RIDE AND MEETING IN SIREN, WISCONSIN

The AWSC Winter Directors Meeting was held the weekend of Jan 6-8, in Siren, Wisconsin at the Lodge at Crooked Lake which is located in beautiful Burnett County. The County has a total area of 880 square miles, over 500 lakes and 80-ish miles of St Croix River valley. A great riding destination in northwest Wisconsin.

First, let me say with all the wet heavy snow the last couple of weeks all over northwest Wisconsin, which has caused huge amounts of tree damage on the trails, this county’s snowmobile clubs worked day and night to have all the tree damage cleared in time for this weekend’s ride. I understand all trails in this area were cleared, ready and open by late Friday afternoon. Hats off to you! What an amazing amount of work you accomplished, all of you need to pat yourselves on the back for a job really well done.

WSN staff rode together on Saturday where we found over 300 miles of great riding opportunities in this area, everything you could ask for, the thrill of cruising on the Gandy Dancer grade to the sheer magnitude of the open space of Sloughs Wildlife area, which was very cool to experience. Riding thru pine forests, hardwood forests, and the beautiful rolling hilly landscape, big open areas with beautiful breath-taking views overlooking valleys and cute little farms. I couldn’t believe all these wonderful riding experiences are in one location! We literally got to experience every type of trail riding there is in one single day. This makes riding here a real unique experience.

Our ride started out in the lodge’s parking lot where we took a short 50-foot spur trail to the Gandy Dancer Trail and headed north. Then headed west on 120 which took us thru the Sloughs Wildlife Area, when we reached Trail 45, we headed southwest to Grantsburg, passed thru town and continued south and then west down to the southern edge of the county crossing into Polk County for a short time arriving at Wolf Creek. We then headed east arriving in the town of Luck where we found Route 43 which would lead us back north returning to the lodge 103 miles later.

When we started the day, it was zero, and the temp rose to 14 degrees with beautiful blue skies and not a cloud in sight. AWSC Secretary and organizer of the Directors Ride, Sue Smedegard, must have paid extra for the perfect conditions on our day’s ride. Spending the whole day riding here is easy to do, so many nice trails and no shortage of great photo opportunities, with plenty of pit stops to get a sandwich and a Coke. I suggest you put this county on your list of places to ride, you won’t be sorry. Also, thanks to the AWSC and Burnett County for a great Directors Meeting weekend. For more detail on what happened at the Directors Meeting, please read the executive and committee reports on the next pages.