Winter Trip to the Cabin

[GPintheMitten]

Hi fellow XK-forum members,

In the past 3 or 4 years I've been going to the family cabin in northern Michigan in the winter time. The cabin has been in my wife's family for about 40 or more years. My wife and I have been married for about 4 years, and I'm the only one who wants to go in the winter.

I've posted on the "other forum" for trips in the last few years, but I thought I should post up here as well.

Sadly the cabin past from my mother-in-law to my wife and her sister this year with Mother's passing. She was a grand lady who passed at the age of 92.

Well, back to the trip, here's a video that my son put together from our various cameras for our trip. More pics and vids to come.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnBgelk39UY

[GPintheMitten]

Our cabin is on the Ausable River east of Grayling Michigan. The river is only about 20 feet from the cabin. The first winter we went up, the river was completely open. The last couple of years it was frozen over. But we got a treat this year in that it was frozen Friday night when we got there. The next day it started to gurgle and break up. So for those of you who have not witnessed a river ice break up, here's some pics and vids.

Here's a pic Friday when I first got to the cabin. The river is frozen over:

https://theultimatejeep.com/images/imported/2011/02/IMAG0061-1.jpg

Here's a pic of our cabin:

https://theultimatejeep.com/images/imported/2011/02/IMAG0060-1.jpg

And here's some vids of the river breaking up on Saturday or Sunday (sorry I can't remember which):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0-UNHzGt70

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NnlAxDsaXI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4W_QznZfOU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwhkOp5HijI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O4fWfRuq1U

[GPintheMitten]

This year I brought my tractor and snowblower up to clear the drive to the cabin. It was packed in by a snow plow about 2-3 foot deep at the entrance and then was about 1 to 1 1/2 feet deep for about a mile to our cabin. My son's buddy had a minivan so I needed to clear it for him. We had a great time and look forward to next year's winter trip.

[GPintheMitten]

Some more vids:

I was going to go cross country until I saw how deep it was, and the other guys were back in the cabin playing video games. But I went on a trail that was not snow blowed to the next cabin down the trail. Enjoy:

ETA: Sorry about the seat belt warning dinging. I forgot about it and it didn't seem so bad until I replayed the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6EnbiWREpk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngHQPVW-cPk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r45JgwYdWkE

I received a comment on my youtube channel about these videos that the guy was "not impressed" because we had a mini-van at the cabin. That's fine, but I cleared the snow so that my buddies could make it in. And during our wheeling this weekend we were in some pretty deep stuff. But I don't do it to impress, but to have fun and create family memories.

[strokeZ]

Hey GP! This brings back a ton of memories! How far "up" were you? I used to go to Lewiston in the winter for snomobiling quite a bit. If you ever make it up there, check out Tally's log cabin bar (last I heard they were still there). I also have relatives in Alpina and even some further North. Beautiful country for sure!

Guess I should read first! I used to canoe the Ausable all the time! Excellent photos and vid......thanks for posting!