun pounding the drifts in the road ditches and jumping driveways, but once you make that first trip to the mtns - forget it!! As others said, my sleds are not registered in mn either! Couple miles in the ditch before it is loaded on the trailer going west and that's it! Leave the sleds at a buds house out there and make a couple trips out each year. Pick up a couple quads for around here. MN atv trails are not too bad and WI is really good!

 

[Slapshot]

The Northshore westside of the hill or the swamps around the twincites are the only two place two ride IMO

 

[Pro-8250]

Oh, and we are the land of 10,000 taxes and ten trillion mosquitoes.
But we are home to;
Polaris.
Arctic Cat.
Fast.
Team.
Silber turbos.
Dennis Kirk.
Shade Tree.
The largest snowmobile event in the world. Haydays.
The largest snowmobile fund raiser on the planet. Blackwoods Blizzard Tour.
21,000 mile of groomed trails.
The most registered sleds of any state.
5 Professional sports teams.
Bob Dylan, Judy Garland, Prince.
Best Buy.
Honeywell.
Target.
3M.
Green Giant.
Mayo Clinic.

 

[Cobalt 200]

I can not believe how depressing this thread is. If you want someone to tell you where there great spots are, it will not happen. I can tell you we do a lot of riding around the north shore of mn and even on this low snow year you can find great places to play and even get stuck with some very technical riding. The best thing you can do is get a forest road map and go explore. I have been to Cook city and the big horns and I personally prefer northern MN on a good snow year. Unfortunately we have not had gear snow the past 2 winters. You can have a lot of fun in northern, MN.

 

[Carlos Randolph]

Bah Humbug!

Geeezus, you would think it is all dirt on the ground in this state, every where, all the time, every year. Lots of places you can go ride in this state, and use a 144+ sled. Even more places if you go to the UP of MI. I am leaving on Friday night, driving 5 hours North, and fully plan on riding in 2'+ of snow.....shoot I might even get stuck.

Now I would never try and tell you that we have true "mountain" type Riding here, but most certainly we have the ability to do the off trail thing if ya know how and where to look for it, and are willing. Lots of years most peeps can ride right from home, a luxury that many in the Mountains can't say they have. On a decent snow year, you can ride a sled from Northen Iowa, up to Canada.....by this, I mean you can get on a sled in Iowa, and ride it all the way to Canada and beyond.....and back if you like. This year.....only from the North side of the Twin Cities to Canada and beyond....so not quite as impressive, but what ya gonna do.

Sleds are part of the culture here, more so than anywhere else on earth.

 

[polarisfornow]

I don't live in MN but I work around the North Branch, Cambridge area quite abit and honestly its not absolutely horrible up here. One thing that is great is there is truly a sledding culture here in MN. Trails that literally go everywhere and the people don't hate sledders. In fact they usually wave. More people have a sled in their garage here than anywhere else. When I had my xfire I used to ride up here quite a bit and it was a blast to pretend to a sno-x racer and jump driveways and such. Yeah its not a place for a 163 but it can be fun. And once you go to Haydays it will give you a totally new outlook on sledding.

 

[xrated]

MN isn't the mountains, but when we have snow you can find lots of fun. It is just different fun.

I have play spots that aren't even hard to get to but most sleds stick to trails and normal routes between locations so lots of chances.


If you like summer time and water you will love it here.

As mentioned lots of quad trails if you like that....and we have some AMAZING dirt bike trails and motocross is pretty big as well. 4 tracks within 30 minutes of where I live ranging from Pro to pretty mellow. Not to mention more than a few private tracks. Same applies for trails.

Make yourself known and what you like to do and we can certainly help get you acclimated to MN.

 

[Goin For Snow]

Oh, and we are the land of 1,000,000 taxes and ten trillion mosquitoes.

Fixed it for you.
we have a good winter about every 5 years.

 

[Pro-8250]

02/09/2013 10:40pm

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS...WIDESPREAD 6 TO 10 INCHES...WITH LOCAL 10
TO 14 INCHES ACCUMULATION ALONG THE NORTH SHORE OF LAKE
SUPERIOR.

* WINDS...EAST TO NORTHEAST FROM 10 TO 25 MPH ON SUNDAY BECOMING
NORTHWEST ON MONDAY. WINDS SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING
AROUND LAKE SUPERIOR WILL GUST TO AROUND 40 MPH AT TIMES CAUSING
CONSIDERABLE BLOWING AND DRIFTING.
02/09/2013 10:40pm