Spring Opening Weekend 2021
It’s finally here! Opening weekend in Outing MN on the trails that are maintained by Over The Hills Gang! We had the best weather anyone could ask for when the trails opened on May 15th – 65 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny with some clouds. We were all pretty thankful for the clouds at times since the sun was so strong. It helped with the heat. We had some friends up for the weekend which always makes riding more fun. The other nice thing was that it was opening fishing weekend too so it seemed like there was no one on the trails. We did run into some folks along the way but for the most part it felt like we owned the place.
My pictures for this ride will be a little different than normal because I was driving my machine. There will be a lot less action shots from the trails and more group shots of the ride. We also were lucky enough to have some friends join us that live up there. They got a new machine and it was their first time out riding it. Our friends that came up for the weekend also took their new machine out on the trails with us. I have to say we had a blast! We started around 10 am and got back to the cabin around five and hit up a lot of my favorite trails and also got to ride one some new ones that the club worked on in the off season.
It was such a fun ride for me this time because we had some friends up that rode together that normally have their own machines and my husband and I drove our own machines so I had a handful of passengers along the way. My friend just got a 2016 Polaris General and it was his first time out with it. Our friend came up later on Friday to ride with him. He also has a Polaris General but his is a 2018. There were points along the trails where they each hopped into my machine. I have a CanAm Maverick Sport Rock Crawler so everyone want to ride in mine to check it out. I love my machine so much and I think it’s perfect for me. It sits up high which I love because I’m short and it has a smaller cab than the Polaris General which is fine with me. I had a great time driving my friends around every time one of them hopped in at a stop.
We took everyone down the B trail that was recently rerouted. There was a spot on the B trail where they put in a temporary bridge to solve a problem to get around this bog that was on the trail. There were two issues about this spot – one was that the bridge was super skinny which made it difficult to cross over safely even with our machines that are the right size for the trails. Secondly the bog was a fun little mud pit to play in that kept getting worse and worse over time. The club decided to reroute the trail because of these issues and the new section of the B trail is awesome! There was also a lot of logging over the winter so the trails are wider and look completely different. The photo here is from a section of that trail.
We had an amazing weekend filled with a lot of riding and also a lot of great food provided by our friends. One of the best things about this hobby is the chance to get together with everyone and make some memories.