Great Escapes Fall 2020 | Page 6

11 FALL 2020 ISSUE 01 / VOL . 02

SNOWGOER . COM 12

For riders coming from Minnesota , Iowa and some parts of Wisconsin , the introduction to the U . P . most often starts in what the local marketing folks like to call “ Big Snow Country .” It ’ s a pithy name , but the area lives up to the marketing hype with a ton of snow every winter , thanks to the cool breezes blowing over the often-open water of Lake Superior that creates s clouds and snow .

Our favorite ride in this region starts near – but not on – Lake Gogebic . Yes , the snow-covered 14-mile-long 1 lake top offers plenty of fun for the go-fast crowd and easy shortcuts between the various establishments along the shoree . But you ’ d be missing out on a lot of the fun if you don ’ t make a lap around the lake on the fabulous trails that surround it – Trail 13 along the east shore , a short connector on Trail 100 along the bottom and then a zoom up the twisting Trail 1 on the west shore .

Next , extend the ride northwest on Trail 102 for the ultimate prize . It ’ s a heavily wooded trail that ’ s quite twisting yet delightfully wide , giving riders an opportunity to make good time but still enjoy the best of backwoods snowmobiling .

Trail 102 ends where the super-highway Trail 11 starts – this mega-wide forest road is an extremely fast route up to the south shore of Lake Superior , skirting the Porcupine Mountains on the left . Where Trail 11 tees into the lake just west of Silver City , you can watch the huge waves crash ashore on windy days ; on calmer days , you can walk out onto some of the interesting ice formations created on those windy days .

Once you get to Lake Superior in Silver City , hang a left and take the climb up to the Lake Of The Clouds overlook . On the gradual ride up the hill and through the park , riders gain about 700 feet over about 7 miles and get tremendous views of Lake Superior on the right .

Eventually , up where the trail dead-ends , riders leave their sleds behind for a very short walk out to the Lake of the Clouds Overlook . There , you ’ ll find a dramatic landscape – the overlook is perched atop huge basalt cliffs that were formed by volcanoes hundreds of millions of years ago . Roughly 300 feet directly below is Lake Of The Clouds , with the inlet and outlet of the Big Carp River that are rarely frozen on each end . Opposite the overlook , on the other side of Lake Of The Clouds , is another ridge , also volcanic in its nature , this one made of rhyolite and covered with pine trees .

All of this geology aside , the view from the top of the Lake of the Clouds Overlook is almost a religious experience on a clear day , although out of the dozens of times we ’ ve been there , we ’ ve probably only had a handful of sunny afternoons . That ’ s OK with us , though , because those clouds produce the snow , and the snow brings the fun ..