You are hereClub Trip to Lac du Flambeau, Wis.
Club Trip to Lac du Flambeau, Wis.
By Bill Luebbers
Though planned as a club trip to Crivitz, Wis., due to a lack of snow cover, the Crivitz trip was canceled. Last minute plans were created, and I — along with a few others — was lucky enough to be invited to Tom and Leigh Ann's beautiful cabin in Lac du Flambeau, Wis., on January 19-21, 2007.
Arlyn offered to throw my sled on his trailer and drive me up there, which was great. My van is not the safest way to drive into the snow belt. We arrived late Thursday night and met Rachel Petrusky and her boyfriend Chris at the cabin. They already had a nice fire going in the fireplace. Bart and Michelle Rockow arrived a little later, followed by Tom and Leigh Ann. That made eight of us — and eight Arctic Cats. Awesome!
Thursday night, we had a few beers, talked about sleds, and watched some movies and stuff. Bart began preparing a breakfast casserole for Friday morning. The breakfast was one of the best I've had.
After getting a good night's sleep and our Friday morning breakfast, we began to unload the sleds and get ready for the day's ride. The cabin is right on Middle Sugarbush Lake*, so we all gathered on the ice. We headed northeast across the lake and popped onto Trail 17, which is an abandoned railroad grade, and we started heading northwest. The trails in this direction were fair. There could have been much more snow, but there was enough to have fun.
We worked our way to Trail 9 — or maybe it was Trail 12 — anyway, we rode it to the far west side of the Turtle Flambeau Flowage. We made a pit-stop around 1:30 p.m. at a place called Camp 1 in Mercer Township. The sign has all these deer, elk and moose racks mounted to it. The inside of the place is heavily decorated with beer signs and dead animals. I love these kinds of places. The mounts were very well done and displayed nicely (as you can see in the gallery). Leigh Ann and Michelle each bought a nice fur hat there, and they looked great.
Our next stop was Beaver Lodge Resort located in Mercer on Little Martha Lake**. We arrived around 3:30 p.m. and met Randy Prueitt, Jody Hammond and his friends, "The Platteville Gang," already having a few refreshments.
Then we went to Island View Lodge, located in Mercer on the west side of Fisher Lake. We arrived there around 7 p.m. Somehow between Beaver Lodge Resort and Island View Lodge, the inside of my right boot became soaking wet — totally uncomfortable. I noticed a small gas space heater in the corner of the bar, so I tried to dry my sock near it. One of the owners of the lodge saw this and offered to throw my sock in her clothes dryer for me. She also gave me a plastic bag to put into my boot to keep the liner from getting my sock wet again. That was really very cool of them to do that. They couldn't have been any nicer to our group. I think Bart had them dry his socks also.
We finished our ride Friday night at the Trailside Inn in Lac du Flambeau on the Pokegama Lake Trail off of Trail 17. It's a nice little place real close to Tom and Leigh Ann's cabin, and they had the perfect floor vents to completely dry out my boot liner. At this point, Bart was getting pretty tired. He didn't get enough sleep I guess, so since we were so close to the cabin, we had two shots of Gentlemen Jack, and that perked us right back up.
Back at the cabin, we were able to shed all that clothing and settle in for some good conversation, a few snacks and drinks, some movies, and a good night's sleep.
Saturday morning we all got up really early to hit the trails. OK, that was a lie: I don't think we hit the trails until 10:30 or 11a.m., but that's fine, we had plenty of time to sleep and eat a good breakfast before heading out. This time when we popped onto Trail 17 off of Middle Sugarbush Lake, we headed southeast. This direction, and the trails we took the remainder of the day, were better than on Friday. Still, most of the turns were very icy. We worked our way back up north, and around 2 p.m., we stopped for lunch at the Pea Patch Saloon in Manitowish Waters on Trail 8. It is located on the west side of Rest Lake. They have great food there and it is one of Rachel Petrusky's favorite places to stop. One of the items on the menu is the Cordon Bleu Balls. They are just like Chicken Cordon Bleu except they are shaped in little balls — very tasty! These are great, and I found a recipe for them online. Across the street from the Pea Patch is one of those cool Americana roadside tourist attractions: a giant fish.
Our next stop was the Skyview Lodge located on Boot Lake in Presque Isle. We arrived around 5 p.m. This place is only one mile south of the Upper Peninsula and is located on Trail 6. It's a big place too, with cool decor and a nice place off to the side to sit on some couches by the fireplace. They also have a live webcam.
After we left the Skyview Lodge, we arrived two hours later at Chuck's Tavern in Mercer. This place has a back room off to the left that features a lot of those antique steel pedal cars that have been meticulously restored. They have the Murray Fire Chief, the Police Chief, the Tow Wrecker and a John Deere tractor. There are also some animal mounts and a lot of other little knick knacks that are pretty interesting to see.
Back at the cabin on Saturday night, we talked some more about our ride, put on some snowmobile DVDs, had a few snacks and drinks, and played a game called Catch Phrase, which was pretty fun.
Sunday morning, Bart and Michelle had to head home, but the rest of us went on a breakfast ride to the Lake Placid Inn, located in Minocqua on the south end of Fence Lake. One of the first things we saw there was a Mini Z hanging off the back of a Chevy Tahoe with some bungee cords. Poor sled, I hope it made it home alright. If your ever at this place for breakfast, be sure to try The Lunker. It's a huge breakfast sandwich that's sure to fill you up and prepare you for the long drive home.
After breakfast, Tom rode Arlyn's new Arctic Cat F8 back to the lake right behind the cabin, where we all stopped one last time. The report was that it is a great riding sled. I'm jealous of course, but when Arlyn tried to start it so we could load it on the trailer, it wouldn't start. It ran fine all weekend, what the heck? Well after a while, it turned out that Tom had shut off the sled with the kill switch, and Arlyn always uses the key since it's an electric start. We were almost ready to tow it up the hill before they discovered the problem.
Well, that's about it as far as this trip went, unless you count the SUV that almost ran into us on the way home. But that's another story!
View the Photo Gallery from Bill Luebbers
View the Photo Gallery from Leigh Ann Petrusky
*Middle Sugarbush Lake covers 269 acres. There is 5 miles of shoreline and the maximum depth is 57 feet.
**Little Martha Lake in north central Mercer. It is 35 acres and 36 feet deep.
***Fisher Lake is located in the east-central portion of the Mercer area. It is 452 acres and 25 feet deep.
