Tacomas in Minnesota?

I was up in Grand Marais two weekends ago and the forest roads had about 6 inches of snow on them in spots. That was a fun place to drive around in.

 

Was wondering how you made out down here, I'd say pretty well

Picked up a Winchester 23 in 20 ga. on Saturday so can hit the Duluth double gun shoot now. And Great Northern and other Side by Side shoots.

Came back from 2 weeks in Cook\Lake grouse hunting right before deer opener, having a dog that was bred to look like a red fox is not a good time to be in the woods chasing birds. Picked up a 2019 Northstar right before and best move made in a long time should have done it years ago. It is nice to not beat up the Taco anymore. And ride is much better. Should be damn thing cost almost as much as the Baja. Can run all County roads in Lake & Cook now and most of the National and State roads.







Damn beavers



And beaver dams



Had Briley chop my new A5 Sweet 16 down to 23" - perfect. Will have my stock guy get rid of that big bulb pistol grip and convert it to a straight grip this winter.



Snow is too deep there now to run the dog. Friend of mine in Silver Bay is headed to Maine to grouse hunt. You know you might be from Mn. when you travel to Maine to grouse hunt because the snow isn't as deep.

 

If it were up to me I would prefer doing some trails, since it is a Tacoma meet after all!

 

Thoughts on Superior National forest for trails? Haven't been up there in the winter but it looked like there had to be some fun spots out there when I was bear hunting this fall.

 

I know SNF well in Lake and Cook, can't speak of it to the West of there however. Much of those 2 Counties if it isn't National Forrest it is State and County Forrest land and roads also. I feel I could spend the rest of my life in those 2 Counties and be happy with those trails alone and it would take that long to learn all of them. But then again at my age rest of life isn't that long LOL. Some trails get grown over in just a couple of years and all of a sudden they will open them again. I did at least 60 miles or more this year on "new" trails that weren't even open last year because they were overgrown.

There was a group on here that went up in the winter either last year or year before be worth looking back through for it. I pretty much draw the line at 6" in the winter though. It can be hard to see the trails with snow on them and enough bogs that if you go off your going to need help getting out. I am often by myself, well and the dog but he isn't much help. Last few years carry a Garmin InReach. Don't expect to get cell phone reception in most places so you definitely want to go with others in the winter.

Some places the trails are the only place you can go and the trees help guide you



That is actually a road, the Stony River Loop Road near Isabella and is 10 miles long and also known as National Forrest Road 103. This year because of all the rain this fall the water was high enough that I didn't risk it and turned around at one crossing rather than taking a chance of getting submerged. The logs that they put down as a bridge are getting pretty rotten, and it was pretty deep. Most bottoms are Canadian Shelf so solid bottom, but not always and can't count on it every time. That can get you in trouble in a hurry.

Lake and Cook also have their own weather system due to Superior. Friend of mine was out hunting Wednesday and said they had 4-6" and building and sent me this picture on a spur off from County Road 7 out of Finland headed to the BWCA.



He went out again yesterday and said it was 6-8" now which is about the max for me. Highs both days were 10-11°.

Snowmobilers will be showing up once it hits around a foot deep. At that point I prefer going to the end of the Gunflint, can't have snowmobiles in the BWCA Wilderness but there are other methods that are allowed. It was -32° when I took this picture a couple of years ago, other side of the lake is Canada.



Rest of the year SNF is one of my favorite places to be.

 

Wow! I was hunting by Isabella this year and we camped at Mcdougal Lake near the Stoney Loop. Beautiful place for sure. I remember that video from winter a year or two ago and it looked like fun. Something like that over a weekend in December or January would be a lot of fun!

 

McDougal Lake is at the far West entrance to Stoney Loop, have always found grouse there. I try to hit the loop at least once a year or more. Sometimes go in from the old RR bed that the County turned into a road and splits the loop. I like the sign at the East end though it is a bit more worn now.

 

Story to come...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj82JR6sjqE

We went up north for "no wheeling, just camping" but ended up in a lot more trouble than we were expecting. Forrest took us to this trail in Cloquet Valley, just east of Cotton, that he heard of from "some Jeep guy". It was going well up until we found this ice-mud pit. Forrest was leading and gave it a couple good attempts, but we had to winch him out. Then I gave it a go and made it across via winch. It's not caught on video, but during Forrest's second try a large piece of ice cracked his aluminum oil filter housing, dumping oil everywhere. After screams of turn-the-engine-off! we winched him out of the pit and assessed the damage. The Land Cruiser was officially dead on the trail. It has lost almost all of it's oil and coolant. At that time we thought it was best to winch the carcass back over to the other side of the pit where it could be worked on easier.

We drove into Virginia where the mechanical genius of Chris and Forrest fab'd up an oil and coolant reroute for the LC. This took multiple hours and we did most of the work in the parking lot - just to make sure we had everything. Then back out to the trail for assembly. Just after 10:00 we cranked over the LC again, did some tests, and it seemed to be holding. In fact, the fix even lasted the entire drive back to the Twin Cities the next morning.

Up until this point I think it's safe to say we were all a little bored with the trip. We had spent the previous day putzing around Nemadji, etc. And while a breakdown like this is never a good thing for anyone, I will say, the group really came alive after it happened. And that was really cool to see. I love these guys.

I think we have a renewed appreciation for the destructive power of ice chunks. They be heavy. Around 2:17 in the video you can see my rear diff sliding off of the ice chunk. I was probably more lucky than I should have been.

 

What a perfect place to keep the oil filter.

 

Did you clean up or notify USFS of the hazmat spill?

 

I'm pretty sure you know we didn't, nor did I contact the EPA over ~5L of oil spilled nowhere near a water source. I know you think we're just a bunch of yokels out tearing up the earth and breaking every regulation we can - your comments have always made that clear - but nobody there that night was happy about what had happened. It was an unfortunate accident and we overcame the best we could.

I'm for the environment and I always vote as such. I'm just not losing any sleep over this.

 

Only “yokel” part about what you are doing is your insistent desire to post about your actions on social media.

You spilled 5L of hazmat in a national forest, oil and coolant. The least you can do is man up and report it to the ranger station of jurisdiction. It’s called doing the right thing when nobody is looking, integrity maybe? If you insist on doing stuff that is in violation of federal law and policy, keep it to yourself or camp fire talk, posting about it on the web just might bite you in the ass. There are powers that want to close these lands to us, and by using said lands irresponsibly only increases their resolve and evidence base. Basically, if you don’t police your actions, someone else will, and the USFS is prone to just closing the routes. The state is even quicker to slam gates closed. Had you been at Gilbert I wouldn’t have said anything, because that place is designated and open expecting such issues. As to the assumption that an oil and coolant leak doesn’t matter because it’s not close to a water body... where do you think the snow, ice, and water you were in ends up?

I don’t believe you to be some ecoterrorists out to destroy the planet, I just believe you to be having fun on the micro level without thinking about consequences on the macro. You have used ignorance or how you were feeling at the time as excuses for not doing what is required and/or allowable. Such arguments are not legally defensible.

Anyway. You do you, just don’t expect everyone in a public forum to agree with how you do it.

 

I do like sharing our adventures with other enthusiasts, it's true. As for the actual oil that was a consequence of such, it was never about that. It was a near-catastrophic vehicle breakdown and recovery video, which I find interesting. I'm inclined to believe that your comment wasn't really about concern for the oil either, but just another opportunity to condescend. That's how it came off at least. I get you've taken up the sword for trail stewardship - all good - sometimes I'm just not in the mood to be patronized. Especially when you know the circumstances weren't intentional and we weren't doing anything illegal.


Okay, I for realsy started looking up "federal law and policy" for oil spills, reportable quantities, etc.... and I can't find a whole lot. Most of it relates to waterways and shorelines, or for more substantial spills like tanker rollovers and such. I did find a research report that states that in Minnesota the minimum reportable quantity for petroleum is 5 gallons. That's from 1994 though.... I suspect you'll come back with more.

 

Corpin, you should have heard Chris this weekend - he was the voice of reason when it came to signage and trail usage, since the signage and MVUM often contridicted each other. "I'm not going down that trail, it's marked as ATV!". Chris. We're not all bad.

 

FYI, I can find as late as 2017 that it is still 5 gallons. Coincidentally, I have been looking at rules for wilderness use as I am interested in moving to Minnesota. I like getting outdoors, and I like following the rules. So when I am considering going someplace I research things like this.
https://www.pca.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/c-er1-01.pdf

 

We’ll just chalk your feelings up to a generational and cultural conflict. It happens a lot to me in MN.;-)

Spillage of this type is covered under MN Statute 115.061.

On edit: the document linked by @csmacomber detailes it well. The definitions of what is a body of water for section 115 can be found in 115.01.

And yes, says 5gal of petroleum, or any amount of other chemicals. Engine coolant is a toxic chemical as provided by 115.01.

As for the signs and MVUM being off, the current MVUM supersedes all signage.

 

This is a pretty old inquiry, but I'm in Mpls, just new to TW.

A

 

Welcomw to tw.

 

Urgh my truck usnt done yet. But somehow i managed to get mobtown nerf bars n full skids. Now a waiting game. Need to reroute the exhaust.