Winter Driving on the Trail

It’s nice to have an all-wheel drive, four-wheel drive, or smaller front-wheel drive vehicle for winter driving on the side roads off of the Gunflint Trail.  Cook County does an awesome job of keeping the Trail clear but some of the side roads are private and do not receive the attention they need.  Once the Trail is white we usually do not see blacktop again until Spring so it does require careful winter driving.  I love my Subaru except for when there is so much snow on the road that I don’t have enough clearance and the car becomes the plow!  Mike prefers the beefier Suburban that can get through almost anything.  When friends or family arrive with rear-wheel drive cars they often experience difficulties on the last hill up to Voyageur.  We then have them park down at the landing until their tires cool off and sometimes they are able to make it the rest of the way.  Other times we offer to drive their vehicle up the last hill and if that doesn’t work then we bring our vehicle down, load their stuff into ours, and give them a ride. In spite of the challenges winter on the Trail provides, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.