Getting Loose on the Moose
This was a really awesome ride and the first time my husband and I participated in the event. The ride was on January 16th, 2021 and it was put on by the club that we are a part of called Over the Hills Gang. We had just gotten a pretty good amount of fresh snow the day before and if we weren’t heading up to meet the group I’m not sure how far we would have made it down the trail.
We had my machine up at the cabin so that’s what we took out. I have a CanAm Maverick Sport Rock Crawler with no windows or heat and for some reason that’s the only machine we had up for this ride. My husband got full doors with glass windows for his machine a couple years ago and his has heat. I will say that we stayed nice and warm in mine with a blanket over our laps that captured all of the heat from the engine. My CanAm is so hot it might as well have heat!
This ride was on the Moose River Trail up in Outing and it was impressive to see how many riders came out for the event. We stopped at the White Oak Lake campsite where the club handed out hot dogs and chips and beans out to all of the riders. I think if I remember correctly that the club said they handed out 100 hot dogs that day!
One of the nice things about riding in the area that we do in the winter is that there are warming houses and places to have fires to warm up. We have a lot of snowmobiling trails up in that area and I think that’s where all of these little huts with fire pits started from. They are a perfect place to stop with your friends to start a fire and warm up. We almost always bring along some hot dogs and condiments for a quick bite when we’re riding in the winter. For this particular ride members of the club got an early start to the rider and started fires at the campground and the warming huts on the trail.
The club had another stop for us on this ride where volunteers set up a crockpot full of baked beans to share with the riders and a food warmer full of hot dogs from the local butcher in town, Emily Meats. Seriously the best hot dogs out there so if you’re ever in the area stop in for those or one of their many specialty brats. The club also provided a variety chips to choose from for everyone that came out for this snowy ride.
The hot dogs, beans and chips were at the White Oak Lake campsite where another member of the club started a nice fire for us to stand around. The group of riders that were at this ride were awesome! Thankfully we are all Minnesotans and are used to this type of weather and have all the gear needed to dress appropriately for the occasion.