Bill sent me the email below, I talked to another person that said he is getting a “server unavailable” message sometimes. If you see this when trying to access tomstrailreport.com please send an email to tomstrailreport@gmail.com to let me know please. The rest of Bill’s email was a nice walk down memory lane, Thanks Bill.
“Hi Tom. I religiously look at your TomsTrailReport website daily. Usually I look early in the morning and I have no trouble accessing the website.
However If I try to open your website in the afternoon and evening hours I can not access it. On MSN I get a message the website can not be opened. On Mozilla the message says server is unavailable and on Chrome it also say the server is unavailable.
I enjoy looking at your website and look forward to enjoying my 40th year of snowmobiling this season. Many moons ago, circa 1981, 4 of us rode from Hazelhurst, WI to Copper Harbor and back. We parked at Rydans residential property who at the time owned the Cat Dealer in Hazelhurst. The sleds were a Cat Tiger 6000, my 440 Deere Trailfire, a Deere 440 Sportfire, and an older Cat 440 Panther. Rough ride and 100 miles per day was an accomplishment, particularly when there were no trail markers in Michigan. All of the sleds were premix sleds and it seemed like we towed the Tiger more than it ran because it had a small fuel tank and a big appetite. However the Tiger would show 106 mph on the speedometer on the lake vs. the Trailfire’s 85.
Our first planned stop was in Bergland at the Lake Gogebic Motel but the older lady running the place had rented our room. It was 10 at nite on Saturday. We were able to find a room at the old hotel at the end of town – I believe you own the building now. At that time the lower level was a rompin’, stompin’ bar with a band that ran till 3 AM. Upstairs it was a spooky stay. Romex wire was strung down the inside of hall and the rooms had the old steel headboard frames and pitchers and bowls for wash up- just like in the old days. I think the only bathroom was downstairs in the bar. I slept on top of the bed in my clothes, but was glad to have a warm place to sleep after driving all night the night before, 12 hours of hard drinking, rough ride on 4″ suspension travel sleds and lost most of the time.
Next day we only made it to Mass and partied with Art in the local bar. Art was a local character that had an airplane and played the guitar and liked to drink. On the third day we made it to Copper Harbor via Gay and stayed at the King Copper Motel. the snow was so deep that it completely covered the patio doors. You just opened the door and stuck your bottle in the snow bank to keep it cold. Ate at a little German restaurant that had it’s own trail down from Brockway mountain.
Ahh, such were the days of early snowmobiling. Everyone had one or more flasks of spirits (mixed 50-50 with vodka to prevent freezing) or we had Mad Dog 20 20 which was 20% alcohol and wouldn’t freeze. Also youth was on our side!
Thanks again for the Trail Reports and the memories. Bill P.”
