December 1, 2024 • 17 mins
In this segment, host Phil Tower welcomes Christy Walcott, Director of Marketing and Communications, Gaylord Area Convention and Tourism Bureau, and Brad Jacobsen, Director of Ski Operations at Treetops Resort.
Christy joined us to talk about Gaylord as a prime destination for snow lovers of all ages! The Gaylord area is a popular spot for travelers in the mood for snowmobiling, skiing, snowshoeing, extreme tubing, winter rafting, or moonlit walks at midnight. Brad talked about making snow and ideal snow conditions at Treetops and other resorts in the Gaylord Area. Snow is covering the runs at Treetops, and more is on the way. The Gaylord area averages 152 inches of snow annually, making it a true up-north paradise every winter.
More online: Gaylord Michigan
Treetops Resort
Christy joined us to talk about Gaylord as a prime destination for snow lovers of all ages! The Gaylord area is a popular spot for travelers in the mood for snowmobiling, skiing, snowshoeing, extreme tubing, winter rafting, or moonlit walks at midnight. Brad talked about making snow and ideal snow conditions at Treetops and other resorts in the Gaylord Area. Snow is covering the runs at Treetops, and more is on the way. The Gaylord area averages 152 inches of snow annually, making it a true up-north paradise every winter.
More online: Gaylord Michigan
Treetops Resort
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly program designed to inform and enlighten on a
wide range of public policy issues, as well as news
and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome in.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
It's West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio. Thank you so much
for tuning in. I am your host, Phil Tower. Glad
you're tuned in across all of our iHeartRadio stations throughout
the West Michigan region. And we remind you we are
a podcast as well at woodradio dot com after you
hear us on the radio. Is my pleasure to welcome
(00:37):
to our program in this segment. This is kind of
a bi annual thing. I think that means twice a year.
Brad Jacobson is director of ski Operations with Treetops in
Beautiful Galard, Michigan treetops dot com, and Christy Walcott is
director of Marketing and Communications with the Gaylord Conventions and
Visitors Bureau Gaylord Michigan dot net. For everything you need
(01:00):
to know, they are in studio with me sitting. It
seems like you guys are like ten feet away from it,
but we're in a smaller, different studio. How are you guys,
by the way.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Doing fantastic phil How are you all comfortable in prime
for the show?
Speaker 5 (01:14):
Oh, Peachy, absolutely, Preddie or Rock.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I haven't heard that description in a while.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
There are all kinds of cool things to do in Galer,
Michigan this winter, and I'm going to start with you,
Christy Walcott. I have spent many times in Galer in
the winter, in the summer, different times of the year,
and I always enjoy visiting it because it's one of
those areas with so many popular spots in Michigan, it's
(01:41):
easy to forget how great it is in the middle
of Michigan and really a short drive from West Michigan
or Detroit. But we wanted to focus on some cool
things to do in Galer this winter. And it is
not necessarily all snow reliant. Is that safe to say?
Speaker 4 (01:58):
That is absolutely true. While we bill ourselves as being
all outdoors and obviously we love winter and all of
our winter activities, there's a lot of things to do
even before it snows, when we're waiting for that snow
to finally come, or if it's a year with a
little bit lighter of a snowfall. So we've got you
covered no matter what the weather does in Gailard.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
And you've got all kinds of great activities, including involving snow, snowshoeing,
downhill ski lessons, You've got incredible trails, you've got the river,
and you've got winter rafting, which I know people have
done this. This is down the Sturgeon River, which is
I would assume a little more mild in the winter time, perhaps,
(02:37):
you know, as long as it's not breezy and cold.
And then wine walks and moonlit wanderings, which sounds wonderful
if you're in the doghouse in your marriage, I would
say you should book that right now. And extreme tubing
where to start? And I guess I wanted to start
with snowshoeing. And let's talk about snow because you can
(02:59):
make no Brad Jacobson, when it's cold out, you can
you can artificially cover the slopes at tree tops, right
And I was curious about that when I was thinking
about talking with you today. I mean, this is kind
of a science that you guys have gotten down after
years of perfectingness.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
Yeah, we've making snow as the process of taking high
pressure water and smashing it with compressed air and putting
a fan behind it and blowing at about one hundred
and fifty feet out and about fifty feet up in
the air. And what mother nature do the rest, providing
the cold temperatures, you know, in the simplest form. The
science behind it is really amazing. Our staff or snowmakers,
(03:40):
they make snow, but in a little bit of a way,
I call them mad scientists because you are creating, you know,
creating a product, you know, and at the same time
we're doing it all hours of the evening up you know,
from our third shift is eleven pm to seven thirty am.
So yeah, you got to be mad to make snow
a little bit. But the temperature's got to be twenty
(04:01):
eight degrees at the warmest to turn on the snow guns,
So twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Or colder, and it's great for laying a base, and
then when mother Nature dumps more on top of that,
it perfects things.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Right.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
Yeah, So man made snow is much denser than natural snow.
Natural snow is very light, fluffy, you know, even when
we do get a wet snow natural snowfall. Man made
snow is thicker, denser than that, So it's actually really nice.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
You know.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
The best, I mean, the perfect request if I could
put one in for Mother Nature, is let us make
about ten inches of base. Why don't you, you know,
mother Nature, please dump down about another five ten inches
of snow will make another five to ten inches a
base on top of it. And what that does is
actually when we run our groomers over the snow for
skiers' the tiller will process the snow and mix that
(04:53):
natural snow with the man made and it actually creates
an overall better product for skiing on the slopes or
downhill tubing, so which is really awesome.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
One of the top five winter activities in the Gaylord,
Michigan area is downhill skiing for the winter time, and
you can take lessons at either a Ziego Resort or
Truetops Resort. And best of all, bread you don't have
to I mean even if you just are up for learning,
you don't have to have gear.
Speaker 6 (05:20):
You can rent gear, right absolutely, we are resorts. You
know we can rent you equipment. You can take a
lesson at Treetops. We have our terrain based learning, so
that's kind of that barrier to entry for those that
have never skied or snowboarded. It's a great way to
get get your foot in the door with the sport.
It's friendly, it's easy. You know, our instructors do a
(05:42):
phenomenal job to make sure that you know, we're creating
the sport, you know, for fun. We're making sure that
people are entertaining themselves while they're doing it.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Okay, Chrissy, are you a skier or a snowboarder or both.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
I'm fairly uncoordinated. Actually I'm a snow shoer.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
So sure, okay, just say okay, you fell once and
that's it.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
I'm done, or you know, I'm I'm truly an uncoordinated person.
I am all about snowshoeing, winter rafting. I'm a silent sports.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Shorter distance to fall because you're not going down a
hill necessarily when you're snowshoeing.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
I think I really need to look into this cool
school thing though.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, well we're gonna we're gonna talk about that, because
this is a cool school bundle and winter ski and
stay package. It's available through Tree Tops. This is something
new for this year, right Brad.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
It's we've rebranded it a little bit to the Bundle
to the Winter Bundle. But yeah, it's the Cool School
Winter Bundle. Basically, it's our midweek stay and play package
includes everything under the sun or as I say, everything
under the snow. You know, one night's stay, breakfast and
a dinner, voucher, tubing session, terrain based learning for a
(06:50):
one hour group lesson your rental equipment, your chair lift,
and then you also get access to our cross country
and our snowshoe facilities as well. You know, it's a
stop shop. It's an all inclusive, you know, unlimited recreation fun.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
You also have and I want to mention this beyond
the wonderful Cool School Bundle in winter skiing stay packages,
you have other fun activities for the family, sled dog experiences,
guided snowshoe hikes, as Christy was talking about, snowshoeing, horse
drawn sleigh rides, and all kinds of other activitiestreetops dot
(07:26):
com to check it out and to book. As we
are talking here in the end of November, it's important
to be thinking about this now because there's a lot
of winter ahead. It hasn't looked like that, but there's
a lot of winter ahead, So now's the time to
book it and get up north. And I want to
segue you guys from winter activities that involve snow shoeing
(07:49):
or skiing to winter rafting, because this is something a
lot of people Christy I don't think about very much.
I don't think they think about it so often. But this,
this is really cool. I mean, you've got the Sturgeon River.
I know you've got the Pigeon River, but the Sturgeon
River is where the win Winter rafting is really popular.
Let's talk about that, especially if people have never done
(08:10):
this before. I mean, this is not risk your life
whitewater rafting.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Right, absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
The first thing I always tell people is you are
not going to get wet, and they don't tend to
believe me.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
But the odnes I don't believe you.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
I'm going to take you.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Then all right, it's good. I'm game for that.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
You genuinely don't get wet. The Sturgeon is the fastest
flowing river in the Lower Peninsula. That doesn't make it
whitewater though it is not. It's not a wet and
wild ride. And you know, the Sturgeon is pretty fast
in the summer, and I know it's where people are
tipping over kayaks and things like that. But when you
go on these rafting trips, you're with a guide. They're
(08:50):
very experienced. The water is nice and mellow. They take
you down a pretty gentle section of the Sturgeon and
I can't tell you enough how incredibly beautiful it is.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
You have the.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Snow draped branches hanging over your head, and there's all
these ice formations in the water, and the guide will
literally tell you paddle on the left, paddle on the right.
Relax easy enough, it really is. It's close to a
floating picnic. It's as close to a floating picnic as
you're ever.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Going to get.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
How do people schedule a winter rafting, especially if they
might maybe want to go after the holidays.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
What's the best way to do that?
Speaker 4 (09:25):
So you just need to go a little bit north
of Gaylord Wolverine has Sturgeon River Paddle Sports and then
Indian River has Big Bear Adventures. They're two outfitters that
are very experienced. They do an outstanding job. I know.
Sturgeon River Paddle Sports has groups of six that can
go out in a raft together. So it's a great
(09:45):
family activity. It's great for team building friends anybody.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, I want to say something too, which is really important.
You just maybe spend a lot of money buying Christmas presents.
You probably bought a lot of this online, so you're thinking,
how can.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
I support this eight State of Michigan.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
You can book travel and be involved in the state
of Michigan in the winter time. You can spend your
dollars locally, support resorts like treetops like i'd Seago resort
like the Sturgeon River place in Wolverine. I mean, think
about this, you guys. This is so easy to do
and we take it for granted. But this is right
in our backyard, a couple hour drive from Grand Rapids,
(10:22):
and it's so great. I'm gonna jump over wine walks
in moonlit wanderings because we'll come back to that before
we run out of time. But I want to look
at extreme tubing.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
What's up with that? Is that? You bred? I mean,
I didn't know I've heard of tubing. Extreme tubing.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
It is extreme tubing.
Speaker 6 (10:39):
It is not not for the faint of heart, but
it is fun, it is safe, it is quite enjoyable. Yeah,
we have two side by side tubing runs that are
separated by a conveyor lift, so you don't have to
hike back up to the top. You just walk right
onto the conveyor and we'll pull you right up the
(11:00):
top for the next run.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Both runs.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
One is a little bit steeper and has a couple
of little mellow twists in it. The other one is
just a nice, big, wide, open bowl. We can send
down multiple people together.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
We can spin you. We can you.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Know, ben interesting now we're talking.
Speaker 6 (11:16):
We had one one staff member last year nicknamed Johnny Tornado. Okay,
so I think you can see when we're talking about
spinning where he earned that nickname.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
I think he spun my tube.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
I'm pretty sure. Yeah, yeah, he got a thrill out
of that.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
But yeah, we on one of the runs, you can
get up to about thirty seven miles an hour going
down in the right conditions.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Are you like blasting Metallica and five finger death Punch
on the hills?
Speaker 5 (11:42):
We don't have speakers out there, Okay, yeah, you might want.
It's in the works well.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Especially in a spinning part. Extreme tubing again available at
Treetops Resort. Treetopsresort dot Com at Sego Resort also offers
downhill to being especially if you want to do like
the laid back old people too. That's available as well.
And did I really just say that on the radio?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah? I did.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Brad Jacobsen is where us director of ski operations at
Treetops treetops dot com.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Also Christy Walcott.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Director of marketing and Communications at Gailard Michigan dot net
and the person who keeps Paul Beach now her boss
in line most days.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Of the week.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Except I do my best, she.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Does her her best. Shout out to our buddy Polly.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
He has been on this program before, and Christy, you're
filling in more than capably doing a great job. Moon
lit wanderings and wine walks. This is really cool. And
I do want to say, from firsthand experience the nighttime
at Treetops, having been there with the moon and just
just the stillness of it, it's so beautiful. But you
(12:50):
add a nice glass of wine or a bottle of
wine and wandering around, especially if you've got snow shoes.
Is there a skill to this, Christy that I'm not aware?
Speaker 4 (13:01):
I have to say this is much more my speed
than downhill skiing or extreme tubing, so this is great.
The wine walks are so much fun. The midnight well
I guess they're not midnight, but the moonlight strolls are
awesome too. Those are great things because you can do
them if we're a little bit low on snow, or
even if you're not a snow shoer and you're just
(13:21):
more comfortable in hiking boots. It's something you can go
out and do. Treetops and not Seego both have different options,
so there's a variety of things you can do at
the two resorts. But the nice thing about it is
you don't have to have gear, you don't have to
have any special skills for it. You can rent what
you need right there, and to just be outside on
the grounds is one of the most beautiful things. You
(13:43):
see parts of the resort that you don't even know
are there, and they're both just absolutely stunning. When you
get some of the wine walks in there or front,
they're usually during the day though that makes a little
more sense.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah, keep it during the day.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Well, you could do your own secret one walk at night.
Just just tell the person at the treetops desk that
you're going out. Send the dogs out for me. If
we're not back by three am.
Speaker 6 (14:07):
There's wave at the snow groomer wave at the snow there.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
You know there's something about when you visit the Galard,
Michigan area, I sense my blood pressure lowering. It's just
a wonderful way to unplug.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
You're going to have the craziness of the holidays.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Treetops dot com, Treetopsresort dot com and also Galardmichigan dot net.
I want to mention that your website has links to treetops,
has links to so many great things to do. It
is a wonderful website and you can get lost in
there going Okay, we've got our list of things to
do when we are in the Galard, Michigan area and
the downtown. I mentioned this to you earlier as well.
(14:45):
Downtown Gaillard area is just an exciting place to be.
There's so much going on, so many great restaurants, You've
got breweries. It's if you haven't been there in a while,
it's really highly recommended that you put it on your
list for winter travel. Anything else I didn't add, Christy
or Brad.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
There's one thing talking about downtown, there's one thing during
the winter and Galor that you can't miss also, and
that's the ice tree. So we have an iconic ice
tree on the courthouse lawn and it's something that's been there.
I think it started in the fifties or sixties, and
it's just one of those things people go to. You
go see the ice tree, you see how big it is,
(15:23):
You get your picture taken in front of it. It
does have a sign that it is the world's largest
ice tree, and no one's disputing that, So you judge
for yourself.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Brad, you were going to say something, yeah, I've got
you know.
Speaker 6 (15:35):
The other thing I'd like to mention is just that
there's something for everybody, you know, all ages, grandparents, even
great grandparents, young kids. There's something to do, you know,
tubing the tbl take a lesson, go snowshoeting, these guided
snowshoe hikes, you know, get out, recreate. It's something everybody
of all ages can participate in. And I just remembered
(15:58):
as well. We actually we had our oldest tubing remember
last year, go down the tubing hill at ninety three
years old. Ninety three years old.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Please tell me you had a video of that.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
I do not.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
I got called over after the lady went down. She
went down one time with her great grandson.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I absolutely loved this woman.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
She went down and I got I got the call.
I went over and she was all smiles. They said
you're gonna go again. She goes, Nope, I'm a one
and done. Okay, well, good for her.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
So if you have a parent or grandparent that's at
least ninety four and up, this is the challenge treetops
dot com. But their stay, you will tell that you
know what, you want to watch that person have a smile,
envelop their whole space. You tell them, hey, grandpa, we're
going to being at treetops. That's perfect, absolutely perfect. You guys,
(16:46):
I could talk forever, but thank you so much. We're
going to send people to Galard Michigan dot net and
also treetops dot com and head North folks to the
Great Gaylord Michigan area.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Thank you, Christy Walcott, thank you so much for me
in here.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Thank you Phil.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Also thank you to Brad Jacobson. Brad Jacobson is director
of ski Operations at Treetop. Christie is structure of Marketing
and Communications for Gillard Michigan dot Net. With us on
this segment of West Michigan Weekend from Iheartradios you've.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend
is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly program designed to inform and enlighten on a
wide range of public policy issues, as well as news
and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome in.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
It's West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio. Thank you so much
for tuning in. I am your host, Phil Tower. Glad
you're tuned in across all of our iHeartRadio stations throughout
the West Michigan region. And we remind you we are
a podcast as well at woodradio dot com after you
hear us on the radio. Is my pleasure to welcome
(00:37):
to our program in this segment. This is kind of
a bi annual thing. I think that means twice a year.
Brad Jacobson is director of ski Operations with Treetops in
Beautiful Galard, Michigan treetops dot com, and Christy Walcott is
director of Marketing and Communications with the Gaylord Conventions and
Visitors Bureau Gaylord Michigan dot net. For everything you need
(01:00):
to know, they are in studio with me sitting. It
seems like you guys are like ten feet away from it,
but we're in a smaller, different studio. How are you guys,
by the way.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Doing fantastic phil How are you all comfortable in prime
for the show?
Speaker 5 (01:14):
Oh, Peachy, absolutely, Preddie or Rock.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I haven't heard that description in a while.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
There are all kinds of cool things to do in Galer,
Michigan this winter, and I'm going to start with you,
Christy Walcott. I have spent many times in Galer in
the winter, in the summer, different times of the year,
and I always enjoy visiting it because it's one of
those areas with so many popular spots in Michigan, it's
(01:41):
easy to forget how great it is in the middle
of Michigan and really a short drive from West Michigan
or Detroit. But we wanted to focus on some cool
things to do in Galer this winter. And it is
not necessarily all snow reliant. Is that safe to say?
Speaker 4 (01:58):
That is absolutely true. While we bill ourselves as being
all outdoors and obviously we love winter and all of
our winter activities, there's a lot of things to do
even before it snows, when we're waiting for that snow
to finally come, or if it's a year with a
little bit lighter of a snowfall. So we've got you
covered no matter what the weather does in Gailard.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
And you've got all kinds of great activities, including involving snow, snowshoeing,
downhill ski lessons, You've got incredible trails, you've got the river,
and you've got winter rafting, which I know people have
done this. This is down the Sturgeon River, which is
I would assume a little more mild in the winter time, perhaps,
(02:37):
you know, as long as it's not breezy and cold.
And then wine walks and moonlit wanderings, which sounds wonderful
if you're in the doghouse in your marriage, I would
say you should book that right now. And extreme tubing
where to start? And I guess I wanted to start
with snowshoeing. And let's talk about snow because you can
(02:59):
make no Brad Jacobson, when it's cold out, you can
you can artificially cover the slopes at tree tops, right
And I was curious about that when I was thinking
about talking with you today. I mean, this is kind
of a science that you guys have gotten down after
years of perfectingness.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
Yeah, we've making snow as the process of taking high
pressure water and smashing it with compressed air and putting
a fan behind it and blowing at about one hundred
and fifty feet out and about fifty feet up in
the air. And what mother nature do the rest, providing
the cold temperatures, you know, in the simplest form. The
science behind it is really amazing. Our staff or snowmakers,
(03:40):
they make snow, but in a little bit of a way,
I call them mad scientists because you are creating, you know,
creating a product, you know, and at the same time
we're doing it all hours of the evening up you know,
from our third shift is eleven pm to seven thirty am.
So yeah, you got to be mad to make snow
a little bit. But the temperature's got to be twenty
(04:01):
eight degrees at the warmest to turn on the snow guns,
So twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Or colder, and it's great for laying a base, and
then when mother Nature dumps more on top of that,
it perfects things.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Right.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
Yeah, So man made snow is much denser than natural snow.
Natural snow is very light, fluffy, you know, even when
we do get a wet snow natural snowfall. Man made
snow is thicker, denser than that, So it's actually really nice.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
You know.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
The best, I mean, the perfect request if I could
put one in for Mother Nature, is let us make
about ten inches of base. Why don't you, you know,
mother Nature, please dump down about another five ten inches
of snow will make another five to ten inches a
base on top of it. And what that does is
actually when we run our groomers over the snow for
skiers' the tiller will process the snow and mix that
(04:53):
natural snow with the man made and it actually creates
an overall better product for skiing on the slopes or
downhill tubing, so which is really awesome.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
One of the top five winter activities in the Gaylord,
Michigan area is downhill skiing for the winter time, and
you can take lessons at either a Ziego Resort or
Truetops Resort. And best of all, bread you don't have
to I mean even if you just are up for learning,
you don't have to have gear.
Speaker 6 (05:20):
You can rent gear, right absolutely, we are resorts. You
know we can rent you equipment. You can take a
lesson at Treetops. We have our terrain based learning, so
that's kind of that barrier to entry for those that
have never skied or snowboarded. It's a great way to
get get your foot in the door with the sport.
It's friendly, it's easy. You know, our instructors do a
(05:42):
phenomenal job to make sure that you know, we're creating
the sport, you know, for fun. We're making sure that
people are entertaining themselves while they're doing it.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Okay, Chrissy, are you a skier or a snowboarder or both.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
I'm fairly uncoordinated. Actually I'm a snow shoer.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
So sure, okay, just say okay, you fell once and
that's it.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
I'm done, or you know, I'm I'm truly an uncoordinated person.
I am all about snowshoeing, winter rafting. I'm a silent sports.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Shorter distance to fall because you're not going down a
hill necessarily when you're snowshoeing.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
I think I really need to look into this cool
school thing though.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, well we're gonna we're gonna talk about that, because
this is a cool school bundle and winter ski and
stay package. It's available through Tree Tops. This is something
new for this year, right Brad.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
It's we've rebranded it a little bit to the Bundle
to the Winter Bundle. But yeah, it's the Cool School
Winter Bundle. Basically, it's our midweek stay and play package
includes everything under the sun or as I say, everything
under the snow. You know, one night's stay, breakfast and
a dinner, voucher, tubing session, terrain based learning for a
(06:50):
one hour group lesson your rental equipment, your chair lift,
and then you also get access to our cross country
and our snowshoe facilities as well. You know, it's a
stop shop. It's an all inclusive, you know, unlimited recreation fun.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
You also have and I want to mention this beyond
the wonderful Cool School Bundle in winter skiing stay packages,
you have other fun activities for the family, sled dog experiences,
guided snowshoe hikes, as Christy was talking about, snowshoeing, horse
drawn sleigh rides, and all kinds of other activitiestreetops dot
(07:26):
com to check it out and to book. As we
are talking here in the end of November, it's important
to be thinking about this now because there's a lot
of winter ahead. It hasn't looked like that, but there's
a lot of winter ahead, So now's the time to
book it and get up north. And I want to
segue you guys from winter activities that involve snow shoeing
(07:49):
or skiing to winter rafting, because this is something a
lot of people Christy I don't think about very much.
I don't think they think about it so often. But this,
this is really cool. I mean, you've got the Sturgeon River.
I know you've got the Pigeon River, but the Sturgeon
River is where the win Winter rafting is really popular.
Let's talk about that, especially if people have never done
(08:10):
this before. I mean, this is not risk your life
whitewater rafting.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Right, absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
The first thing I always tell people is you are
not going to get wet, and they don't tend to
believe me.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
But the odnes I don't believe you.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
I'm going to take you.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Then all right, it's good. I'm game for that.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
You genuinely don't get wet. The Sturgeon is the fastest
flowing river in the Lower Peninsula. That doesn't make it
whitewater though it is not. It's not a wet and
wild ride. And you know, the Sturgeon is pretty fast
in the summer, and I know it's where people are
tipping over kayaks and things like that. But when you
go on these rafting trips, you're with a guide. They're
(08:50):
very experienced. The water is nice and mellow. They take
you down a pretty gentle section of the Sturgeon and
I can't tell you enough how incredibly beautiful it is.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
You have the.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Snow draped branches hanging over your head, and there's all
these ice formations in the water, and the guide will
literally tell you paddle on the left, paddle on the right.
Relax easy enough, it really is. It's close to a
floating picnic. It's as close to a floating picnic as
you're ever.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Going to get.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
How do people schedule a winter rafting, especially if they
might maybe want to go after the holidays.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
What's the best way to do that?
Speaker 4 (09:25):
So you just need to go a little bit north
of Gaylord Wolverine has Sturgeon River Paddle Sports and then
Indian River has Big Bear Adventures. They're two outfitters that
are very experienced. They do an outstanding job. I know.
Sturgeon River Paddle Sports has groups of six that can
go out in a raft together. So it's a great
(09:45):
family activity. It's great for team building friends anybody.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, I want to say something too, which is really important.
You just maybe spend a lot of money buying Christmas presents.
You probably bought a lot of this online, so you're thinking,
how can.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
I support this eight State of Michigan.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
You can book travel and be involved in the state
of Michigan in the winter time. You can spend your
dollars locally, support resorts like treetops like i'd Seago resort
like the Sturgeon River place in Wolverine. I mean, think
about this, you guys. This is so easy to do
and we take it for granted. But this is right
in our backyard, a couple hour drive from Grand Rapids,
(10:22):
and it's so great. I'm gonna jump over wine walks
in moonlit wanderings because we'll come back to that before
we run out of time. But I want to look
at extreme tubing.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
What's up with that? Is that? You bred? I mean,
I didn't know I've heard of tubing. Extreme tubing.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
It is extreme tubing.
Speaker 6 (10:39):
It is not not for the faint of heart, but
it is fun, it is safe, it is quite enjoyable. Yeah,
we have two side by side tubing runs that are
separated by a conveyor lift, so you don't have to
hike back up to the top. You just walk right
onto the conveyor and we'll pull you right up the
(11:00):
top for the next run.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Both runs.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
One is a little bit steeper and has a couple
of little mellow twists in it. The other one is
just a nice, big, wide, open bowl. We can send
down multiple people together.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
We can spin you. We can you.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Know, ben interesting now we're talking.
Speaker 6 (11:16):
We had one one staff member last year nicknamed Johnny Tornado. Okay,
so I think you can see when we're talking about
spinning where he earned that nickname.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
I think he spun my tube.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
I'm pretty sure. Yeah, yeah, he got a thrill out
of that.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
But yeah, we on one of the runs, you can
get up to about thirty seven miles an hour going
down in the right conditions.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Are you like blasting Metallica and five finger death Punch
on the hills?
Speaker 5 (11:42):
We don't have speakers out there, Okay, yeah, you might want.
It's in the works well.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Especially in a spinning part. Extreme tubing again available at
Treetops Resort. Treetopsresort dot Com at Sego Resort also offers
downhill to being especially if you want to do like
the laid back old people too. That's available as well.
And did I really just say that on the radio?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah? I did.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Brad Jacobsen is where us director of ski operations at
Treetops treetops dot com.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Also Christy Walcott.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Director of marketing and Communications at Gailard Michigan dot net
and the person who keeps Paul Beach now her boss
in line most days.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Of the week.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Except I do my best, she.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Does her her best. Shout out to our buddy Polly.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
He has been on this program before, and Christy, you're
filling in more than capably doing a great job. Moon
lit wanderings and wine walks. This is really cool. And
I do want to say, from firsthand experience the nighttime
at Treetops, having been there with the moon and just
just the stillness of it, it's so beautiful. But you
(12:50):
add a nice glass of wine or a bottle of
wine and wandering around, especially if you've got snow shoes.
Is there a skill to this, Christy that I'm not aware?
Speaker 4 (13:01):
I have to say this is much more my speed
than downhill skiing or extreme tubing, so this is great.
The wine walks are so much fun. The midnight well
I guess they're not midnight, but the moonlight strolls are
awesome too. Those are great things because you can do
them if we're a little bit low on snow, or
even if you're not a snow shoer and you're just
(13:21):
more comfortable in hiking boots. It's something you can go
out and do. Treetops and not Seego both have different options,
so there's a variety of things you can do at
the two resorts. But the nice thing about it is
you don't have to have gear, you don't have to
have any special skills for it. You can rent what
you need right there, and to just be outside on
the grounds is one of the most beautiful things. You
(13:43):
see parts of the resort that you don't even know
are there, and they're both just absolutely stunning. When you
get some of the wine walks in there or front,
they're usually during the day though that makes a little
more sense.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah, keep it during the day.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Well, you could do your own secret one walk at night.
Just just tell the person at the treetops desk that
you're going out. Send the dogs out for me. If
we're not back by three am.
Speaker 6 (14:07):
There's wave at the snow groomer wave at the snow there.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
You know there's something about when you visit the Galard,
Michigan area, I sense my blood pressure lowering. It's just
a wonderful way to unplug.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
You're going to have the craziness of the holidays.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Treetops dot com, Treetopsresort dot com and also Galardmichigan dot net.
I want to mention that your website has links to treetops,
has links to so many great things to do. It
is a wonderful website and you can get lost in
there going Okay, we've got our list of things to
do when we are in the Galard, Michigan area and
the downtown. I mentioned this to you earlier as well.
(14:45):
Downtown Gaillard area is just an exciting place to be.
There's so much going on, so many great restaurants, You've
got breweries. It's if you haven't been there in a while,
it's really highly recommended that you put it on your
list for winter travel. Anything else I didn't add, Christy
or Brad.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
There's one thing talking about downtown, there's one thing during
the winter and Galor that you can't miss also, and
that's the ice tree. So we have an iconic ice
tree on the courthouse lawn and it's something that's been there.
I think it started in the fifties or sixties, and
it's just one of those things people go to. You
go see the ice tree, you see how big it is,
(15:23):
You get your picture taken in front of it. It
does have a sign that it is the world's largest
ice tree, and no one's disputing that, So you judge
for yourself.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Brad, you were going to say something, yeah, I've got
you know.
Speaker 6 (15:35):
The other thing I'd like to mention is just that
there's something for everybody, you know, all ages, grandparents, even
great grandparents, young kids. There's something to do, you know,
tubing the tbl take a lesson, go snowshoeting, these guided
snowshoe hikes, you know, get out, recreate. It's something everybody
of all ages can participate in. And I just remembered
(15:58):
as well. We actually we had our oldest tubing remember
last year, go down the tubing hill at ninety three
years old. Ninety three years old.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Please tell me you had a video of that.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
I do not.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
I got called over after the lady went down. She
went down one time with her great grandson.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I absolutely loved this woman.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
She went down and I got I got the call.
I went over and she was all smiles. They said
you're gonna go again. She goes, Nope, I'm a one
and done. Okay, well, good for her.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
So if you have a parent or grandparent that's at
least ninety four and up, this is the challenge treetops
dot com. But their stay, you will tell that you
know what, you want to watch that person have a smile,
envelop their whole space. You tell them, hey, grandpa, we're
going to being at treetops. That's perfect, absolutely perfect. You guys,
(16:46):
I could talk forever, but thank you so much. We're
going to send people to Galard Michigan dot net and
also treetops dot com and head North folks to the
Great Gaylord Michigan area.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Thank you, Christy Walcott, thank you so much for me
in here.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Thank you Phil.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Also thank you to Brad Jacobson. Brad Jacobson is director
of ski Operations at Treetop. Christie is structure of Marketing
and Communications for Gillard Michigan dot Net. With us on
this segment of West Michigan Weekend from Iheartradios you've.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend
is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio
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