Winter in Minnesota – Wildwood Resort

Groomed Snowmobile Trails, Fresh Snow and Perfect Weather!

snowmobile trails x-ski trails — Fresh snow has made the landscape beautiful and the groomed snowmobile trails and x-ski trails excellent!

I think all of us can agree that winter has been pretty long so far. And the fact that it is only mid-February might make some folks head for the nearest airport to escape the cold. However, Mother Nature has finally given us a break this week with perfect snowmobile and x-ski trail conditions, fresh snow for grooming and “warm” temperatures to enjoy it!

Guests staying at Wildwood over the last few weeks are reporting near-perfect snowmobile trail conditions with all local trails being groomed regularly. It has been a busy winter for us and that hasn’t left a lot of time for riding our own snowmobiles. But on Friday night we finally got out on the trails ourselves and although it was not a long ride it was an amazing one! We picked the kids up from school and headed up to Marcell with plans to ride with friends. We hit the trails around 4:30 with clear skies and sunshine. We rode west on the Bowstring trail into the setting sun and as it dipped below the horizon it turned the sky pink and purple. Trail conditions were really good and were made better when we met the groomer out on the trail! The temperature dropped pretty quickly after the sun went down so we didn’t ride too long before we decided to turn around and head back the way we came. We had the kids along and wanted to eat steak at the Timberwolf Inn so the increasing cold and hunger pangs drove us back toward Marcell. Shortly after heading east again I was catching light out of the corner of my eye. I kept thinking I was seeing headlights of oncoming sleds. However, it didn’t take long to realize that the light was coming from the rising moon. It looked like it was playing peek-a-boo through the trees. With the clear sky the light from the full, yellow moon was amazing. It was so beautiful that it was hard to concentrate on the trail! With warmer temperatures forecasted for the coming week we look forward to getting more time on the snowmobiles. We hope you do, too!

Ice fishing on Bass Lake has been a little slow this winter. We can only guess that the crazy, cold temperatures impacted the fish as much as the rest of us! We had ice fishermen in over President’s Day weekend who reported the the fishing wasn’t red-hot but they caught enough sunfish throught he ice to limit out. While we only maintain our access for ATV and snowomobile traffic the ice conditions are great for travel by truck as well. Last we knew there were no plowed roads on the south end of Bass Lake.

Minnesota family resort — Finally all the windows and the front door are in!

Our project is going well and it has been fun to start thinking of the winter of 2015 when we will have nine cabins open for winter business. Of course, we have to get them built first so that’s still our main focus right now. Our contractors and Jay have been making great progress and all four cabins are coming along nicely. We ordered kitchen cabinets last week and have finalized our flooring decisions. Those feel like two big milestones right now. After this week we will be ready for the painting contractor to come in and seal up the walls, windows, doors and trim. Although we are trying not to get our hopes up it’s hard not to imagine getting Aspen Lodge, Oak Lodge and Cedar Lodge done before May so we can concentrate on getting the rest of the resort ready for summer! I included some updated photos in this blog but you can also check out our Facebook page for the latest photos on our new cabins.

minnesota lake vacation — Here is a little Minnesota “summer vacation” to get you through another winter day!

While our time and energy is focused now on winter business and building new cabins it’s always nice to hear from people who have started to think about taking a Minnesota family vacation to Wildwood this year. I appreciate talking about walleye fishing (on open water) and discussing the merits of renting a pontoon for large family reunion groups. As I answer “Mom” questions about our safe, sandy beach and our supervised kid’s activities it makes me anticipate warm, summer days on the lake and the sun on my face. It’s certainly been a long winter but let’s all remember that it won’t last forever and summer WILL return. In 12 short weeks it will be Minnesota Fishing Opener followed immediately by the kick-off of the summer vacation season. As hard as it is to believe we will be digging out our summer clothes soon so just tuck those warm thoughts under your stocking cap as you enjoy the last month of winter!

Cheers!
Kim & Jay

Minnesota cabin rental — We installed a sound-deadening insulation on both sides of the adjoining wall in the duplex.

Minnesota vacation cabin — There will be a nice closet for storage and an extra fridge under the stairs in the entry of Red and White Oak Lodges.

Mn family vacations — The addition of the above the door really finish the look of Aspen Lodge.

Minnesota resort cabins — The windows and door let a ton of natural light into Cedar Lodge

Ice Fishing Season Is Coming On!

minnesota winter resort — The south basin of Bass Lake is almost iced over!

Anglers waiting for Minnesota ice fishing must be thrilled with our cold temperatures these last few days. Bass Lake is making ice like crazy! In fact, there are several inches of ice for about 15 feet out from shore. There certainly isn’t enough ice to consider ice fishing but it seems like it won’t be long before we see people out on the lake for “first ice.” It should be good ice this year, too. It looks like those first layers of ice are going to get good and thick before any measurable snow falls. Ice fishing paradise!

Our builders got a crazy amount of work done since the last post on our blog. Both Aspen Lodge and Cedar Lodge are up and weather-tight and they even have interior walls. It is really exciting to imagine the finished cabin now that we can see bedrooms and bathrooms framed out. Both cabins are going to be wonderful! Our builders have been waiting for some warmer days to start framing Oak Lodge. With wind chills below zero on Monday no one was too excited about working outside. Hopefully with a little warmer weather forecasted for the end of this week they will get the first floor framed up. Keep up-to-date with our latest photos on our Facebook page. Remember you don’t have to have a Facebook page to view ours!

That’s it for this week’s update. Stay warm out there!
Kim & Jay

winter in minnesota — Cool little ice cave on the beach. Makes me wish for an Alice in Wonderland potion so I could explore it!

Scrapbooking Weekends, Quilting Retreats and Girlfriend Weekends!

I know so many people who hate winter. They hate the onset of the cold weather and the anticipation of months of snow. I, on the other hand, don’t mind winter so much. That’s because winter signals the end of my least favorite season: fall. I’m not one to wax poetic about fall colors (although they are lovely) or to sigh in relief that the hot, summer weather is finally over. Nope. I LOVE hot, summer weather and as far as I’m concerned fall is the onset of cold weather and months of snow. Winter just seals the deal! We are always tired after our busy season but we still have to gut it out through September and October…kinda like a marathon runner finishing the last few miles. In light of that I’m happy to announce that the worst chore of the year – which happens to land in my least favorite season – has been accomplished. The docks are out of the lake (mostly) and I didn’t have to help (at least not as much as usual) thanks to our good friend, Tim. He volunteered to help Jay pull docks out on Sunday and I volunteered to let him. I’m thinking Tim helped so that he doesn’t have to listen to me whine about it for months but that’s just a guess. 😉 So the good news is that amidst all the construction chaos we are actually getting our fall chores done, too, or at least the ones that have to get done. The leaves didn’t get raked and Jay is having someone else split and stack the firewood but that’s how it’s gotta be this year. Now Jay just has to squeeze in time to winterize the boats and organize the shed. No big deal…he has loads of time on his hands right now!

scrapbooking retreat in minnesota — Riverbirch was transformed over the weekend into a Scrapbooking Haven!

Here’s another thing I like about winter: scrapbooking weekends at Wildwood Resort! We were so pleased to welcome a fun group of ladies over last weekend who took over Riverbirch Lodge and got crazy creative. It sounds like they got a lot done but most of all had a wonderful time together. We look forward to next year when we have 9 year round Lodges and are able to welcome even more girls to Wildwood for quilting weekends, Christmas baking, girlfriend getaways or scrapbooking retreats. I think that Oak Lodge will be especially wonderful for these girlfriend weekends thanks to its generous size but mostly due to the flexibility of a duplex – one side to live on and one side for crafting!

mn family resort — Walls are up! Aspen Lodge is officially a cabin!!

Our project is going really well in spite of the uncooperative weather in October. It rained yesterday but our contractors were still able to get the bones of Aspen Lodge built. AMAZING! Jay and I have been talking about renewing Wildwood for years. We’ve dreamed and schemed about how to get it accomplished and now that the project is happening it feels a little bit unreal. The plan this week is to get Aspen Lodge “dried in” and then move on to Cedar Lodge. If Mother Nature cooperates I suppose it’s possible to get Aspen Lodge and Cedar Lodge completely snugged up. After months of playing in the dirt the fact that there is a structure up seems miraculous! We grateful to the many outstanding contractors helping us out with our project so I’m goign to give them a shout out: S & S Excavating (demo, excavation and septic), Pioneer Plumbing, A & A Plumbing (directional boring), Walters Electric and Niska Construction (concrete).

Minnesota Deer Opener (firearms) is this week so I like to think of the coming weekend as a minor Minnesota holiday! That means that some businesses local businesses will be closed and Bazaar season will begin. There are craft sales, church bazaars and Paula Poundstone at The Reif Center. Here is a Calendar of Local Events highlighting all there is to do this weekend in Grand Rapids, MN.

Happy Hunting!
Kim & Jay

Can We Snowmobile Yet?

mn snowmobiling — Snow this time of year means poor outdoor working conditions but it also means we’ll be hitting the snowmobile trails in a few months!

We awoke to temps in the 20s this morning. The chill in the air has the bite of winter and I couldn’t help but think about snow. And do you know what snow makes me think of?? Minnesota snowmobile season! We’re getting ready to pull docks out of the lake and put our boats in storage. When that happens we move our snowmobiles to the FRONT of the storage shed for easy access. It’s a seasonal right of passage and the thought of that always makes us a little giddy. Now I’m not saying I’m ready for snow quite yet but I am saying that it’s time to start thinking about hitting the snowmobile trails. Maybe we should also make sure we have enough wax on hand for the coming x-ski season. And now that I think of it perhaps Jay should ramp up his Craig’s List search for ice fishing related items we want like an ice auger and a portable ice house.

northern mn cabin — Jay spent yesterday putting down the foam on top of the pads in preparation for installing the in-floor heat tubing.

Jay won’t be happy when he reads this post because he absolutely is not ready for it to snow. Why? Because he is focused entirely on getting concrete poured this week. It cannot snow this week or the next week or even the week after that if you ask my husband. The man is a little stressed out by the fact that we’ve got four new cabins under construction. And, yes, I did say “four” new cabins. After a month of work on the cabin formerly known as Cabin 1, we determined that there wasn’t enough viable structure to support the changes we needed to make. So last weekend Cabin 1 was demolished and we began frantic efforts to add another pad to the pour-concrete-this-week plan. Our contractors have been great so far and everyone has worked really hard to make sure we can pour concrete before it snows. The weather has NOT been helpful and there were many days when Jay and our plumber were digging in waste lines in driving rain and sleet. We are assuming that as soon as these buildings are enclosed and no one has to work outside the weather will turn unseasonably warm. That’s about how our luck runs. 😉 So the plan for this week is to finish site prep on Cedar Lodge, get foam down on top of all of the sites in order to get infloor heat tubing attached and then it’s time to pour concrete. Think we can get all that done before it rains on Wednesday!? Stay tuned….

mn quilting retreats, minnesota scrapbooking cabins — Plan your next scrapbooking weekend or quilting retreat with us!

With all the talk of construction on this blog you might think that we don’t have anyone staying in our other cabins this fall. Fortunately, that isn’t true! Fall fishing and color tours are finished for the year. However, we still have groups on the book with plans for quilting weekends, girlfriend weekends and relaxing Northwoods get-aways! The fall bazaar season is upon us so each weekend there are many craft sales, church bazaars and fun events planned in and around the Grand Rapids, MN area. For instance this coming weekend is the First Friday Art Walk in downtown Grand Rapids. The Good Lovelies are performing at The Reif on Friday night then on Saturday the Christmas UpNorth Craft Show is being held from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Timberlake Lodge. Saturday night the Harlem Abassadors are in town at the high school and the Itasca Symphony Orchestra is performing at the Reif. Doesn’t that sound like fun? Maybe you should plan a quick November get-away to Wildwood Resort with your special someone or your crafting friends! Winter rates are now in effect so give us a call today.

Our new website debuted last week. It is an updated version of our old site design and we are very happy with it! Thanks to Art Unlimited for their hard work on our new site!! We are still doing some cleanup work on it this week so if you find any errors please email them to me. Thanks!!

Have a great week –
Kim & Jay

northwoods cabin — The site is prepped and ready for the in-floor heat tubing to be installed.

mn cabins — Cabin 1 could not be salvaged so it was removed and the site prepped for the new slab.

The Changing Face of our Minnesota Family Resort

minnesota resort — The future look of Wildwood Resort!

Jay and I purchased Wildwood Resort in 1999. At that time we had eight “classic” cabins and one moldy 70s era single-wide mobile home. After an unexpected visit in 2002 by the State Fire Marshall (he wasn’t too impressed by the mobile home) it was pulled off the resort in 2003 and now it lives on another piece of property somewhere in Itasca County. While we had no fondness for the mobile home, its loss made us really start looking at our business and asking ourselves if our current efforts would ever result in the resort we saw in our dreams. We probably owe that Fire Marshall a debt of gratitude for pulling the blinders off because in 2005 we added Red Pine Lodge and White Pine Lodge. Then in 2007 after tearing down four of the original cabins we built Basswood Lodge, Tamarack Lodge and Riverbirch Lodge. That brings us to the present day and very exciting news about our changes planned for 2014!

This coming winter we have planned the demolition of Cabins 2, 3 & 4 and the complete renovation of Cabin 1. The new cabins will be ready for the 2014 season beginning Memorial Weekend and will be winterized for year round use:

Cabin 4 will be replaced by Aspen Lodge which will be a two bedroom cabin located on the same beautiful spot it inhabits today.

Cabins 1 & 2 will become the Red Oak and White Oak Lodges. They will be located where Cabins 2 & 3 are today and built as a duplex with three bedrooms on each side of the unit. Building a duplex gives us the flexibility to rent the cabin as a 6 bedroom unit and makes the best use of the available land. There will be a sound barrier between the units and the outdoor space for each cabin will be private. Each side will be two-stories with three bedrooms, two full bathrooms and covered patios. The unique floor plan of the duplex will allow groups to turn the two individual units into the 6 bedroom “Oak Lodge” by renting both sides of the unit and opening the adjoining doors. It will be perfect for family reunions!

Cabin 3 will become Cedar Lodge and will be located where Cabin 1 is today. We will gut and completely renovate the current cabin and remake it into a 2 bedroom, winterized unit with a full bathroom. The footprint and deck will remain the same but the interior will be totally new.

We will continue to book Cabins 1, 2, 3 & 4 through mid-September of this year so remember that there is still time to plan a fall stay at Wildwood! 🙂

We will be sharing photos of our progress throughout the winter so check back to this blog and our Facebook page often!

Kim & Jay

Here are some more photos of our guests enjoying their family vacations!

minnesota fishing resort — Nice crappie!

family vacations — Yep…we have it all at Wildwood – even fire-jugglers! This week we were treated to a show by one of our very talented guests!

family vacation — “Can we eat yet?!!?” (Waiting for potuck to start!!)

A River Ran Through It

I don’t suppose I’ve ever told you that I hate this time of year?! It’s the only time I hate living here. I don’t mind the mosquitoes in the summer or -40 temps in the winter. However, I can’t stand the end of March when we start our freeze/thaw cycle. This year we’ve gotten a lot of snow. It has made snowmobiling a ton of fun but it has caused the great flood at Wildwood this year. Friday afternoon we had an emergency session of ice chipping around one of the new cabins. All the snow melt was running down teh sidewalk and into the cabin so we chipped ice, shoveled snow, dug trenches and sandbagged until we finally got the water diverted. Unfortunately, we are slow learners because it didn’t occur to us that the very same thing would happen (but much worse) the next day! Late Saturday afternoon Katie and her friend came running up to the house to report that Cabin 2 was flooded. We threw on our boots and headed down to the lake and found Cabin 2 in need of a BIG life ring. The cabin sits off the ground but not by much and the water level was just starting to inch above the bottom of the siding. All I could think about was Jay’s new bathroom and how our life would suck if he had to rip it out and start over this spring!

We recently returned from a wonderful family vacation. We spent some time on the white sand beaches of the Mexican Riviera and it was wonderful! This year we went back to a resort we have visited previously and it was so interesting to have that “returning guest” mind frame that so many of our guests have when they return to Wildwood. We knew stuff about where we were going. For instance, we knew that the coconut ice cream is to die for. And we knew that on the nights when there is a chocolate fountain AND coconut ice cream we would go back to our rooms with the trifecta of sugar high, indigestion and chocolate stains on our clothes! We snorkeled and swam in the ocean but mostly just laid on chair by the beach for 6 days. We rested and spent time with our family and caught up on our reading and had guacamole with every meal. It was heavenly! There have been so many years that we just slugged on through our year with no vacation. It’s hard to recharge your batteries when you are always running on empty! Even though we came back to 12 inches of snow and subzero temperatures I can tell that my reserves are full and I’m ready for another season. I hope you are planning a life “time out” this year. If you are Jay and I would love to have you spend your family vacation with us at Wildwood Resort. Just think about it. 😉

As I mentioned we came home to lots of snow. The snowmobile trail conditions right now were the best they had been all year! We have NEVER had good snow conditions for snowmobiling this late in March. In fact, snow conditions are just now deteriorating this week. We rode for the last time on Tuesday and it was wonderful but also obvious that the snow was melting. While the snowmobilers are happy the ice fishermen are not! Deep snow with slush on the bottom have made ice fishing by truck or 4-wheeler impossible on Bass Lake. We are telling our guests to not even try if they aren’t traveling out by snowmobile! Conditions

Let’s Talk About a Minnesota Summer Vacation

winter weekends in Minnesota — We’re flocked with snow again after yesterday’s snow. It’s so beautiful!

We just got another beautiful Minnesota snowfall. Looks like close to 8 inches at our house and once again the trees are flocked and roads are snow-covered. Lots of people around town were disgusted by the snow since it had gotten so warm last week. However, I see the snow as a sign of the coming spring! March snow is as much a part of the summer cycle as the first sunburn on pasty white skin. Not as painful, of course, but part of if just the same. Even last year during our no-snow winter we got a March storm big enough to go snowmobiling. So I say “Bring it on, Mother Nature!” Get it on and get it over with so people can come North!

Jay and I have a spring vacation planned. We are looking forward to getting a rest and spending quality family time! We haven’t always planned a spring vacation. In fact, for most of our 14 years at Wildwood we haven’t taken any vacation at all. But last year we called a halt to that crazy behavior because we all need a timeout. First of all, we need something to look forward to. Nothing is more depressing than facing another year of nose-to-the-grindstone months. We planned our coming vacation in December and we have been talking about it and dreaming of it ever since. I’m not even dreading the coming summer season where we work from May to October without a day off. I KNOW that when we return to real life after our vacation that I’m going to be ready to spring clean those cabins. Taking a Life Timeout does that for a person. I read something in a book once that I’ve quoted many times over: we pour ourselves out into others but if we never refill our own pitchers then we have nothing left to give. I think that’s what a family vacation does for a body. We’re so tied to our devices and our schedules that it almost feels like the sky will fall if we aren’t plugging away in our little corner of life all the time. However, I know for a fact that isn’t true! We CAN shut off our phones and leave the house or leave the country and just enjoy our kids and our spouses.

We can unplug and unwind and the sky won’t fall, Chicken Little! So that’s our plan: unplug, unwind and rest. And when we get back from our Life Timeout we’re going to be ready to work hard to get the resort ready to welcome you! Because this summer is your time to unplug, unwind and rest. Do some fishing, lay on our beach and eat s’mores by a fire while you watch the sun set over Bass Lake. Ah….doesn’t that sound like something to look forward to? Won’t that refill your pitcher?! You don’t have to stay at Wildwood Resort this summer…there are LOTS of Minnesota family resorts that are amazing and fun and relaxing. Just pick one. Do something for your family today. Do something that doesn’t involve running kids around town or planning supper! Plan a stay at a family resort in Minnesota and get ready for fun. The snow can’t last forever but memories last a lifetime.

Minnesota cabins have fire rings — Can’t you smell it?! Bring on the marshmellows!

mn ice fishing — A nice man from a nearby ice house “loaned” us his fish for a photo op

Fishing on Bass Lake has been pretty darn slow this last week. We had guests in last weekend who really had to work for their fresh fish supper! The girls and I had never gone ice fishing so on Sunday we decided to find out for ourselves whether or not the fish were biting. Guess what!? They weren’t! However, it was a GORGEOUS 30 degrees and partly sunny so I didn’t care that we didn’t catch fish. It was relaxing just sitting there on our 5 gallon buckets talking with friends and watching the Vexlar. It was amazing to me that it was just as relaxing as sitting in a boat fishing on open water. I was wishing we’d driven a truck out to the spot so I could crawl in the back and take a little snooze. (That’s what I usually do when we fish in the summer!) Ice fishing in Minnesota is a cool experience. There was a sense of commradery out there that I didn’t expect.

ice fishing with kids — Jay getting the girls all set up

In the summer you’ll hear fishermen growl when another boat comes too close and drops anchor to fish. It’s a breach of fishing etiquette to encroach on another boat’s personal space while fishing on open water. However, on the ice it seemed that there were no rules about how close you were to other fishermen. People would just drive up to the spot and start punching holes with their ice augers. (Assuming they were able to start their ice augers…our friend, Bob, couldn’t get his running!) One couple pulled up in their pickup and the husband got out, punched a hole right outside the passenger door of the truck and his wife sat in the truck and just fished from her seat. She didn’t even get out of the truck! That cracked me up!! I bet when she got nice and relaxed she just layed back on the seat of their truck an snoozed in the weak winter sun. We had a blast even if we didn’t catch a fish. Now Jay is scouring Craig’s List for an ice auger, a portable ice shack and a Vexlar.

ice fishing in minnesota — Jay had some trouble sticking on his seat so he spent some time rolling around in the snow!

Thank God he found something new to search for! He bought a plow truck in January and without plow trucks to obsess over he’s been a little lost. Search on, dear husband. I need a portable shack conducive to catnaps out on the ice!

In late February we took a weekend off and went to the North Shore for a snowmobile weekend. We had a blast! I was surprised that the trails on the north shore where we were looked very much like the trails around Itasca County. The trails we rode were all be inland and for some reason I had expected to be riding more along Lake Superior so we could enjoy the view. However, that sounds like criticism and I don’t mean it that way. We had a wonderful time and visited very cool places like The Trestle Inn and Gooseberry Falls. We stayed at the very wonderful Cove Point Lodge in Beaver Bay, MN and ate great food at places like The Rustic Inn just north of Two Harbors. (The homemade pie at The Rustic Inn is worth a trip to the North Shore all by itself!!) We rode, laughed, ate too much and generally got to enjoy what our guests enjoy when staying at Wildwood for their Minnesota snowmobile weekends. I’d never seen Gooseberry Falls before. We were literally standing on the falls which was so cool. We even saw some crazy guy climbing the ice flow. Crazy but cool!

Soon it our time for recreation will come to an end so we’re busy planning our spring projects and purchases and that always makes us excited for another season. It will be here before we know it! Enjoy this last little taste of winter and if you haven’t done so already, plan a little family time for the coming summer. Even Chicken Little learned that the sky won’t fall and he was, well….a chicken!

Kim & Jay

P.S. Do you follow us on Facebook? Like Wildwood Resort on Facebook and you’ll have the chance to see lots of photos and sometimes a few videos of life at Wildwood Resort!

mn cabin vacation — The picnic tables are kinda buried right now! But in a few short months they’ll be back in action for our weekly potlucks.

MN snowmobile weekend — The moon rising over Lake Superior

Mid-Winter Fun

mn family resort, mn family resort vacation — MN family resort vacation season must be just around the corner since the sun is making it’s way north! Soon it will be setting directly in front of the resort again.

I took this photo earlier this week when I drove into the resort one evening. It’s probably just a pretty sunset to you but to us it represents the promise of a coming spring! That fact is hard to believe when the temps outside are into the teens below zero. However, just a few short weeks ago the sun was setting so far to our south that we wouldn’t see it set at all in the afternoon. Now it has moved back in our direction just enough for us to see the sun from the resort as it sinks behind the trees.

MN winter vacations — The snow sliding off the roof of the play set made a curly cue ice sculpture that held on even through some strong winds early this week!

That was one of the many things that struck me as amazing when we first moved north. The sun travels an amazing distance in the sky during the year! That is probably a “duh” observation for those of you who are stargazers. It certainly wasn’t always so obvious to me but now it has become the way I mark the time in anticipation of the Minnesota family vacation season! In June on the longest day of the year I will stand on our beach facing west and the sun will set behind Elm Point well to our north. In December on the shortest day of the year I might stand on the beach (depending on how cold it is!) and the sun will set so far to the south that I couldn’t see it even if I stood out in the cold to watch the sun set. For some reason that phenomenon just blows my mind. It’s amazing that in June it won’t be dark outside until after 11:00 p.m. and in December it’s already dark by 4:30! Anyway, I told you all that so that you would understand the JOY I felt when I could actually see the sun setting over Riverbirch Lodge. It might be a frosty 9 degrees outside tonight with 2 feet of snow on the ground but I know that the days are getting longer. That means soon enough we’ll cast off this blanket of winter and layer on some sunscreen. Who’s with me?!

President’s Weekend was a nice long weekend at home with the girls. We did some snowmobiling with friends but not a lot else! Snow conditions are still really good for snowmobiling but the deep snow on the lake makes driving trucks or ATVs on Bass Lake a challenge. We are recommending that our guests travel out to ice fish by snowmobile from Wildwood or head around to the public access off of Pincherry Road to drive out. Someone plowed a road again this year from the access to the favored fishing hole on the south basin. Jay was out with friends over the weekend and they caught very nice sunfish!

minnesota ice fishing — Jay and friends caught nice sunnies on the lake last weekend

Check out the Visit Grand Rapids Calender of Events for information on things to do during your stay in our area!

Have a great weekend!

Kim & Jay

Minnesota snowmobile weekends — I’m sure there’s a name for this Ski-doo two-seater but I just call it “Cool!!” The photo doesn’t show it well but they had an infant car seat strapped into this buggy!

Minnesota snowmobile trails — We love snowmobiling with friends!

Winter Vacations in Minnesota

minnesota winter cabins for x-skiing snowmobiling ice fishing — Wildwood Resort on Bass Lake near Grand Rapids, MN

Jay and I really do love our life. I’ve said before that resorting isn’t for everyone and that’s true. Some people think we’re lucky because we get to go fishing “whenever we want” in the summer. In reality we rarely get time to ourselves in the summer and we NEVER take a full day off (let alone a weekend) between May and the end of September. However, yesterday I was thinking about our wierd life as we drove out of Wildwood on our snowmobiles at 8:30 a.m. on a Friday morning. It feels strange to take our recreation days when the “normal” business world is hard at work but it’s days like yesterday that make the seasonal craziness of our summer so worthwhile! We literally rode our snowmobiles ALL day and explored lots of trails we hadn’t ridden yet this year. We had a great day and have some stories to tell, too, so that makes it more fun.

We hadn’t ridden out of Wildwood yet this winter so yesterday we left the resort heading east on the Bushwacker. We picked up the Taconite snowmobile trail north of Grand Rapids and headed north. The day was gorgeous!!! We definitely haven’t had as much snow in the Grand Rapids area as they’ve had to our north 30 miles. However, the Bushwacker was in good shape and had been groomed. We were anticipating a very fun ride on the Taconite Trail and were just a little bit disappointed that it hadn’t been groomed because it was pretty rough. That trail gets TONS of traffic and I’m sure the DNR has been out grooming but it was a little rough with corners pretty dug out.

Minnesota winter vacations — The Prairie Lake bridge on the Taconite Trail

The DNR is rating the trail condition as “Excellent” and groomed I’m sure it is excellent. We couldn’t take too long of a ride yesterday since the school district does expect us to pick up our kids at the end of the school day (!!) but we still had time for a trip north to a favorite lunch spot, The Scenic Pines Bar and Grill. The Swampsiders Snowmobile Club does a GREAT job taking care of their trails up there and as I’ve said before it’s a favorite place for us to ride.

grand rapids mn snowmobiling — Lots of great places to stop and rest on the Taconite Snowmobile Trail!

After lunch we went outside to the sleds and I realized that I was missing the bag I always carry on the back of my snowmobile. I thought I remembered carrying it out of the house that morning but, frankly, my memory ain’t what it used to be so we decided that I must have forgotten it. I jokingly told Jay and our friends, Tim & Karen, to keep their eyes open for my bag as we headed for home back down the Taconite. At this point I’d like to say that one of the things I really like about the Taconite Trail besides the wide trail and roller coaster hills is the number of bathroom stops on the trail. Now I’m not saying that I need so many bathroom breaks but some people might and I’m just saying that those people (not me) might be happy to see an outhouse if they’ve had too much Pepsi with their lunch. Anyway, we had gotten almost back to Grand Rapids when I came over a hill and saw our friend, Tim, chasing his snowmobile down the trail. In general I’ve learned that it’s not good if your snowmobile is still going down the trail without you on it. (However, it IS very funny to watch someone else running after their snowmobile…) Tim has an eagle eye for interesting things on the trail and as he sped by a trail sign he saw that some good Samaritan had hung my bag on a trail sign. He hit the breaks a little too hard and as a result of ill-advised braking he “dismounted” unintentionally. I topped the hill just in time to see him trying to catch his sled before it hit a tree! I would have taken a photo of that bag hanging on a sign but I was too busy laughing! Oh my, that was funny…if only I’d had one of those helmet cameras recording video at the time!! By the way, not one thing was missing from my bag. How nice!!

winter vacations in Minnesota — We had fun on the snowmobile trail with our girls last night!

We decided that the day was too nice to be done riding so after picking up the kids from school we headed for Gosh Dam Place near Lake Winnibigoshish for dinner. We left the resort and headed west this time on the Buschwacker. We stopped for gas at River Rat Trading Post which is right on the trail between Cohasset and Deer River and then kept on going. The Bushwacker heads west toward Deer River, MN down Highway 2 which is a divided two-lane highway. The eastbound lane of the trail is on the north side of Highway 2 and the westbound lane runs along the south side. From Deer River we headed north and the trail took us through a part of Itasca County that was hit so hard by the July 2nd storm last summer. There were massive numbers of trees down – most with their HUGE root balls still attached. It was very creepy and brought to mind memories of that week last summer. Once the debris piles were cleared from our resort I pretty much tucked that experience away in the lockbox where I keep other memories I want to forget. (The lockbox is mostly full of embarrassing middle school moments)

minnesota snowmobile weekend — Miss K. dressing up the storm damage from the July 2nd storm

However, riding through the blow down area last night was amazing in a very unpleasant way. I’ll try to get better pictures next time we ride in that direction. The ride was 30 miles from Wildwood to Gosh Dam Place. We had a great dinner and rode home through a moonless night with the stars out in full force! It was gorgeous! The eastbound trail of the Buschwacker between Deer River and Cohasset isn’t a favorite. Lots of it is riding the angle of the ditch and with last night’s warm temps it was challenging to keep from sliding down the hill into the deeper snow. However, it’s only about a 10 mile stretch so it’s only a small part of an overall great ride!

MN snowmobile trips — The Grand Rapids, MN area is a great destination for Minnesota snowmobiling right now…our conditions are great!

We do have some ice fishermen in this weekend so hopefully we’ll have an ice fishing update for next week’s blog. And x-ski trail conditions are great from everything we are hearing! The Grand Rapids, MN and greater Itasca County area is a great destination for a winter weekend getaway! Check out the Visit Grand Rapids webpage for a listing of events in our area and make plans to head north. We’ll see you on the trails!

Kim & Jay

P.S. About our eagles: last weekend a neighbor stopped by to let us know that he’d seen an eagle on the shoreline just north of the resort with an injured wing. We called our local Conservation Officer and she was able to capture the eagle which indeed had an injured wing. She let us know that the eagle was on its way to the Raptor Center in St. Paul. Jay and I are praying it wasn’t one of “our” next door eagles. We’ll let you know what we find out!

Minnesota bald eagles — From the snow cover on their front deck it looks like our resident eagles might be enjoying warmer climates right now. They always leave for a short while in the harshest part of winter but we’re hoping to see them back soon!

Perfect Snow Conditions!

Go ahead, ask me… Ask me how much fun we had yesterday on our weekly snowmobile trip! I’d say it wasn’t great..it was PERFECT! While we don’t have as much snow on the ground as we did in 2011 the snow conditions on the trails are gorgeous. Yesterday we rode 130 miles with friends and most trail conditions were fabulous even though not all the trails had been groomed after the recent snow. The day was chilly to begin with – about 7 degrees – but the sky was blue and the sun was shining so we just cranked up the hand warmers and took off. We headed north out of Marcell on the Marcell Trail and picked up the Effie Connection in Bigfork. We were headed to the Junction Bar in Togo for lunch (we’re all about where we’ll eat lunch!) so we continued north to the Wilderness Willie Trail and then picked up the Circle T. The Junction Bar is on the Togo Spur off of the Circle T so it was about 69 miles from Marcell to Togo. Trails going out were good. We have gotten a couple of snows since the Wilie and Circle T have been groomed but both are gorgeous trails to ride. The Willie has lots of curves and we saw a ton of wolf tracks. After lunch we headed back to Marcell following the Circle L trail. While ungroomed it was a blast to ride! We then hooked up with the Herb Brandstrom trail headed back to Bigfork and then the Marcell trail back to Marcell. The Marcell Snowdrifters Snowmobile Club had been out grooming all day so the Herb Brandstrom and the Marcell trail had been groomed by the time we were heading for home. Overall conditions are pretty close to perfect so Itasca County is a great destination for that snowmobile trip you’ve been thinking about!

Life is busy at the resort right now with lots of ice fishermen and snowmobilers visiting Wildwood. We’re grateful to be busy because it makes our winter go quickly. It will be time for spring projects before we know it!

Until next time…

Kim & Jay

Accommodations

Things to Do

By Season:

The Resort

Accommodations

Things to Do

By Season:

The Resort

Groomed Snowmobile Trails, Fresh Snow and Perfect Weather!

Ice Fishing Season Is Coming On!

Scrapbooking Weekends, Quilting Retreats and Girlfriend Weekends!

Can We Snowmobile Yet?

The Changing Face of our Minnesota Family Resort

A River Ran Through It

Let’s Talk About a Minnesota Summer Vacation

Mid-Winter Fun

Winter Vacations in Minnesota

Perfect Snow Conditions!