February 16-21, 2005 Annual Winter Trip: (61 Photos)

 

61.  As I've mentioned before last year was one of the best years for snowfall at the Sooley Cabin for our annual winter trip to date, 2005 was shaping up to be awesome as well.

 

 

60.  Sooley, Maffer and I left town Wednesday morning under beautiful sunny skies destined to be the first to arrive at the cabin. With the sleds unloaded and still wearing sneakers we did a quick little run around the cabin & potato field. In true Winter Cabin Trip tradition Maffer and I got our sleds stuck within the fist 10 minutes of unloading. Maffer was riding his recently repainted Scandic 503, and I had my '97 Grand Touring 500.

 

 

59.   Sooley was looking forward to his first cabin trip on a machine that wasn't trying to break his back! His '98 Mach 1-700  was a welcome addition but he was still rocking the two Enticers for old time sakes as well as for guests!

 

 

58.    I also brought project Invader along for another test flight. I did a bunch more work this year but I had to replace the fuel lines in the shed as my Canadian Tire gas lines installed last year went hard as a rock, cracked and leaked.

 

 

57.  With that out of the way, we spent the day getting the cabin ready and scouting out some jumps near Highwaters. Snow conditions weren't crazy but it was pretty easy to get around and there was lots of snow in the woods.

 

 

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55.  Bill and Long arrived Thursday morning and we made tracks carving up as much snow as we could with an imposing forecast of rain for Friday. Bill had his Yamaha Vmax 700 and his new RX1 with him, Long was riding a rental Skidoo Grand Touring 800 triple. We did a lot of jumps and burned a lot of gas, unfortunately not taking time for a single pic!

 

 

54.   That evening on a quick night run up the pole line Long tagged a rock with the right ski of his rental Skidoo and bent up the ADSA trailing arm in the front suspension.

 

 

53.  Luckily one of the crew managed to pick up a replacement part in town on his way to the cabin and the sled was repaired in no time!

 

 

52.  Friday and Adam arrived with his 600cc Arctic Cat rental beast. The sled was studded which was a good thing given the glare ice conditions on the pond, but the rear suspension was shot and would flatten to the ground when Adam rode it!

 

 

51.  Later that day the rain came as forecasted but we dressed up anyway and got in a little riding while there was water on the ice to keep the liquid cooled sleds from overheating.

 

 

50.  With so much water on the pond Sooley broke out the ol' Ice-Water Skis and went for a run up the pond towed by Long and his freshly repaired sled. 

 

 

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48.  These were created during the 1998 winter trip and at that time used my 1989 Argo 6x6 as tow vehicle.

 

 

47.  Ronnie, family and dog arrived Friday evening and prepared the bunk house for their stay, Long made sure three was plenty of heat so they wouldn't be cold.

 

 

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43.  The rain ended overnight and soon after the temperature plummeted freezing all water on the ice completely solid Saturday morning. The ponds were now glare ice with zero traction or cooling for the liquid cooled sleds, and what little snow that was left in the woods froze hard as a rock.

 

 

42.   Later that morning French and Todd arrived, they just came back from a sled and stay overnight trip in Gander where they logged some decent miles on the sleds. Todd recently sold his Yamaha Viper and picked up this brand new 2005 Skidoo REV 500ss.

 

 

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38.  Even though snowmobiling conditions were not great, we made the best of the day by running the fan cooled sleds to the top of the pond to go ice fishing and have a fire in our fire pit.

 

 

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36.   This year we had a lend of my uncles 8" gas powered auger which was awesome for drilling ice fishing holes!

 

 

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26.  Saturday afternoon the girls showed up just in time for a fire, BBQ and later a few brew.

 

 

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20.   Saturday night we rejuvenated our fire at the top of the pond with all hands on deck

 

 

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17.  Sunday morning came all to quick but it brought sunny skies & flurries, cold temps and a kick ass breakfast.

 

 

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12.   Throughout the day Sunday we had a few flurries, it was barely enough to keep the sleds cool riding up the ponds, but we made a day of it riding.

 

 

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4.   By Sunday afternoon we had the cabin cleaned up it was time to load up and head for home.

 

 

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1.  It wasn't the best year weather-wise, those of us who got to the cabin early enjoyed great snowmobiling but everyone still had a great time!

Cheers, MIKE

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