Sledding in Washburn, Wisconsin

  We are still without much for snow (maybe two inches), and heard that Washburn, Wisconsin had gotten a foot of new snow with the last storm and that they have some nice trails over there, so we decided to make the 55 mile or so drive over yesterday with two eight dog teams and our sleds to check it out.  We were informed that there are lots of interconnecting forest roads and it can be easy to get lost so we should have maps for sure, so we studied the roads on Google Earth before hand and stopped at the Forestry office in Washburn to pick up a couple maps when we got over there (the snowmobile trail maps worked best on the sleds).  We carefully planned out a 25 mile set of loops and parked right by the Long Lake turnoff.   The snow had settled to about six to eight inches, which is good enough for us-beggars can't be choosers-and the trails over there are fantastic!  There isn't really much base, so there are a couple SHORT sections that are a little rough, but it was totally worth driving over for and we had a blast!  We will definitely be going over there again.  We didn't see any sign of any other mushers (unbelievable with those trails!), there was a couple trucks driving around out there, but that's just good training for the dogs (passing them).  I hope other mushers decide to head over there-we definitely recommend it.

 The dogs really enjoyed the 25.5 mile run and its really great to see the yearlings improving with every run.  Everyone finished happy and in great shape.  The maps were helpful and made it easy to navigate the trails (forest roads), even when we missed our first turn-we were easily able to improvise slightly and were able to complete the run with no problems.  We can't wait to do it again.