60.   For supper Lester brought a beautiful beef tenderloin which Janes put in the oven on a low heat for most of the afternoon. Broccoli, potato and a beautiful gravy rounded out this absolutely outstanding meal!

59.   After supper we headed back up the pond for a fire in our newly rebuilt fire pit clearing where 20+ years worth of stories and tall tales were shared among awesome friends.

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53.   With the temperature dropping Saturday's fresh snow was sticking to the machines turning project Foreman into a fossil fuel burning snowball!

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51.   Sunday morning arrived and with it cold temps coupled with beautiful clear sunny skies. After a late breakfast of bacon, sausages, and scrambled eggs we suited up for a day in the woods.

50.   Rip up the pond on Project Foreman. At the top of the pond I actually ran out of gas spinning donuts! A quick switch to reserve and a run back to the shed for fuel had me back riding in short order.

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48.   Lester, AJ, Ronnie, Sooley and Maffer.

47.   Same with Sooley swapped for me.

46.   After weeks of trash talk of who's studded bike would be faster Ronnie and Maffer finally lined up for the big race. Maffer took the lead out of the hole and held it to the end of the track but not by much!

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44.   Ronnie, A.J. Janes and Kim had to head back to town Sunday afternoon which left just Sooley, Maffer, Lester and I for the remainder of the day.

43.   Not wanting to waste a moment of the beautiful sunny skies we headed back to the pond to burn some gas on the bikes while Sooley finished up ice fishing, particularly looking for the bag of trout that fell off the skidoo. Lester and I had a blast spinning huge long loops out across the snow covered glare ice, flying along then cutting the bars while keeping the gas held WFO!

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40.   Supper Sunday consisted of Maffer's awesome homemade turkey soup. After supper Lester packed up and headed back to town for a family commitment leaving just the three original crew from the 1998 inaugural trip, L-R: Me, Maffer and Sooley.

39.   With significant snowfall in the forecast for Monday night into Tuesday I regretted the decision to leave my Skidoo at home for this trip. Maffer, Sooley and I hopped in the truck and ran back to town and picked up my sled Project Powertek REV. Maffer's 2006 REV 500ss and the Sooley family machines were already on site. Even though riding conditions would still not be ideal I may at least burn last year's gas out of the machine!

38.  Brothers in arms ready to rip!

37.   After we got hack to the cabin we took advantage of the perfectly still (but freezing cold -15ºC) night and headed out for a midnight ATV ride with the electronic coyote caller. We made a number of setups along the pole line and actually found some fresh tracks ob the way back which were potentially coming towards the caller!

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35.   For breakfast Monday morning we opted for the easy route and headed to Monty's Place in Whitbourne to take advantage of the breakfast special and enjoy a quick break from cooking and washing dishes.

34.   Returning to the cabin we decided to pass away a day in the woods working on our up the pond ATV trail originally started over 10 years ago. Sooley, French and I trimmed back the grown in first section of trail this past May 24th weekend, so we continued the work clearing deadfalls to the end of the original trail near the old shanty clearing.

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30.   My trusty old $100 Princess Auto rebuilt Poulan Chainsaw actually ran surprisingly well making quick work of deadfalls along the trail.  

29.  In the afternoon we pressed on cutting new trail further along the ridge paralleling the pond.

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26.   Bike run on the new section of trail. The hill is a bit of a beast and required winching to make it back up. We'll have to make some further repairs later when the snow melts.

25.   Other than Sooley popping a tire on the box cart coming in the trail, the day went remarkably well. We got the path re-opened to the shanty clearing and then created about 500 yards of brand new trail which has us near the first neck in the pond.

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23.   Monday evening's supper consisted of BBQ steak and Maffer's awesome Haloumi grilling cheese which was a first for me but definitely wont be my last time trying it!

22.   As forecast, Tuesday morning arrived with about 10-15cm of fresh fallen snow which meant I'd finally get to burn some gas in Project REV. I made some quick rips up the pond Monday but there really wasn't enough snow for travelling on the pole line.

21.   Even with the new snow conditions were far from ideal. Most years I wouldn't even bother riding the sled but with such mild weather all winter I'm glad I took advantage of what we had. So unfortunately there wont be any water skipping, jumping, or hill climbing footage on this trip which sucks but we can't control the weather.

20.   This area of High Waters is traditionally a roadblock when the river opens the ice near the original ATV trail on the right hand side. Now the new Nalcor transmission line and service road is providing a permanent bypass around this formerly very tangly section of trail.

19.   Highwaters looks frozen but with unpredictable currents and therefore thin ice I didn't bother riding these great waterways, especially alone. We will have to wait for next year and hopefully a properly cold winter to create safe ice.

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16.   REV rip up the pond.

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14.   This little gully on back of Sooley's pond is also a favourite for water skipping in years past, this year it's completely un-rideable as there is no where safe to run out after the open water with this year's sketchy ice.

13.   With fresh fallen snow on the ground we got out the blade and mounted it to Sooley's trusty Honda Fourtrax 300 4x4 and got to work clearing the driveway.

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11.   With the driveway cleared we decided to tackle fixing the tire on the box trailer. The sidewall of the old tire was torn open so repairing or patching was out of the question. With a correct size replacement tire on a wrong size rim we set about changing over tires old school by breaking down the bead with a 2x4 & bottle jack and using tire irons to swap tires.

10.   It was definitely a PITA job and not something to tackle everyday, but it passed away the afternoon and got the box trailer all fixed up for zero dollars.

9.   The final supper of our trip was a Moose roast I kept especially for this excursion from my Southern Shore moose hunt back in October. I put it in the oven on a low heat all day with seasoning and onions, it literally fell apart as we sliced it. The roast was paired with mashed potato, mashed turnip, carrots and gravy.

8.   After supper Sooley and I made a Tim Horton's run to Whitbourne then piddled around the garage for the evening. We installed a new chain on Maffer's saw, did some random repair work and planned out the rebuild of the wood hauling cart which lost a wheel & hub during last winter's annual cabin trip.

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6.   Wednesday morning brought overcast skies but milder temperatures as we took a few last snowmobile rips up the pond before cleaning the cabin and packing the trucks for the drive home.

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1.   Our 20th annual winter trip came to a close and we were all pretty damn happy with the trip. Undoubtedly we picked the best weekend of the year as cold temps made the pond safe which was not the case in the weeks leading up to the trip nor those that followed. As always the trip was made memorable by great friends recalling great memories from the last 20 years and creating fresh ones this year. That's what really makes it a truly awesome adventure.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith