Wakefield, Michigan

Nordic Ski Trip – December 29th, 2021

I started the trip at 5 a.m. on Wednesday, traveling north to the upper peninsula of Michigan. Several places along Interstate 75, I changed lanes to avoid emergency vehicles assisting with tractor trailer rigs jack knifed or laying on their sides and a few passenger vehicles leaving deep tracks down into the ditches. North of Saginaw and up past Grayling, snow had fallen, icing the highway.

Later, as I crossed the Mackinac Bridge, traffic was forced over to the inside lane, which on the bridge is a grate, rather than pavement. The outer paved lane was iced over. Once across the bridge, I turned west on Route 2, heading for the far end of the UP and the town of Wakefield. The roads were in much better shape, and I made good time.

Our ski group had reserved a 3 bedroom house, through VRBO, near Indianhead Ski Resort just northwest of Wakefield. This location placed us near the Wolverine and ABR ski trails as well as a short drive from the Uller Trail in the Penokee Hills of Wisconsin. The group consisted of long time friends from Minnesota as well as Freeport, Illinois.

After breakfast on Thursday, we split into 2 groups to ski the Wolverine Nordic Trails. Mark, Phyllis and I skied the combined Wolverine and Powderhorn Loops of about 11 kilometers. The trails are groomed for both classic and skate skiing. The terrain is hilly and winding, requiring some stiff “herringbone” climbs followed by long gentle downhill runs. We stopped for lunch back at the car and then split up, Mark and Phyllis taking the Cliffhanger trail, and I the shorter Cliffs trail. This added another 2 kilometers to the days total. As this was my first ski outing of the winter, I was pretty tired and near the edge of control on the last downhill run to the car.

On Friday, we discussed places to ski for the day. Mark wanted to do the Uller trail. However, this is a long more technical route, probably not groomed and winds through the more remote Penokee Hills. It is not a loop, requiring two vehicles, one spotted at the end. Thus, once you pass the halfway point, you are committed to the trailhead at the end, tired or not. While I was more inclined to ski the groomed ABR trails, Mark brought up a good point, “at our age, you don’t know when you might ever ski it again”. The last time I was on the trail was 1989. I was a little more spry back then, so knew this could be tough.

As it turned out, 5 of our group of 8 opted for the Uller, the other 3 headed for the ABR Trails near Ironwood. We spotted a car on Hoyt Road west of Pence, Wisconsin and then drove to the Weber Lake trailhead. There we started a long climb over the first hills. On the subsequent downhill run on the other side, the trail dips through a gully. This is a notorious location to take a fall. I was the last skier down, made it through the gully but fell forward over a bump on the far side, straining my right shoulder. After getting back on my feet, Chris, the second skier down, revealed a broken ski. The front 1 1/2 feet of the tip had snapped. He would have to walk back over the hill to our starting point. Phyllis opted to go with him, as it would not be wise for a person to travel alone in the frigid temperature and on this particular trail.

The other 3 of us continued on. The next technical downhill, I saw Mark take the right side of the trail and fall, so I took the left side, where my left knee met a large boulder poking out of the snow. Here we were getting near the halfway point, and being down to a group of 3, no safe way to split up anyway. I travelled on. We stopped for a quick lunch at the second warming hut at about 2 thirds of the way. Note: it is only a warming hut if somebody has kept it warm. We knew from the fresh snow, that nobody else was on the trail that day. The route eventually turned south and we left the hills to ski the last leg across a pine tree flat, headed toward Hoyt road and the warmth of our vehicle.

If you are ever in the Ironwood area and are thinking about skiing the Uller trail, I highly recommend it, as long as you are an experienced skier. You will need to be able to control your speed down long curving trails. You are also pretty far away from roads at times. Compared to other trail systems in the area, few people ski the Uller. While we saw others had traveled before us, we say nobody during our trip.

The group headed out to the ABR Trails again on Saturday, however I opted to take the day off, rest my knee and do a little reading. Early Sunday, with a temperature well below zero, I packed the truck and started the 9 hour drive back home.