Anyone who has never taken the time to visit ABR is really missing out. It is truly a winter paradise for cross-country skiers. ABR stands for Active Backcountry Retreat and it is a resort for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and skijoring. It is located in Ironwood, Michigan, and they are right in the path of the brunt of the lake effect snow. They have little rustic cabins scattered through the woods with a wood stove in them for heat and an outhouse beside it. The trails are immaculately groomed for classic and skate skiing with about 60K of trail.

This is our idea of a winter getaway. We drove up to Ironwood from Chicago a couple days after Christmas. The car was loaded down with skis, sleds, cloths, cooking gear and enough food for a week. It takes all day for us to drive there and we are hard pressed to arrive before dark. The resort is run by the couple who own it and live there on the property. Their names are Eric and Angela. We check in at the warming cabin by the parking lot and then get to work loading the sleds to haul our gear to our cabin.

It is almost dark now but not a problem since we already know the trail. Our cabin sits halfway down the hill on the main trail and it is a little tricky controlling the sled and making the turn into the cabin. I finally give up and unclip my sled and take off my skis and push the sled down the hill backwards. I notice that Jim has snow all over his back and find out that he crashed making the turn. We unload the gear and head back up the trail for a second load each. We plan on eating well this week and brought plenty of food. Eric kindly offered to pull our gear out with the snowmobile but we declined since pulling the sleds to the cabin is half the fun of this adventure.

We got settled into the cabin and made dinner for our first night. We chose to use my little propane backpacking stove to cook with. It requires that you keep the door open while cooking for ventilation but the wood stove heats the cabin so well that It is not uncomfortable. I use a backpacker oven from REI to make pizza, muffins, cakes and casseroles. The cabins are pretty new and they are very well insulated. Once they heat up they stay warm for a long time. The wood used to build them was all harvested from the property. There is a wood shed beside the cabin. There is also a Weber grill outside.

There is no electricity so we bring our backpacking lights. We also have a small solar powered light which is very handy. A good book is an essential item for reading after dinner. It gets dark there at 5 p.m. and so a good headlamp will be necessary after that.

The trails are open for skiing from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. They groom the trails every day and we always like to watch the Piston Bully coming up the trail late at night or very early in the morning. It is kind of an obsession with us. When we see it coming we jump up and look out the windows at the flashing lights with the snow falling and it lights up the whole woods. I thought it was amusing to see Eric always park the Piston Bully right next to the house in its special spot. You can tell it is a cherished piece of equipment.

After breakfast we try to get on the trail as close to 9 a.m. as possible. We like to ski for about three hours and then head back to the cabin for lunch. After an hour or so rest we head back out for another three hours of skiing. The trails are sprawled out over the property and you can be pretty far away at the farthest points. Once we were caught in a whiteout on the Bear Bait trail late in the day and had some trouble finding our way back. I was stunned at how hard it was to read the maps on the posts with our headlamps in the heavy snowfall and dark coming on. The trails are very well marked but it is wise to head back at a reasonable time.

ABR has a lot of easy flat trails and gently rolling hills so beginner skiers can really have a good time learning and getting comfortable with it. But they also have plenty of advanced trails with some really difficult climbs and downhills that are real screamers. You can’t get bored there. The scenery is so incredible with the snow hanging off the pines and you hardly run into anyone on the trails. Sometimes you feel like they groomed it just for you. I was skiing by myself on the Jack Pine trail and got buzzed by a grouse. It scared me at first because it looked like a hawk coming at my head.

We were there over New Years but we were so tired from skiing that I was asleep by 10 p.m. and missed the new year. I can’t think of anywhere else I would have rather have been.

After a couple days we had to put on the backpacks and ski up to the main warming cabin and refill our water jugs. We go through a surprising amount of water so we fill several jugs. They have a ski shop there and offer lessons. They also have a wood fired sauna/shower you can rent by the hour. Also there is a waxing barn across the parking lot. There are two wood stoves in the warming house and a place to sit around and socialize and they offer some self serve hot chocolate, soup, cookies, and a soda machine.

We think that the best thing about ABR is not having to drive anywhere after we arrive and just skiing out the door. We were self sufficient in our cabin and would have stayed another week if only I had the vacation days.

We would like to thank Eric and Angela for providing such an awesome ski destination. We’ll be back next year.

Find the ABR website at http://www.michiweb.com/abrski/

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