Snowmobiling in Thompsonville – Late Season Ice

Welp, this weekend was our last chance to ride our sleds for the 2025 – 2026 season. We drove back up to Thompsonville and were looking forward to meeting up with my amazing niece and her bf, as they have just recently gotten sleds and were looking forward to riding with them.

The drive up looked dismal and we saw practically no snow until we got close to our hotel on 115.. We knew the trails would be thin, and Friday was sunny and high 40s, which we knew wouldn’t help, but I thought we’d still have a chance to ride, even if snirty (snow + dirt = snirt). And after this weekend, it’s looking like 40s – 50s and rain.

In good conditions we can ride from our hotel, the Mountain Valley Lodge, across a snow packed parking lot to a snow packed road and get to the trails. Not the case this weekend. Pavement and dirt. Not good to ride on.

Our Plan B was to stage at the 231 Bar and Grill, a known staging area. Same conditions, pavement and dirt, so just for giggles we decided to check the Laughing Horse, another staging area in Thompsonville. Since we had never staged there, we wondered if there would be better snow and less pavement to have to ride on to get to the trail.

Turning into the parking lot, we found three trucks and trailers! I was happy to know we were not the only ones visiting this area to get in one last ride. We spoke for a bit with Mark and Greg, cousins that were up here with their wives.

After a few, we decided to go back to the 231 and try riding from there. We parked, crossed 115 and went to Rosie’s first for breakfast, our favorite haunt.

When we got back to the staging area, our friends had left for their ride. We proceeded to unload and ride across the pavement to the snow where we could get to the trail.

Right when we were ready to take off, they returned. In chatting again, they told us that several of their sleds had overheated, as there is ice but not enough snow on the trail to keep them cool. That’s was I was afraid of as I had the overheating problem the last time we had gone.

My sled met her twin, so I had to get a pic.

We made it a few miles down the trail and sure enough, the Temp light came on. We pulled over and waited a good bit for it to cool down, thinking we should probably just turn back at this point. At least we got a bit of riding in.

But upon firing up our sleds, Bill found his would not move. The track was completely stuck and would not spin, no matter what he tried. We even rolled the sled on it’s side. We got out a ratchet strap (I’d have bet you my life I had a tow strap in my trunk, but here we are) and dragged it a bit with my sled.

Google maps showed that the intersection we had just passed was Weldon Rd. Zooming out, we see that Weldon Rd intersects with King Rd. OK. We’ll drag the sled to King Rd. where we can leave it and go back for the truck and trailer. The blue dot is where we broke down. Weldon and King is where we hoped to drag the sled.

We proceed down Weldon Rd. (I’m walking behind as I didn’t want to add any weight to this operation) and Bill and I continue talking through the intercoms and tells me that there is a huge hill blocking the trail. We were almost to King Rd. and someone plowing snow had completely blocked the trail with a mound of snow, dirt and gravel.

Bill makes it over the hill with my sled but realizes once he pulls his over, it will crash into mine. (I had attempted a pic but it didn’t take, for some reason). We untie his sled and proceed to ride mine back down the trail to our staging area to get the truck and trailer, after knocking on the door of a local house to let them know why our sled was perched on their snow bank.

Back at the staging area, our friends we had originally found at the Laughing Horse come out of the bar and we share with them our entire ordeal. I was grateful to be back at the truck and trailer, especially since my sled did not overheat on the way back. This ordeal was almost over.

Until I realize, I failed to zip my jacket pocket closed and somewhere along the way, I lost my phone. I kid you not.

Our saving grace is that we use Life360 and from Bill’s phone, we could see roughly where my phone was, lying in the trail.

Our dear new friends Greg and Cathy offer to follow us back since they had a heavier duty tow strap and to see if we needed help. So we load up my sled on the trailer and drive to Weldon Rd. where Bill’s sled is sticking its skis up over this snow/dirt hill.

Bill hooks the tow strap to one of the hooks on the front of his truck and backs up, pulling the sled over the hill.

He drags it to the back of the trailer and successfully up the ramp.

Now we can’t close the back ramp door because it’s completely encrusted with rocks and mud and the rocks fall into the hinge when the door is closed.. There is a heavy duty plastic track attached to to the door which caught all the mud and rocks as the sled was dragged up the ramp.

We returned the tow strap to our new friends, and thanked them again profusely for following us and lending a hand.

Now, to go find my phone. To save time, I grab a stick and start dislodging the rocks and mud so we can close the ramp door and Bill hops back on my sled to go find my phone.

Roughly 30 minutes and even more prayers later, later, he comes back and gives me the thumbs up. The GPS isn’t terribly accurate so it took him a while to find my phone, but luckily, JUST AS A GROOMER was approaching, he found it on the trail.

We push his sled to the front of the trailer and load mine behind it. Good gravy, what a day. We got about 20 minutes of riding in before our adventure began and it all went downhill. We knew the conditions wouldn’t be great, but thought we were able to keep the sleds in the snow enough to keep them cool. Apparently not. After much Googling, we are pretty confident the hyfax melted on Bill’s sled, which is a plastic “slide” of sorts that attaches to the bottom of a snowmobile’s rear suspension skid rails. We’ll be looking into ice scratchers.

I’ll just say right here that I have learned my lesson when I’m tempted to say, “HOW can this day get any worse?” The Universe rolls up its sleeves and says, “Challenge accepted.” This was a sucky day but could have been so much worse.

We never got to ride with my niece and her bf, but met up for dinner at the Bucksnort in Mesick before heading back to our room.

Another memorable weekend! We are hopeful for next year.