What's the riding like in Michigan...and other questions

[silvester]

Hey all, I live in Colorado and I am looking at a job in Central MI. Right near Lake City is where we will live an work. Curious about life in MI and how it compares to CO.

I have a 09 AC m8 153 that that I love to ride in Deep powder around here, curious if there is back country powder to ride there or is it all short track, trail riding and ditch banging? Would it be best to sell this sled before coming out, if we move? What's the snowmobile scene like in general?

Life other than snowmobiling, how's the cost of living in MI? High or low taxes? What is the housing market like in the Lake City or Cadillac area? Is this area generally a "nice" place to live.

I live in a small town in the mountains now(Granby), around 8000ft, near a resort (Winter Park). We like small towns, we know what winter is like, we know what snow is. Obviously there are allot of similarities, curious what ya'll think about your state?

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[TDUGGER]

Kevin,

I live work and play mostly in Wisconsin. I live 40 minutes from the border and 2 hours from the UP "Good" riding. IF you look at the Trail conditions II report you will see some back country riding. This riding is found all over northern MI. Currently they have had nearly 200" of snow. Monday some places got 30" in 17 hours. The snow is light and fluffy and settles minimum 50%. Off trail is good just gotta find it and be persistant.

You will find the terrain to be as technical as you want. I like to say I am gonna go nearly to the top around that tree drop down turn back up ect ect. Usually finding harder lines to make the riding more difficult than it really is.

I have only ridden out west at Tog and Cooke City and I still live for yearly trip out there but this riding is fun in the meantime.

As far as living in MI or Central MI no idea.

Good luck, you will be sacrificing riding however IMHO. But I think that if you like outdoors stuff you will find plenty to do year round.

 

[tdbaugha]

I grew up and learned to ride right in Marion, MI. VERY close to lake city. The past few years have been bad for snow is what I've been told. About 1 day a year having a mountain sled would be nice there. Other than that, I would get a cross-over. There are trails in the area, however I just road in all the fields in the area. Lots of rolling hills. But, if you didn't mind driving 7 hours, the Keweenaw has pretty good off-trail riding. I have a group of 12-14 buddies and we all have mountain sleds.

 

[geberhard]

I rode an 09 M8 for the last 3 years. Now I ride 13 pro. They are little much for normal conditions here, but usable.

 

[silvester]

Thanks for the info...keep it coming. My gut feeling is to sell my sled here and head out, see what the area is like then evaluate a cross over or whatever. Snow in CO has been low the last two years as well, i guess I am looking for an average. I hear and see allot of guys coming west for the deep stuff, I guess I just wondered if there was anything kinda deep up there. Sounds like a little drive but you can get to some deep snow...in the U.P. I guess. What are some of the destinations for off trail riding in the U.P., like the names of towns, etc.?

Also any hunters out there shed some light on big game options. Obviously I hear you have deer, what else. Is it easy to get tags?

Again, Thanks for the info!

 

[mthoodskiguy]

My parents live in the Cadillac area.. There are good days down that way but rarely a reliable snowpack.. I have a friend that's a realtor in that area that's super into sledding so if you want his info let me know. You will want to figure out where the snow belts are in relation to places your interested in.. Can change drastically based on location. However that all changes in parts of the u.p. Great and consistent snowpack in the keewenaw we it of snow totals that are very consistent with snow totals at places like Breckinridge and keystone.. You will find epic snow and buying a place up in snow country of the u.p. can be done for 30k.. Places are butt cheap and you can justify a mountain sled all day!
Let me know if you want the realtor contact he super cool dude..

The ideal sled type sld for your scenario would be something like that high country 141" that cat makes. I found a 141 m8 and its perfect for u.p. riding.

 

[tek9tim]

My wife is from the Mio area there in the lower peninsula, east of Cadillac a couple hours. I spent two winters back there, and was bored to the outside of my mind with snowmobiling there. Only 1 day out of the two winters I was there did I actually kind of use my long track well, and I rode until my hands were bleeding. In the lower peninsula, you won't find technical riding. It is amazingly flat, the trails are like a sharp drill bit: boring as heck. Ditch banging is the most fun I had there, but it can be hit or miss. The biggest hillclimb I ever came across was maybe 100 yards long, and was able to J-turn with little to no momentum at the bottom, and make the top without getting beyond 3/4 throttle.

Okay, I should point out some upsides. I could ride every day there was snow, and often did since I could take off from the house. Cadillac is in the snow belt on the west side of the state, so you would get more snow than the rest of the lower. When you run low on gas, you just pull into a gas station. If your sled breaks down, you can likely drive to it to retrieve it. Most of the Mitten is gridded out with roads on the section lines, so there's usually a road no more than a half mile away in one direction or another. Most people have short tracks, so on the rare big dump days, you aren't competing with anybody but you also don't have anybody to ride with.

Real estate is generally dirt cheap. My brother-in-law owns a couple decent rental houses that he got 5 year loans on. General cost of living is low. If you can find a decent paying job, you can live like a king.

Hunting is pretty decent there for whitetail, tags are easy and cheap and you can buy multiple per year. Out of state is cheaper than in state in Washington. There are a fair number of elk over in the Atlanta area as well as in the UP, but I know nothing about tags. I imagine they are harder to come by. Bear are around too, but not as common as in Idaho/Montana.

 

[mthoodskiguy]

Okay, I should point out some upsides. I could ride every day there was snow, and often did since I could take off from the house. Cadillac is in the snow belt on the west side of the state, so you would get more snow than the rest of the lower..

I think there are areas of the lower that get more snow than cadilla... Gaylord and pestoskey I think they average over 100 inches were Cadillac sits just above 80.

 

[tek9tim]

I think there are areas of the lower that get more snow than cadilla... Gaylord and pestoskey I think they average over 100 inches were Cadillac sits just above 80.

Yeah, but compare 80 to the rest of the lower, and you're sitting pretty well. Gaylord does get more, but the riding is really boring there. There is a spur trail that takes you right to the Tim Horton's. Everybody should ride a sled to a Tim Horton's to buy donuts once.

 

[SaberKitty]

Bring the M and buy some low elevation weights for the primary clutch. Backcountry riding can be found in the Upper Peninsula and there's actually oxygen to breath.

 

[silvester]

If we make the move, it would be for a Job, so that is what dictates the area we would move too. Lake city is the nearest town to the Camp. We will see how all that shakes down in the next few weeks. We might be in CO for another winter or two.

On the flip side of the snowmobile riding category, I like seeing houses under 200K that come with acres of land! At least in the real estate listings I have browsed there are some. I have a 300k house on 1/4 acre and it's a starter home!

The U.P. seems to be the spot for local riders who wanna hit deeper snow. I guess it would be a 4 hour trip or so? Good to see there are at least a few long tracks in the state!

 

[mthoodskiguy]

If we make the move, it would be for a Job, so that is what dictates the area we would move too. Lake city is the nearest town to the Camp. We will see how all that shakes down in the next few weeks. We might be in CO for another winter or two.

On the flip side of the snowmobile riding category, I like seeing houses under 200K that come with acres of land! At least in the real estate listings I have browsed there are some. I have a 300k house on 1/4 acre and it's a starter home!

The U.P. seems to be the spot for local riders who wanna hit deeper snow. I guess it would be a 4 hour trip or so? Good to see there are at least a few long tracks in the state!

Newberry area miht be around that four hour mark, but everyone from the lower goes to either munising or new berry and it can be kinda busy.. The riding in the keweenaw is deeper (most of the time), more technical, and hillier (is that a word), and more spread out... We are already over 230" this year in in toivola but shhhh no one needs to know that..

 

[silvester]

Looking at a map to find all these spots in the U.P.. Glad you got some snow!