Snow is swirling off Lake Superior, dumping yet another layer on a wedding-cake landscape already coated with more than three feet of the stuff. Eyeball-high drifts outside a lakefront motel block the view from the picture windows. Locals routinely shovel their roofs along with their walks.
Into this stunning land of numb toes and dead batteries steps a group of winter travelers who look like invaders from another planet. Clad in insulated black snowsuits and sturdy helmets, they hop in shiny machines resembling giant toads. With a signal from their leader, the visitors gun their throttles and glide, caravan-style, out into the snow-laden forests of the remote Keweenaw Peninsula.
They have come from seven states to Upper Peninsula Snow Country, a place they call snowmobiler`s heaven. And they have plunked down $395 each for a six-day snowmobile tour whose expert guides indulge their collective passions for winter, leading them worry-free across hundreds of miles of groomed trails. After riding up to 125 miles daily, the `beelers unwind at night in cozy cabins and deluxe motels with saunas.
A new wrinkle on the winter vacation scene, guided cross-country snowmobile tours were pioneered in the Upper Peninsula two years ago by Audrey and Richard ”Diesel Dick” Decker of Minocqua, Wis. The Deckers and their four sons, known as the ”first family of snowmobiling,” are world champion racers whose feats are legendary in snowmobile circles.
This season, Decker Sno-Venture Tours offers 12 snowmobile vacations in the Upper Peninsula (half of them start in and return to Wisconsin), as well as outings to Quebec`s Laurentian Mountains and Jackson Hole, Wyo. In March, they`ll lead a nine-day Arctic Circle Expedition through the Lapland country of Finland. Taking a cue from the Deckers` success, at least three other tour operators began offering snowmobile vacation packages this season in the Keweenaw.
This particular outing is the Deckers` VIP Tour, featuring deluxe accommodations and less rugged riding than the six-day Wisconsin to Michigan and back Winter Wonderland tour. Thirty-two snowmobilers have signed on, most couples and a few fathers with teen-age sons. The group includes a kindergarten teacher, dentist, nurse, statistician, chiropractor, secretary, company president and several machine shop and gas station owners. The average age is 40, although two men are in their 70s; one woman is pregnant.
George Simpson, who owns a food vending firm in Pawtucket, R.I., flew to Wisconsin with his 15-year-old son, rented sleds from the Deckers and snowmobiled across the trails to Michigan to join the group. He says he chose Michigan over Alaska because he wanted to come where there was ”guaranteed” snow and enough hours to enjoy it. He was not disappointed.
”This area of Michigan is a snowmobile wonderland,” Simpson said. ”The Upper Peninsula is one of the ultimates, the Rolls-Royce of areas to snowmobile. The amount of snow, the scenery, the conditions, the total package –it`s here. This is the place to go. You tell people you`re going to the U.P. and they practically swoon.”
Thanks to prevailing westerly winds and that giant natural snowmaking machine, Lake Superior, the Keweenaw gets a fresh coating of snow nearly every day, although winter temperatures average a comparatively moderate 20 degrees. Winter always extends into April. Just seven years ago, in the 1978-79 season, the peninsula was buried under a record of 390.4 inches of snow; the all-time low was 81.3 inches in 1930-31.
The tour starts from Houghton, Mich., with a ”shakedown cruise” to an historic railroad trestle bridge over the frozen Firesteel River, and then turns north to the group`s base at Lake Fanny Hooe Resort in Copper Harbor, winter population 60. The resort and lake were named for the beautiful sister- in-law of a commanding officer at nearby Fort Wilkins, a garrison that was built in 1843-44 to protect copper miners from hostile Indians and is now restored. Hooe, who had come to assist her sister in childbirth, disappeared one day while berry-picking and, according to legend, was mauled and carried away by wild animals or fell in love with an Indian chief.
From this scenic northern outpost, the snowmobilers set off on daily forays through the woods to explore the Keweenaw Peninsula, where snowmobiles appear to outnumber cars. Their sleds skim through the crisp air through deserted copper-mining towns and past frozen waterfalls, ice caves and snow-draped swamps.
Never seeming to tire of their sport, the snowmobilers ride to the summit of Brockway Mountain to admire the moon over Lake Superior; another night they enjoy an outdoor steak cookout not far from their sleds. Half-day excursions lead to the picturesque Eagle Harbor Lighthouse and along Superior`s ice-covered shores to the outer reaches of Keweenaw Point, 10 miles from the nearest plowed road.
June Seifer, a dental assistant who is accustomed to short jaunts on lakes near her home in McHenry, Ill., says she never has seen so much snow. Charmed by snowflake clumps clinging to the evergreens, she enthuses: ”Some look like flowers, dogs, birds, snowmen, two children kissing.”
Seifer shares a snowmobile with her 70-year-old husband, Henry, a dentist. Riding double, they probably are the least experienced snowmobilers on the trip; their sled tipped over three times in two days. They bring up the rear of a slower-paced group led by Decker. Simpson, the Rhode Island snowmobiler, is designated leader of the so-called ”crazies”–the drivers, he says, who ”like to go like hell.”
A four-wheel drive support vehicle stocked with tow ropes, sparkplugs and other spare parts is never far from the snowmobilers, driving on roads within an hour of the prescribed trails. The vehicle usually is driven by Audrey Decker, the tour`s master organizer and social icebreaker. For a change of pace, Decker, a grandmother of five, sometimes rides the last snowmobile, or
”tail gun,” rounding up stragglers.
Each morning, the drivers gather in the resort`s clubhouse around 8 a.m., for coffee, sweetrolls and the day`s trail instructions. On some days they don`t return until after 4 p.m., stopping along the way for pastries or brunch in a restored mining village. Hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps and hot cider with cinnamon schnapps await them at trail`s end. The Deckers frown on mixing drinking with driving, saving the partying for cocktail hours at the day`s end. But they are known to look the other way when a tour member brandishes an occasional flask of ”snow snake medicine” to ward off ”snow snakes.”
On the trails, the drivers communicate by hand signals because it`s hard to hear over the machines` noise (snowmobilers, however, are quick to point out that their machines are quieter than they used to be). One husband-wife team talks via a CB radio unit built into their helmets. Other nifty equipment on this tour includes heated hand grips, battery-operated socks and gloves, and rear-view reflector wrist watches so drivers can see behind them without turning their heads.
Decker, a former Wisconsin car salesman, has been at it as long as anyone, getting hooked on snowmobiles in 1963 and practically raising his sons, and now his grandchildren, on the motorized sleds. He says snowmobiling is making a comeback after peaking in the early 1970s, when fuel was cheap and there were 120 manufacturers. Today, snowmobiling claims an estimated 10 million enthusiasts in the U. S. and Canada. And the number of manufacturers has dwindled to five.
”Snowmobilers like the adventure and challenge of riding 600 to 700 miles on a cross-country tour,” Dicker says. ”We travel through anything. But with the variety of terrain and snow conditions, some of the best opportunities are right up here.”
Snowmobilers may visit the Keweenaw on their own, but the advantage of a package tour is that the guides handle all the details and are familiar with the facilities, terrain and weather conditions. ”With the Deckers all you do is follow the guy ahead of you,” says Maurice Ermin, who owns a car repair shop in Newark, Ohio. ”You don`t have to read maps, worry about getting lost or the next stop for gas because it`s all arranged for you.”
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WHERE TO TAKE A GUIDED SNOWMOBILE TOUR
Guided snowmobile tours:
— Decker Sno-Venture Tours, P. O. Box 843, Minocqua, Wis. 54548;
715-356-6726, 715-479-4424 or 715-387-1208. Six-day tours to the Keweenaw Peninsula start at $335 a person, through March 21.
— Thompson Sno-Country Tours, Box 145, Sidnaw, Mich. 49961; phone 906-355-2124. Upper Peninsula tours through March 15; $338 a person
— Snow Country Snow Tours, 10160 16 Mile Rd., Cedar Springs, Mich. 49319; phone 616-696-1752; tours to the UP and Yellowstone through March 28;
six-day packages range from $325 to $425 a person.
— Dick Squiers, International Snowmobile Tours, P. O. Box 23, Hartford City, Ind. 47348; phone 317-348-4383; tours to Houghton Lake in Michigan`s Lower Peninsula (three days starting at $75 a person), Ontario`s Agawa Canyon wilderness country and the Black Hills of South Dakota.
— Copper Range Tours, P. O. Box 865, Land O` Lakes, Wis. 54540
Snowmobile rentals: Lakeshore Rentals, U.S. Hwy. 41, Chassell, Mich. 49916; 906-482-3920.
Accommodations: Motels in Copper Harbor are comfortable and reasonable;
Fanny Hooe Resort, 906-289-4451, $37-$40 single, $44 double; King Copper Motel, 906-289-4214, $25 single, $30-$38 double; Mariner North, 906-289-4637, $23 single, $25-$29 double; Brockway Inn, 906-289-4588, $28-$37 single, $30-$37 double. In Houghton, try the deluxe King`s Inn, 906-482-5000, $32-$48; or the Portage Motel, 906-482-2400, $22-$25. In Hancock, the Copper Crown, 906-482-6111.
Dining: On your way to Copper Harbor, stop for pastries in Hancock at the Kaleva Cafe. In Copper Harbor, try the Mariner North. Five miles south of Copper Harbor, on Hwy. M-26, the Lakeside Inn offers gourmet dining, as does Fitzgerald`s at Eagle River. All are reasonably priced.
More information: Contact the Keweenaw Tourism Council, P. O. Box 336, Houghton, Mich. 49931; 800-338-7982 outside of Michigan, or 906-482-2388 and 906-337-4579; or the Upper Peninsula Travel & Recreation Association, Box 400, Iron Mountain, Mich. 49801; 906-774-5480.