zr580cat
01-18-2005, 11:31 AM
We've had this trip planned for a long time and we made all preparations to ensure that this would be our most memorable dream trip.
The plan:
1. Load the sleds and pack the truck on Wed night.
2. On the road Thursday morning at 6AM.
3. Arrive at our destination near Jellicoe by 1PM and ride.
4. Ride all day Friday
5. Ride on Saturday
6. Up early Sunday, ride a few hours, load up, head home.
Don't things always go as planned? :sarcasm:
Wednesday we got nailed with snow in MN, so we all ended up doing snow removal instead of loading/packing.
Thursday morning, I was out at 4AM to ensure we'd still be on time. Everyone showed up to help out and at 5:45AM, the only thing left to do was tie down the sleds. Things are looking good.
I just bought this trailer and this is the first time I've used it. It's a 4place with the tie-down slides that run all the way from front to back. I don't know if it's an adjustment thing, but when they were tightened all the way, 3 of the 4 sleds were still loose. We had to cut pieces of plywood to put under the skis to tighten them. We messed around in the cold, in the dark, using a flashlight for an hour. :cussing: Finally on the road at 7AM.
Border crossing went well. In Thunder Bay, we wasted some time taking a couple wrong turns trying to find The Beer Store. Once we found The Beer Store (Yes, that's what it's called!) we picked up our Labatt's Blue, Molson, and three matching Labatt's jerseys. This got us into the Canadian spirit. I have to tell you, The Beer Stores are pretty dang cool. :)
From the Trans-Canada Highway, we turned onto 801, which is the final road to the resort. The problem? Three miles of hills and fresh, unplowed powder. Great for a snowmobile, but not the best driving conditions for loaded trucks pulling sleds. We did manage to plow through and make it to the resort without too much trouble.
The resort wasn't plowed either, so the logistics of unloading the sleds and unpacking the trucks took some time. In fact, it was getting dark by this time. My brother-in-law and I decided to take our sleds out for a quick run. We jumped out on the lake and took off. Smart thing to do on an unfamiliar lake in the dark? Probably not, but we did it anyway.
Lots of slush, so after a while, he signaled me to head back in, then he took off back for one last run. I started to turn to follow him, when the slush got the best of me. Buried, I took hold of the grab handles on the skis and started to pull with all my might. Something's gotta give, right? Well, it happened to be a bolt on one of the grab handles. :cussing:
I couldn't do anything with one grab handle, so I had to forget the skis and lift the front end of the sled on top of the slush. I got behind it and pushed while I punched her. Soaking wet and worn out, I headed back to the cabin. On my brother-in-laws last run, he accidentally found open water, but luckily made it through.
Total miles logged for Thursday: 3
We all got up Friday morning with the intention of riding a lot. Because of the extreme cold, only three of the six sleds started. The resort had a heated garage, so we pulled the remaining three in and got to work. By 1PM, all but my Uncle's Indy 500 were running. His battery was dead, so the EFI wouldn't work. He told us to take off while it charged, he'd ride tomorrow. Off to Beardmore we go. :D
My cousins husband has an Indy Classic that was running awesome as long as it wasn't idling. Every time he came to a stop, it would die on him. Then, we'd take turns pulling on it until it started again. A lot of pulls, let me tell you.
The riding was amazing, while we were actually riding. The trails were wide and had huge pines towering over us. It was absolute heaven. Since the groomers weren't out yet and there was a lot of fresh powder, we were having a blast blazing trail. My brother-in-law was leading on his XC700SP when all of a sudden, he just stopped. There was a tree down across the trail, buried under the snow, and it happened to catch his skis. No damage, but while pulling the tree out, the Classic died again. After many pulls, it started and we decided to get it back into the garage. When we got back, the Classic was idling purrrrfect. We shut it off and it started on the 1st pull! :confused:
Am I glad I bought the TXI helmet before we left. On the ride back, everyone else had to ride with their shields cracked open, as they were all frosted up. Did I mention it was extremely cold? When we got back, we decided to stay in and hit the trails tomorrow.
Total miles logged for Friday: 10
Saturday morning, again we got up with the intention to do a lot of riding. My ZR started first, then the Classic started in two pulls! We spent some time, again, starting the other sleds. One by one, we got everyone going. Not sure what time we finally got out, but it was pretty late.
We took off, passed the spot we had gone to the day before, and kept blazing trail. The riding was truly amazing. God's Country up there. Untouched, prestine, just beautiful.
We stopped at an intersection to check our map and figure which way to go, when I noticed that my Uncle was wearing tennis shoes. :bash: He's the guy on the trip that's always on everyone to "put a hat on, zip that jacket up, you're going to catch a cold" and he's out riding in tennis shoes, in deep powder, -20F weather with 20mph winds. I got on him, "what in the #@!! are you doing wearing your tennis shoes out here?" He's a bigger guy and has a bad back, so it's hard for him to get his boots on. He said he was fine and he could keep riding, but we made a group decision to head back.
On the way back, three of us pulled into a sand pit to play for a while. w00t My brother-in-law pointed to this big hill, so I decided to go first. My wimpy track isn't good for deep powder, but I've always done fine in these situations, as my studs will grab if I dig down through the powder all the way. This situation turned out to be a little different than what I'm used to. Where I usually ride, we don't have this much snow. Also, the spot I picked to go up turned out to be a HUGE drift.
I buried my sled sooooo bad. When I jumped off, I thought I was never going to stop. We couldn't move in the deep powder without holding on to the sled. The powder was so deep that we never did touch bottom! The only thing that stopped us from sinking, unfortunately, was our crotches! :ohmy:
The only way to lift the sled was to push it up over our heads. If you really want to know what it felt like, grab a barbell, put on all the weight you have, sit on a bicycle seat with your feet dangling on the sides and lift the barbell over your head. :ohmy: Not fun, so we had to figure out a different way. We ended up laying down so we wouldn't sink, then two of us lifted the front end while the other pushed it over. We did this until the front was facing downhill, then we all pushed while I gave her gas. Finally out after what seemed like an eternity.
Total miles logged for Saturday: 27
The breakdown on the trip:
700 miles of driving for 40 miles of riding.
Super sore from pulling rewinds and pulling out my sled.
Still have chills from the extremely cold weather.
Was it worth it? HECK YEAH!!! The weather was the big reason we didn't log the miles we wanted to, but we can't control that. We made the best of it and would definitely do it again.
If anyone on SW is from the Jellicoe area, I have to tell you that you sure live in paradise when it comes to snowmobiling.
I can't wait for next year!
The plan:
1. Load the sleds and pack the truck on Wed night.
2. On the road Thursday morning at 6AM.
3. Arrive at our destination near Jellicoe by 1PM and ride.
4. Ride all day Friday
5. Ride on Saturday
6. Up early Sunday, ride a few hours, load up, head home.
Don't things always go as planned? :sarcasm:
Wednesday we got nailed with snow in MN, so we all ended up doing snow removal instead of loading/packing.
Thursday morning, I was out at 4AM to ensure we'd still be on time. Everyone showed up to help out and at 5:45AM, the only thing left to do was tie down the sleds. Things are looking good.
I just bought this trailer and this is the first time I've used it. It's a 4place with the tie-down slides that run all the way from front to back. I don't know if it's an adjustment thing, but when they were tightened all the way, 3 of the 4 sleds were still loose. We had to cut pieces of plywood to put under the skis to tighten them. We messed around in the cold, in the dark, using a flashlight for an hour. :cussing: Finally on the road at 7AM.
Border crossing went well. In Thunder Bay, we wasted some time taking a couple wrong turns trying to find The Beer Store. Once we found The Beer Store (Yes, that's what it's called!) we picked up our Labatt's Blue, Molson, and three matching Labatt's jerseys. This got us into the Canadian spirit. I have to tell you, The Beer Stores are pretty dang cool. :)
From the Trans-Canada Highway, we turned onto 801, which is the final road to the resort. The problem? Three miles of hills and fresh, unplowed powder. Great for a snowmobile, but not the best driving conditions for loaded trucks pulling sleds. We did manage to plow through and make it to the resort without too much trouble.
The resort wasn't plowed either, so the logistics of unloading the sleds and unpacking the trucks took some time. In fact, it was getting dark by this time. My brother-in-law and I decided to take our sleds out for a quick run. We jumped out on the lake and took off. Smart thing to do on an unfamiliar lake in the dark? Probably not, but we did it anyway.
Lots of slush, so after a while, he signaled me to head back in, then he took off back for one last run. I started to turn to follow him, when the slush got the best of me. Buried, I took hold of the grab handles on the skis and started to pull with all my might. Something's gotta give, right? Well, it happened to be a bolt on one of the grab handles. :cussing:
I couldn't do anything with one grab handle, so I had to forget the skis and lift the front end of the sled on top of the slush. I got behind it and pushed while I punched her. Soaking wet and worn out, I headed back to the cabin. On my brother-in-laws last run, he accidentally found open water, but luckily made it through.
Total miles logged for Thursday: 3
We all got up Friday morning with the intention of riding a lot. Because of the extreme cold, only three of the six sleds started. The resort had a heated garage, so we pulled the remaining three in and got to work. By 1PM, all but my Uncle's Indy 500 were running. His battery was dead, so the EFI wouldn't work. He told us to take off while it charged, he'd ride tomorrow. Off to Beardmore we go. :D
My cousins husband has an Indy Classic that was running awesome as long as it wasn't idling. Every time he came to a stop, it would die on him. Then, we'd take turns pulling on it until it started again. A lot of pulls, let me tell you.
The riding was amazing, while we were actually riding. The trails were wide and had huge pines towering over us. It was absolute heaven. Since the groomers weren't out yet and there was a lot of fresh powder, we were having a blast blazing trail. My brother-in-law was leading on his XC700SP when all of a sudden, he just stopped. There was a tree down across the trail, buried under the snow, and it happened to catch his skis. No damage, but while pulling the tree out, the Classic died again. After many pulls, it started and we decided to get it back into the garage. When we got back, the Classic was idling purrrrfect. We shut it off and it started on the 1st pull! :confused:
Am I glad I bought the TXI helmet before we left. On the ride back, everyone else had to ride with their shields cracked open, as they were all frosted up. Did I mention it was extremely cold? When we got back, we decided to stay in and hit the trails tomorrow.
Total miles logged for Friday: 10
Saturday morning, again we got up with the intention to do a lot of riding. My ZR started first, then the Classic started in two pulls! We spent some time, again, starting the other sleds. One by one, we got everyone going. Not sure what time we finally got out, but it was pretty late.
We took off, passed the spot we had gone to the day before, and kept blazing trail. The riding was truly amazing. God's Country up there. Untouched, prestine, just beautiful.
We stopped at an intersection to check our map and figure which way to go, when I noticed that my Uncle was wearing tennis shoes. :bash: He's the guy on the trip that's always on everyone to "put a hat on, zip that jacket up, you're going to catch a cold" and he's out riding in tennis shoes, in deep powder, -20F weather with 20mph winds. I got on him, "what in the #@!! are you doing wearing your tennis shoes out here?" He's a bigger guy and has a bad back, so it's hard for him to get his boots on. He said he was fine and he could keep riding, but we made a group decision to head back.
On the way back, three of us pulled into a sand pit to play for a while. w00t My brother-in-law pointed to this big hill, so I decided to go first. My wimpy track isn't good for deep powder, but I've always done fine in these situations, as my studs will grab if I dig down through the powder all the way. This situation turned out to be a little different than what I'm used to. Where I usually ride, we don't have this much snow. Also, the spot I picked to go up turned out to be a HUGE drift.
I buried my sled sooooo bad. When I jumped off, I thought I was never going to stop. We couldn't move in the deep powder without holding on to the sled. The powder was so deep that we never did touch bottom! The only thing that stopped us from sinking, unfortunately, was our crotches! :ohmy:
The only way to lift the sled was to push it up over our heads. If you really want to know what it felt like, grab a barbell, put on all the weight you have, sit on a bicycle seat with your feet dangling on the sides and lift the barbell over your head. :ohmy: Not fun, so we had to figure out a different way. We ended up laying down so we wouldn't sink, then two of us lifted the front end while the other pushed it over. We did this until the front was facing downhill, then we all pushed while I gave her gas. Finally out after what seemed like an eternity.
Total miles logged for Saturday: 27
The breakdown on the trip:
700 miles of driving for 40 miles of riding.
Super sore from pulling rewinds and pulling out my sled.
Still have chills from the extremely cold weather.
Was it worth it? HECK YEAH!!! The weather was the big reason we didn't log the miles we wanted to, but we can't control that. We made the best of it and would definitely do it again.
If anyone on SW is from the Jellicoe area, I have to tell you that you sure live in paradise when it comes to snowmobiling.
I can't wait for next year!