Credit: Michigan Department of Natural Resources. A group of snowmobilers riding right in Gogebic County on a cold day during the winter of 2017-2018.
The Freda Loop Trail has reopened after several years, allowing snowmobilers to travel along Trail 121 and 120 for the first time since the 2018 Father’s Day flood.
The 15-mile loop offers scenic sites that haven’t been accessible for some time, with only one road crossing along the entire route.
“So it really is a nonstop ride,” said Ryan Laporte, president of the Keweenaw Snowmobile Club. “There’s just a varied amount of forest out there that you get to really see. I saw more wildlife opening that trail then I’ve seen on a lot of trails, and I know probably a byproduct of there not having been a lot of traffic.”
Laporte said wildlife was abundant during the trail reopening process.
“We had some deer following us as we were opening things back up, quite a few ground squirrels and whatnot,” he said. “So it’s always good to see the wildlife out there.”
In 2023, the Keweenaw Snowmobile Club, Keweenaw ATV and Michigan DNR worked wrapped uo work to restore access to Trail 3 near Lake Linden. The Freda Loop represents the last of the major projects that resulted from that incident.
Projects took into consideration the economic value and impact of each trail section. Laporte said the repair costs were manageable compared to other flood damage.
“We’re probably under $125,000 for the work that we’ve had to do on Freda,” Laporte said. “We’ve still got some additional repairs that we’ll need to do, some additional ditching, some culverts to help with some of that water runoff, and that bridge will need to be redecked at some point in the fairly near future, but it certainly is safe right now for everybody to be out there.”
The Keweenaw Snowmobile Club says it will work with two new landowners in the Freda Loop area to sign and properly mark property lines.
“We’re really excited to have that open,” Laporte said. “We’ve got a couple of new private landowners on Trail 120 that we’ll be working with closely. One that will hunt until December 15th every year. So we know that won’t be a trail that opens immediately on December 1st if the snow is available. We’re certainly going to respect that out there and really appreciate his support to renew that trail. That land had changed hands during that closure period.”
The club also notes that more work to repair Trail 121 past the Salmon Trout River will occur later in the year to ensure the trail’s safety for ATV riders past the bridge.
“The grade beyond the Salmon Trout bridge and where we make that turnoff has not been restored,” Laporte said. “There’s still significant washout out that way that the DNR is reviewing, but the dollars are north of a million dollars in the estimates to do that work. And there’s just a lot of infrastructure across the Western UP that needs to be addressed.”
Laporte said the club wants to balance priorities for trail restoration.
“There’s a lot of scenic views out there, but there’s no businesses and stuff that really support or would draw significant traffic out there,” he said. “Whereas some of the infrastructure that needs to be addressed across the Western UP probably needs to take priority for the next few years. Maybe someday it’ll get restored, but we’re just really ecstatic to have this 15 miles back reopened.”
The club will groom the trail as needed, though Laporte noted the loop’s locations presents challenges. And the area typically has a lower traffic volume than more traveled sections of the network.
Trail 120 is not an ATV trail, and the club expects to install gates to close that section during the off-season.
Support local snowmobile clubs by purchasing trail permits at the start of the season, become a member of a club, or purchase a subscription to the Groomer Tracker App that keeps trailriders up to date on what conditions look like, where trails operators have already flattened the trail and more information for staying safe and having fun in the Keweenaw Peninsula.
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