29.   The 2004 Annual Winter Trip to the Sooley family cabin near Whitbourne was a milestone in many respects. It was far from being the first annual cabin trip as we've been doing this now since 1998.

28.   However this was the first year that most of the crew their own snowmobiles! In previous years only Sooley and Bill had sleds, last year Maffer purchased a used 1994 Scandic 503 & I had a loan of a my uncle's Scandic 377. Before that I had bring my ATV and/or Dad's ARGO 6x6.

27.   In the fall, French purchased a brand new Yamaha Venture 700 and I bought a used '97 Grand Touring 500. Long had a rental Skidoo MXZ 700, Adam showed up with a rental Polaris 500. Todd rounded out the group arriving to the cabin with his 2004 Yamaha RX-1.

26.   This is also the first year we captured the trip with digital cameras, this eventually lead to the creation of the website you see here today! There are very few traditional photographs still kicking around from previous trips.

25.   As usual this trip started out a little tangly. Bill was still in town on the first night due to work commitments but one of the boys towed his '97 Vmax 700 out to the cabin for him. After unloading the sled that evening, Maffer took it for a run up the pond following the rest of the crew. On the way back from Highwaters Maffer started off from a stop half way up a big hill on the pole line. When he did the primary clutch on Bill's V-Max exploded into a hundreds of pieces which was quite a bang! I believe Maffer's exact words were "I turned my shorts into a pudding bag", whatever that meant it didn't sound good.

We towed the sled back to the cabin and broke the news to Bill by phone. Parts had to be ordered for his V-Max but he was able to get a loaner sled from a friend, a brand new Yamaha RX-warrior - a long track version of Todd's sled and Bill's first taste of the new 4 stroke Yamaha snowmobiles.

24.    Friday was our first full day riding and we spent it playing and fooling around in the ample powder. 2004 was an awesome year for snow, there were lot of drifts and tons of snow everywhere just begging to be carved up.

23.   We took a run to high waters and the less experienced riders such as myself began our steep learning curve of climbing hills, getting stuck, getting unstuck, and jumping our sleds.

22.   Long who was riding his Yellow MXZ 700 rental and Bill on the Silver/Red RX-Warrior were the only ones with any real amount of experience boondocking or freestyle riding, but the rest of us were quickly getting the hang of it!

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15.   French's Silver Yamaha Venture is powered by latest version of Yamaha's epic 700cc triple cylinder 2 stroke, it features power valves to optimize performance.

14.   We did manage to make a few small distance runs that weekend, one took us to Whitbourne and another a little further West on the old train track near Ocean Pond.

13.   Like every most other cabin trips, we took some time to plant a few ice fishing lines to tend while we carved up the surrounding hills.

12.   Even Dad made it up for an afternoon ice fishing while cruising on his old Yellow Skidoo Cheyenne.

11.   Along with buying my first Skidoo this year, I also acquired a 1980 Kawasaki Invader 440 from my uncle late just before Christmas. I spent some time fixing and getting it running, I decided to take it to the annual cabin trip for a proper test ride. It ran pretty well but had a nasty hesitation/bog off idle that went away with speed. During this trip I snapped off a bracket in the rear suspension, but these short rides confirmed I had something decent to work with and continue on with the rebuild.

10.   Saturday evening we headed to the top of the pond and our new fire pit clearing for a campfire.

9.   Ronnie called it a night earlier then the rest of us and took Adam's rental sled back to the cabin, but he didn't know the route quite as well as the rest of us. Flying along, Ronnie missed the opening in the last neck of the pond near Sooley's cabin and cleared a survey line straight through the trees, effectively jumping the neck and breaking back out onto the pond. Amazingly he avoided two large trees by mere inches, only mowing down a few small trees and bushes! It was funny for us, but Ronnie's pucker factor was on bust!

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6.   With a large crew on hand it can sometimes be tight quarters for sleeping arrangements, but we always manage to fit everyone in.

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3.   On the last day of the trip Maffer had an itch to do something cool. We were all standing around outside the back of the cabin chatting when we heard him rev up the old Scandic 503. Our view was obstructed by trees, but we seen him at the last minute making a final approach for a launch off the roof of the old potato cellar which was about a 7 foot drop! The Yellow Banana Scandic plummeted quickly, landed flat, and skidded sideways to a stop inches away from another of the snowmobiles! It was absolutely wicked, but no one had a camera or camcorder rolling at the time!

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1.   This cabin trip was another awesome adventure, learning how to handle our new machines made it very rewarding and a lot of fun. Unfortunately for my wallet I joined the crew and bacame completely hooked on snowmobiling!

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