A Big St. Patrick’s Week Coming Up!

March 7th, 2010
Some Irish Queens from TC's St. Patrick's Day Parade

Some Irish Queens from TC's St. Patrick's Day Parade

By MIKE NORTON

OK, I admit it. I’m a sucker for all things Irish. I’m crazy for The Chieftains, Seamus Heaney, W.B. Yeats, Bushmill’s and Guinness - the first beer I ever drank that didn’t taste like water. And at least once a year I’m willing to eat corned beef and cabbage, work myself up into a passable tenor to sing “Danny Boy” and “The Minstrel Boy,” and sit around pretending that my heart is still in far County Mayo.

The one thing I could never figure out is why they planted this fine drinking holiday smack in the middle of Lent. I mean, what’s up with that?

Nevertheless, although Traverse City doesn’t have the claim to Celtic glory of Beaver Island, where they still spoke Gaelic well into the 20th century, we’ve done all right by ourselves thanks to the Ancient Order of Hibernians, who’ve sponsored an annual parade and pub crawl here for years. This year, I’m glad to say, is no exception.

The festivities begin on Saturday the 13th, when the St. Patrick’s Day Parade gets underway at Kilkenny’s Irish Public House at 1:30 in the afternoon. There’ll be music from the Wild Sullys afterward on the deck at North Peak Brewing. And that evening at 8 p.m. the Irish Comedy Tour makes its appearance at the City Opera House. This is a first - I’m told that it “takes the party atmosphere of a Dublin pub and combines it with a boisterous, belly-laugh trio” including Detroit native Derek Richards; Boston-born Mike McCarthy; and New Yorker Jim Paquette. It says the bar service will be available, which sounds only fitting and should make the jokes funnier. Tickets are $22. For more info, go to  www.cityoperahouse.org

Meanwhile, the folks at Shanty Creek Resorts will be holding their own Irish Weekend festivities, which will include their annual downhill Cardboard Classic Race down Schuss Mountain — in a sled you make yourself - as well as things like the Silly Slalom, Rope Race, Seal Slide, Slush Cup, and the annual Family NASTAR Challenge. The original Northern Michigan Cardboard Classic features an incredible variety of Cardboard racers. Past entries have included Harley Davidson motorcycles, Formula One cars, and Biplanes, all made from cardboard. Want to find our more? Go to www.shantycreek.com

Also, on Sunday evening, Kilkenny’s will host the annual Lucky Leprechaun Ball, a family-style charity benefit for the Father Fred Foundation - which surely justifies an automatic lifting of any Lenten austerities! It starts at 6 p.m. Admission is $10, but anyone under the age of 16 is admitted free of charge.

On Monday the 15th there’s another big event at the City Opera House. It’s called Celtic Crossroads, and it’s a musical extravaganza brought to TC by the folks at Porterhouse Productions. Celtic Crossroads is doing for Irish music what Riverdance did for Irish dance. Last year, during their first US tour, they sold out every show. (And there’s a local act as well - the Grand Traverse Pipes & Drums will be playing with them for a few numbers.) Tickets are $22 in advance or $25 at the door. For more info go to www.PorterhouseProductions.com

Finally, on the day itself, Wednesday the 17th, there’s that fine pub-crawling tradition. (I’m glad they ditched that brief politically correct “pub walk” or “pub tour” or whatever they were calling it.) The crawl will start at noon in Minerva’s at the Park Place Hotel and wander through several choice downtown locations.

Slainte!

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Snowshoes, Beer and Icy Slush. What’s Not to Like About March?

February 26th, 2010
Back from the Beer-Tasting Trail... Who Says Winter Has to be Serious?

Back from the Beer-Tasting Trail... Who Says Winter Has to be Serious?

By MIKE NORTON

I’m watching the wind whip the bay to a frenzy outside my window this morning, sending clouds of freezing spray high over the railings at the Clinch Park marina, and it’s beginning to look as though March is determined to do that “in like a lion” thing this year. The “out like a lamb” part, of course,  remains to be seen.

Weather like this tends to dampen one’s enthusiasm for winter sports, I know — which explains why not too many of you were excited by last week’s blog post about the new ski trails out at Veronica Valley. Believe me, I feel your pain. But as a grizzled veteran of northern Michigan winters, I have to tell you that relief is not to be found by sitting front of the TV, clutching a bag of Fritos and a can of bean dip to your sorry bosom. No, you must engage the wintry beast outdoors and laugh in its face until it retreats for another year.

Fortunately, in Traverse City we know exactly how to accomplish such things. On Saturday (March 5), in fact, there are two of these hugely fun events going on.

Up at the Timber Ridge Resort on Hammond Road, they’ll be mixing two of my favorite pastimes - beer-drinking and snowshoeing - at the fourth annual Suds & Snow celebration. From 2 to 6:30 p.m. you can stomp around the trails at Timber Ridge sampling microbrews from a wide variety of Michigan breweries, tasting yummy food and listening to live music from Misconception and Jason & Nick.

The price of your ticket ($20 if you order them by Thursday and $30 afterward) you get a keepsake glass, a trail pass and two tasting tickets. You can buy additional beer and food tasting tickets for a buck apiece if you want them - and you will. They also rent snowshoes if you need them. Best of all, the money goes to support local charities and the TART Trail. Want more info? Go to  www.TimberRidgeResort.net or call (231) 947-2770.

An even more venerable way to chase the winter blues away is going on at Shanty Creek Resorts. Forty years ago, a bunch of crazy skiers and snowboarders decided it would be a fun idea to take advantage of the March meltdown by seeing if they could cross an icy 40-foot pond at high speed. Thus was born the first-ever Slush Cup Race, where contestants are encouraged to don their silliest outfits and compete for the “last one standing” and costume awards.

But that’s just the start of the silliness: other games and events during Slush Cup weekend include the Fruity Suity, Frozen Fish Toss, Seal Slide, Shovel Races, and Silly Slalom. If you want to find out more about it, contact Shanty at www.shantycreek.com or call (800) 678-4111.

So winter is still here. What did you expect? This is northern Michigan. Stop whining and have some fun!

3 Responses to “Snowshoes, Beer and Icy Slush. What’s Not to Like About March?”

  1. Riza Norton says:

    Can I whine about Ohio winters?

    Just kidding. Great post today. I especially like the clutching fritos and bean dip to your sorry bosom part. ;)

    I laugh in the face of winter!

  2. Nicole Shepherd says:

    Hi Mike! That picture you used at the top is of me and my uncle Harold. Is that your picture of us? Or can you point me towards the person who took it? I’d love to get a copy printed but will need it at higher resolution to do so. Thanks! Nicole Shepherd

  3. Nicole Shepherd says:

    Sorry, I meant is that picture yours? Should have proofread before I hit submit. ;)

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New Cross-Country Trails at Veronica Valley

February 23rd, 2010

Skking in the Spruces: This is Why We Love it Here!

Skiing in a Blizzard: This is Why We Love it Here!

By MIKE NORTON

Ordinarily, the prospect of a new cross-country ski trail wouldn’t get me terribly excited. After all, it’s not as though there aren’t already miles and miles of ski trails around Traverse City (Has anyone ever even tried to tally them all up?) But I have to admit that this announcement got me interested.

I don’t know how many of you remember Veronica Valley, the 93-acre golf course built by Bill and Diane Grant in the southern reaches of the Leelanau Peninsula. I’m not a golfer, but I loved the way the Grants created all kinds of whimsical sculptures and landmarks - the sort of thing they used to call “follies” back in Victorian days - and placed them around the course.

It was like a miniature golf course without the miniature part…   To me, Veronica Valley was the perfect expression of homespun Up North creativity, but - alas — it eventually closed. Fortunately, it was snapped up two years ago by the Leelanau County Parks & Recreation Commission, which is turning it into a public park.

Part of that process, as it turns out, is that they’ve hired the folks from the Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation (TART) Trails to groom 4K of trails at Veronica Valley for classic and skate-style skiing. TART has just purchased a brand-new Ginzu groomer (don’t you just love that name?) for its grooming work on the Leelanau Trail between Suttons Bay and Traverse City and on the celebrated Vasa ski trail. Anyway, the trailwork at Veronica Valley is strictly an experiment to see whether the skiing public will take advantage of the new trail system; if it turns out to be popular, they’ll make the arrangement permanent - well, at least for the rest of this season.

So if you’re one of those novelty freaks who’s always complaining that you’re tired of skiing the same old trails over and over again, here’s your chance to check out some brand-new territory. (Of course, if you’re a boondocker like me, you don’t wait for someone else to groom a trail for you. You go out and make your own doggone trails.) Veronica Valley is in Bingham Township, between County Road 641 (Lake Leelanau Drive) and Maple Valley Road, just a couple of minutes north of Traverse City.  Enjoy

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What a Great Winter Fest It’s Been! (And Now Stand By for Some Comedy…)

February 15th, 2010
A Young Competitor in the Frozen Cherry Pit Spit Contest

A Young Competitor in the Frozen Cherry Pit Spit Contest

By MIKE NORTON

Whew! What a weekend it’s been! The Cherry Capital Winter WonderFest is almost over, and I can’t believe how many people turned out for the various activities, games, concerts and other events that have made up this year’s festival. Honestly, I don’t know if it was the excellent winter weather, the smashing lineup of new events or our friendly smiles, but people have been turning out by the thousands.

I expected to see a lot of folks come out for events like the new Traverse City Microbrew & Music Festival, but when I arrived downtown on Saturday morning to take photos of the new Monster Dog Pull, I knew we must have tapped into something. We’d had 10 or 12 people pre-register their pooches for the event, so we assumed we’d have 20 or 30 contestants at most - wisely, I thought, we extended the contest from 30 minutes to a full hour. The last I saw, the competition had been going on for two full hours - and there had to have been close to 100 dogs (very well-behaved ones, I might add) milling around on Front Street with their owners.

It was like that all day, from the 540 or so who bought soup from our local restaurants at the Soup’r Bowl charity soup contest to the dozens of competitors who showed up for the Frozen Cherry Pit Spit and the Brain Freeze ice cream eating contest - it reminded me more than anything else of the fun small-town flavor of our events, where you can’t tell the tourists from the locals because everybody feels like they’re part of what’s going on. And I hear the two-day winter softball event over at the Civic Center was a huge success, too. I know our motels and resorts were happy, and I’m hearing lots of good things from the downtown shops, too.

A Strong Finish in the Monster Dog Pull

A Strong Finish in the Monster Dog Pull

This weekend, in the spirit of “something for everybody,” a quite different sort of festival will be on tap in Traverse City. Starting Friday and running until Sunday, downtown will be taken over by the brand-new Traverse City Comedy Arts Festival, an offshoot of the town’s popular summer film festival. The new event will include acts like Roseanne Barr, Whitney Cummings of Live! Nude! Comedy! and Mike Birbiglia of This American Life). Independent filmmaker John Waters will do his one-man show This Filthy World - his cross-dressing comedy Pink Flamingos will also be part of the mix), and Jeff Garlin of Curb Your Enthusiasm (one of the founders of the festival) will perform onstage, as will CYE co-star J.B. Smoove.

All the performances will be within walking distance of each other in the downtown area just off Grand Traverse Bay. Locations include the City Opera House, the Old Town Playhouse and the State Theatre. Some of the more popular shows have already sold out, but there are plenty of other places to get your laughs at the festival. For up-to-date info, check out their website at www.comedyartsfesttc.org/

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The Vasa Festival of Races Starts This Week!

February 5th, 2010
Racing Through the Woods at the North American Vasa

Racing Through the Woods at the North American Vasa

By MIKE NORTON

Around here, we can’t help but be excited about the Cherry Capital Winter WonderFest, which starts this Friday and runs all through Presidents Day weekend. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t also be cheering on Traverse City’s other main winter event, the North American Vasa Festival of Races - which also happens to be taking place this weekend.

The original Vasa, now in its 34th year, is one of the nation’s most famous cross-country ski races, part of the American Ski Marathon Series and the Michigan cup series. It features classic events of 12 km and 27 km, and freestyle (skating) events of 12 km, 27 km, and 50 km, all taking place in the morning. In the afternoon, the trails are the scene of the Junior Vasa, a series of 1 km and 3 km classic races and one 3 km freestyle race.

For retro-style skiers there are two Hagerty Insurance Gran Travers Classic races (also part of the Michigan Cup series) - a 6 km and a 16 km race that capture the feel of  old-school cross-country skiing. All the races start and finish at Timber Ridge Resort, but they use the splendidly groomed Vasa Trail system through the Pere Marquette State Forest, one of the nation’s most beautiful ski trails.

In addition to the competitive events, the Vasa folks always come up with fun events that make the weekend even more enjoyable. There’s always a Friday night “Vasa Pasta Dinner” to load up the next day’s competitors with lots of high-energy carbohydrates. (Proceeds go to fund local student skiing programs.)

This year, since the Vasa falls on Valentine’s Day, there’s also a special Valentine’s Day Tour on Sunday, where you can ski the trail with your special someone (or with friends) at your own casual pace. Special treats will be available on the course, sponsored by The Chocolate Den of Traverse City, and there’ll be special music played at the start/finish area and the various food stops. Proceeds from the tour will benefit the Munson Women’s Heart Health Fund.

For more information, you can call (231) 938-4400.

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Snow Tracks: A Field Guide to Traverse City Winter Recreation

January 30th, 2010
A Dainty Fox on the Trail...

A Dainty Fox on the Trail...

By MIKE NORTON

Sharp-eyed naturalists know that winter is the best time to look for signs of northern Michigan’s plentiful wildlife, whether it’s the familiar heart-shaped hoofprints of white-tailed deer, the dainty canine tracks of coyote and fox, or the convincing dinosaur imitations made by wild turkeys.

But there are plenty of other tracks left on Traverse City’s winter snow. By people. In fact, winter is Traverse City’s second busiest season - and once those fat white flakes start floating down from the sky, people start celebrating.

Those long, parallel grooves punctuated with intermittent circles? They’re the unmistakable spoor of Skinny-Skiers, and they’re likely to be found anywhere on the hundreds of miles of marked and groomed cross-country trails that weave their way through the region’s vast acreage of forest and parkland. The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has eight marked trails, some leading up to panoramic overlooks high above the lake. Other marked trail systems include the Lost Lake Pathway near Interlochen, the 3,500-acre Sand Lakes Quiet Area near Williamsburg and - best of all - the Vasa Pathway, one of the finest cross-country ski trails in the nation. (A great way to access the trail is from the nearby Timber Ridge RV & Recreation Resort, which has its own lighted trail system for nocturnal members of the species.)

Four Dainty Foxes on the Trail....

Four Dainty Foxes on the Trail....

A related family whose numbers have increased dramatically in recent years is the Bigfooted Snowshoer, whose staggered, toothy tracks come in a bewildering range of oval, teardrop and rectangular shapes.  These jovial winter denizens can usually be spotted close to downtown Traverse City at the 500-acre Grand Traverse Commons, whose lovely wooded campus features the castlelike spires and walls of a 19th century mental asylum, or the awe-inspiring Lighthouse Park trails at the tip of the Old Mission Peninsula, or along the Boardman River in the Grand Traverse Natural Education Reserve.

The most impressive winter tracks in the forest, of course, are made by the Northwoods Sledder, a sociable visitor that leaves its characteristic corrugated snowmobile trails in places where speed and thrills can most easily be found. Look (and listen) for them south and east of town, where more than 200 miles of the country’s finest and most diverse snowmobiling wait for them on the Boardman Valley Trail, an 81-mile trail system in the Pere Marquette State Forest, or the Jordan Valley Trail, about a half-hour to the northeast, with over 130 miles of spectacular trails.

Some inhabitants of Traverse City’s winter outdoors are more difficult to follow by tracking. For instance, a steep hillside whose slopes are polished and carved by hundreds of shallow crisscrossed paths is probably a regular habitat for the colorful Downhill Skier - but you might just as easily be looking at the trails of the acrobatic Snowboarder or the Snow Tuber. (And no, a Snow Tuber isn’t some sort of winter vegetable; it’s someone who loves flying downhill on a big soft inflated inner tube.)

Skiers, snowboarders and tubers can all be found at Shanty Creek Resorts, a 4,500-acre recreational complex in the beautiful Chain of Lakes region about 30 miles northeast of Traverse City. Ski Magazine rated Shanty Creek the Midwest’s number-one destination in value, dining, lodging, weather and après ski activities. Its ski areas feature a 450-foot vertical with 49 runs for every ability level, plus four snowboarding terrain parks and a tubing park.

A Couple of Tubers at Mt. Holiday

A Couple of Tubers at Mt. Holiday

But downhillers, snowboarders and tubers can also be found in a few smaller pockets of habitat closer to town. Mt. Holiday is a community-run ski area just east of town with 16 runs, two chairlifts, a tubing run and terrain park, a pleasant day lodge, and awesome views of East Bay. On the other side of the city is Hickory Hills, a small municipal ski area with eight runs served by old-fashioned rope tows.

One refuge set aside entirely for tubers is Timberlee Hills, a former ski resort in the hills just northwest of town that’s Michigan’s largest snow tubing hill. Timberlee has breathtaking views of Grand Traverse Bay and Lake Leelanau, and even tandem tubes that allow friends and families to hurtle down the hill together.

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Two Great Winter Events Set for This Weekend

January 25th, 2010

A Pair of Lady Cross-Country Skiers

Two Skiing Sisters Pause to Show Off Their New XC Gear

By MIKE NORTON

Man, it was a tough weekend for our snow cover - strong warm winds out of the south, and rain melting the snow off all the roofs. We lost so much of our snow up at Old Mission that I came into Traverse City expecting to see lots of bare ground - but I’m always forgetting that there’s lot more snow away from the water. It looks like plenty of it escaped the thaw - and I’m hearing that our trails are actually in better shape than the ones in the Upper Peninsula.

Even so, it’s gotten pretty thin in spots, and there’s no denying that we could use a few good solid inches of new powder. Luckily, it sounds as though there’s more on the way this week. And that’s really goo, because there are two excellent events scheduled for this coming weekend, and I’d hate to see them get cancelled.

On Saturday evening, the kids and families from Junior Achievement will be holding the 2010 Snowshoe Stomp a candlelit snowshoe hike along the trails of the beautiful Grand Traverse Commons. If you’ve never been to one of these, they’re extremely cool - candles are lit in translucent blocks of ice along the trail, and when the night is clear and crisp it’s a hauntingly lovely experience - as well as a lot of fun. This one will be held from 5 to 8 p.m., and they’ll be starting out at the Greenspire Schoolhouse. I understand there’ll also be firepits for roasting s’mores and yummy  food supplied by  Bubba’s. (It’s a fundraiser for Junior Achievement, so they’re suggesting donations of $5 per person or $20 per family.) For more info, check out the website at www.westmichigan.ja.org

Then, on Sunday, there’s the Second Annual “Soup-er Bowl, Women & Snow” event at Timber Ridge RV & Recreation Resort. Ladies are invited to come up to cross-country ski, snowshoe and make new friends. Bring a dish to pass, a soup or snack and the beverage of your choice. Donations of canned food are being accepted for the Father Fred food pantry. The cost is $7 for a trail pass, but it’s free to Timber Ridge season passholders. Equipment rentals are available, too, but call (231) 947-2770 to reserve what you need.

All I can say is, “BRING IT ON!”

Evening Snowshoers By the Fire at the Grand Traverse Commons

Evening Snowshoers By the Fire at the Grand Traverse Commons

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Blue Skies, Cold Snow and Hot Chili

January 18th, 2010
A Morning Snowshoe Climb at the Grand Traverse Commons

A Morning Snowshoe Climb at the Grand Traverse Commons

By MIKE NORTON

What a beautiful morning in Traverse City! I got to town early this morning and was able to take a walk before work in the hills above the Grand Traverse Commons, one of our most beautiful trail systems. It was perfect hiking weather - crisp and clear, with just a small breeze out of the west. All weekend long, snowshoers and hikers had been flattening out the snow on the pathways, so the hike to the top of the hill was easy to do in my workaday L.L. Beans. I got to the top just in time to see the sun clear the horizon and send its golden light over the bay and the steaming chimneys of the city below.

The Commons is sort of Traverse City’s own Central Park - a semi-wild preserve of more than 500 right on the edge of downtown - and it’s obvious that more and more people are finding out about the trails there.

This past weekend was lots of fun, indoors and out. Over at the Park Place Hotel, 1,800 people turned out on Saturday for the 16th annual Downtown Chili Challenge, one of Traverse City’s most popular January activities. (Who doesn’t like chili in midwinter?)  Fifteen local restaurants competed against each other with 20 different chilis, and participants got to vote for their favorites in eight different categories. Money raised at the cook-off goes to fund downtown community events like our popular summer “block party” program, Friday Night Live. As always, Minerva’s had the home court advantage and won the People’s Choice award for its White Chili.

This coming weekend promises to be another beauty, if the folks at The Weather Channel can be believed - which means it’ll be perfect weather for the Bigfoot Snowshoe Race up at Timber Ridge Resort. The Bigfoot includes 5K and 10K events, and although you don’t have to be an experience snowshoer to compete (in fact, they’ll rent shoes to you if you didn’t bring your own) you’d better be prepared for some exercise, because this is the Midwest qualifier for the National Snowshoe Race in March!

Although I love snowshoeing, the idea of running in snowshoes doesn’t excite me in the least. (Watching somebody else run in them sounds like lots more fun!)  But if you’re the kind of person who loves competing in ungainly winter footwear, check out the Bigfoot program at www.TimberRidgeResort.net or call them at (231) 932-5401.

If you’re in the mood for a more leisurely stroll in your snowshoes, you’ll be glad to know that the Traverse City area is a paradise for us big-footed hikers. Lots of people are discovering that its’ an inexpensive and convenient way to get out into our region’s famous winter scenery. And because they can be mastered in a few minutes, they’re popular with people who don’t want to bother with lessons before setting out on the trail.

If you’re a first-timer, one popular way to try snowshoes is to head over to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Saturday afternoons for one of their free ranger-led snowshoe hikes. (They’ll even distribute free snowshoes to those who need them and give you some basic instructions - which is all you’ll really need.) If you’re interested contact them at (231) 326-5134, extension 328, for details and to make reservations.

Snowshoeing the Empire Bluff Trail at Sleeping Bear Dunes

Snowshoeing the Empire Bluff Trail at Sleeping Bear Dunes

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America’s Cheapest Ski Lift Ticket? Some 40th Birthday Present!

January 10th, 2010
Schuss Mountain: Funky, Retro and 40 Years Old

Schuss Mountain: Funky, Retro and 40 Years Old

By MIKE NORTON

Birthdays are a bit hard to pin down over at Shanty Creek, given the tangled history of the sprawling ski and golf resort.

Did it all start in the late Fifties, when Detroit steel magnate Roy Deskin decided to build a classy private club in the towering hills above Michigan’s Lake Bellaire?  Or was it a decade later, when Chicago stockbroker Daniel Iannotti decided to create Schuss Mountain — his own personal version of a quaint European-style ski and golf village - on the other side of the hill?

Or would the best birthday year be 1984, when the two former competitors were merged into a single entity? Or 1998, when the third resort - Cedar River - was added to the huge hilltop complex?

In any case, this is the year when the folks at Shanty have decided to celebrate the 40th birthday of Schuss Mountain - certainly the most colorful and flamboyant of the three resorts. And they’re doing it with an appropriately flamboyant gesture by offering an avalanche of skiing and lodging specials - including a $10 lift ticket that resort officials are calling the most affordable in the country.

The best part of the deal is that it’s available at Shanty’s Summit Mountain ski area for the entire ski season, not simply on a few low-traffic days. (The same low rate, for instance, is available on Schuss Mountain on Mondays.) And since it also comes with an optional $15 rental package, it can really reduce the cost of a northern Michigan ski weekend. A family of four could rent equipment and ski all day on Summit Mountain for $100 - only $40 if they have their own skis.

“Whether you’re a beginner, a family or an experienced skier, this affordable lift ticket is available every weekend, creating the perfect opportunity to enjoy a day of skiing for little cost,” said Chris Hale, Shanty’s vice president for sales and marketing.

Shanty Creek is a sprawling 4,500-acre recreational complex of three separate “villages” - Summit, Schuss and Cedar River — in the beautiful Chain of Lakes region just northeast of Traverse City. Ski Magazine has rated it the Midwest’s number-one destination in value, dining, lodging, weather and après ski activities. Its ski areas feature a 450-foot vertical with 49 runs for every ability level, plus four snowboarding terrain parks and a tubing park.

Its other facilities include over 500 rooms, 72 holes of championship golf, a Wellness Spa and over 35,600 square feet of meeting space.

Although it’s not the most modern of Shanty’s three component villages, Schuss Mountain has always claimed a special place in the hearts of generations of Midwestern. Iannotti patterned Schuss after the small boutique resorts he saw in Vail and other Colorado towns, and ran the place with his own characteristic eccentricity. He liked to call it “The Kingdom of Schuss” (for a time it even had its own currency and its own time zone) and was known by visitors and employees as “King Daniel.”

In 1984, Schuss Mountain was merged with nearby Shanty Creek Resort. The third element in the complex, Cedar River, was added in 1998. In 2006, the entire complex was purchased by Trinidad Resort & Club, which embarked on a massive $10 million renovation and redesign program centered on the former Summit Village Hotel, reopened last year as the Lakeview Hotel & Conference Center.

Other packages and specials at Shanty Creek include:

A Summit Ski Package, which starts at $75 per person per night on the weekends. This package, which requires a two-night stay, includes lodging in a condo guestroom, two-day Summit ski slopes ticket, and complimentary skiing on the night of arrival.

A Midweek Ski Package starting at only $54 per person. Available Monday through Friday, it includes lodging in a condo guestroom, a one-day lift ticket good at any of Shanty Creek’s three villages, and complimentary skiing on the night of arrival.

A Family Ski & Fun Package, which offers two nights’ lodging, a Superticket on Saturday and Sunday, free skiing on the night of arrival, a family welcome reception, family movie, breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, “pizza and pop” at Ivan’s restaurant, a one-hour tubing session, family sleigh rides, and dog sled rides for the kids.

In all three packages, children under eight ski for only $5, and children under 12 eat free.

A number of other ski packages are available during winter holidays and special events. To see them and to learn more about the 2010 ski and golf season, call 1-800-678-4111 or check their website at www.shantycreek.com

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Beautiful Snow — and Beautiful Snowmobiling!

January 4th, 2010
Cruising the Trauil Above Ranch Rudolf

Cruising the Trail Above Ranch Rudolf

By MIKE NORTON

Wow! What a difference three days can make!

Traverse City is covered in beautiful, deep, white snow, and everybody in our winter sports business is ecstatic. Steve Kershner, director of snow sports at Shanty Creek Resorts, says they’ve been setting records out there for skiers since Christmas because the weather’s been so good - and that’s a big shot in the arm for the local economy. Kershner says the resort has already sold almost twice as many season passes as last year.

Personally, I’ve been thinking more about snowmobiles lately; last week I took advantage of a couple of cold clear days to take my camera up to the Boardman Valley Trail near Ranch Rudolf, and it was great to see how much fun people were having on those bluffs above the river. A lot of sledders don’t realize how great our trail system is, which means we probably don’t do a very good job of promoting ourselves as a snowmobiling destination. But those who’ve tried us are inevitably impressed.

Take Ed Klim, president of the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association. He’s experienced some of the world’s most exotic snowmobiling spots. So where is his favorite trail? Not in Colorado or Montana, or even in Alaska. It’s right here along the Boardman Valley Trail: an 80-mile network of scenic routes that wanders through thick green cedars and pines beside a snow-cradled river, skirts the edges of icebound lakes among wooded hills, and glides through stands of oak where deer run silently beside the pathway.

It’s not the fastest, most thrill-packed ride in the world, Klim admits. But it’s gentle and beautiful - and best of all, it’s just a few minutes from Traverse City, whose restaurants, galleries, casinos and resorts provide a welcome dose of luxury at the end of a day’s ride.

That’s snowmobiling “Traverse City style” - a blend of backwoods adventure, aesthetic appreciation and (let’s admit it) more than a bit of off-the-trail pampering. People come here because they don’t entirely want to rough it - they love the town, the casinos, the shopping and the lakeshore — even when the lake is frozen. Besides, you can get some really good deals on rooms here in the winter.

A few of those rooms are actually on the trail itself, at Ranch Rudolf, a real-life dude ranch deep in the heart of the Boardman Valley that becomes a winter mecca for trail-riders. Some spend a night or two at the lodge, but most just drop by to spend an hour or two by the fireplace swapping tales about their day on the trail before heading into town to check out the nightlife.

“The best part of being in Traverse City is that when a family comes up for a winter trip, they don’t all have to be riding if they want to do something else,” says Ranch Rudolf owner Sid Hamill. “If they’d rather shop, go to the casino, or spend the day in a spa, they can do that. There’s really a little bit of something for everyone.”

Most of the lodging in Traverse City is spread out along the city’s two bayfront beach areas, where 60 hotels, motels and resorts provide almost 4,000 rooms ranging from the budget-conscious to the luxurious. That’s also where the majority of the town’s restaurants and night spots are - and it’s conveniently close to three of the five staging areas that feed into the trail system at Hoosier Valley, Rasho Road, and Supply Road.

Hoosier Valley, at the western end of the system, is a steep section of trail with more wide-open spaces that provide opportunities for faster riding. Supply Road is on the opposite end, in a remote section of high woods. Rasho Road, at the center of the trail network, is closest to the heart of Traverse City’s hotel/resort district; it can be easily reached by way of the popular High Lake Spur, a five-mile roller-coaster trail over a series of glacial hills.

Farther to the southeast is the village of Fife Lake, where the Boardman system links up with an even larger series of trails to the south and east by way of a snowmobile bridge over the Manistee River.  The scenery is beautiful, with many turnoffs along the river and lookouts over the broad Manistee Valley.

Since the region’s scenery is so diverse, the trails encompass many different landscapes: snug tunnels of tall snowy evergreens, open stands of hardwood where the sun shines down through blue shadows, high ridges where eagles soar, wide meadows that look out over distant glacial lakes. Sledders accustomed to the wide-open raceway style conditions in other snowmobiling areas say they’re amazed at how often they seem to have the Traverse City trails to themselves.

Not everyone who comes to ride the Boardman Valley trail system brings their own machine - particularly if they’re new to the sport. Fortunately, there are several local outfitters located near the trailheads to serve would-be trail riders with one- two- and three-passenger machines. One is Blue Sky Rentals (231) 633-2583 or www.bluesky-tvc.com. Another is Snowblitz Snowmobile Rentals (231) 932-1800 or www.snowblitz.com.

The amenities along the Boardman Valley trail system are just as diverse as the terrain. In addition to the lodge at Ranch Rudolf, with its fireplace lounge and dining room, another favorite stop for sledders is Peegeo’s, a pizzeria/bar at the end of the High Lake Spur. It’s a rare snowmobiler who doesn’t take a break at Peegeo’s for some refreshment and conversation. The menu is simple but tasty, from pizzas and subs to Mexican specialties, steaks and burgers

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