July 20th, Thursday day 24 Moose Lake to Cable

We were joined in Moose Lake by Don and Terry from the WATVA and by Phil who owns Lakewoods Resort and Golf.  We left the parking lot of the AmericInn at 8:45.

First we made the short trip back around the town so we would start at the point we left off the night before.  When we started our trip we were once again on the old Soo Line trail which takes us around the southern part of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin.  It is fairly straight and smooth.  It seemed the good folks of Minnesota had just upgraded some of this trail and there was about two feet of large gravel on much of the path.  It made steering somewhat difficult until it gets packed down, but I guess you can’t fault them for maintaining the trail. 

We first ran into Brian who was scouting timber for North Shore Forest Products.  The county was getting ready to have a timber auction and this company would be one of those bidding on the timber rights. 

The issue of the day was dust and I mean DUST.  It has not rained in this part of Wisconsin since Noah parked his Ark.  Each rider had to stay about two light years behind the other one if you wanted any chance of seeing anything.  Don’t get me wrong, the trails were scenic and enjoyable and I’m anxious to visit them again after a good rain. 

Once we entered Wisconsin we were in Douglas County and traveled until the legal end of the rail line.  There are folks who continue on some other trails at this point, but by the strict letter of the law they are not open to atv’s.  We had pre arranged a meeting with Deputy Andrea Dittbrender and she escorted us for approximately 1 mile to a connecting trail.  This was one of the more interesting aspects of the trip.  We had come through five states and managed to find legal forest roads, county roads, trails, township roads etc for the entire trip.  Yet here we were in Wisconsin, one of the best atv states and two of the major trails between Minnesota and Wisconsin have no connecting point.  I understand this is being worked on and I can’t stress enough the importance of having these trails connect.  This will mean a guy or gal with a lot of fortitude can ride from one end of Minnesota, through Wisconsin and through the UP of Michigan without trailering.  What a concept….  Wait, that’s what we just did from Oregon through Wisconsin.

I can’t thank Don and Terry from WATVA enough for leading the way today.  Don took one for the team and had a flat tire as we were filling up with gas at 
JT’s One Stop in Solon Springs.  He said that is part of his guiding plan, to hit all of the nails so his guest do not have a problem.  What a guy.  Phil Rasmussen said he honestly rode an ATV more on this day than the TOTAL miles he had ever ridden in his life.

We came across two people picking raspberries so we stopped to visit.  Fred and Laura are from Sebring, Florida and spend part of their summer at Nelson Lake.  We gave Laura our address so she could send us a batch of Jam when she’s in the mood. 

We ate lunch at Prevost’s In Solon Springs and it was very good.  I had spaghetti and would recommend it to anyone.  It was great!  While we were there a gentlemen had been tracking us for a few days and trying to catch up with us for part of the ride.  We hooked up at Prevost’s restaurant and he rode to Seeley, Wisconsin with us.  I’ll tell you more about that story tomorrow.  We were pretty impressed that someone would travel that far to be part of this trip. 

We finally arrived at Cable around 6:20 and had traveled 145 miles for the day.  I was beat from the continuous dust and a few brew helped.  We ate at Lakewoods Resort that evening and I think I fell asleep about 30 seconds after I finished my meal.  Tomorrow it’s a trip to Hurley, Wisconsin and then Saturday(our day off) we are going to be in a parade in Eagle River, Wisconsin. 
 

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