March 19, 2004 Paradise-Goulds Night Run: (1 Photo)

 

The 2004 snowmobiling season went on record as being one of the busiest yet for our crew. Lots of snow this year meant a lot of runs, even two trips to the Sooley family cabin. This weekend was no different as some of the crew headed out Friday evening for a night run.

French, Maffer and Sooley met at the Irving station in Paradise and planned a ride to Northern Pond Road and onto the Goulds. The boys hopped on the pole line across from Irving on Topsail Road following it as far as the Trans Canada Highway. Crossing the clover leaf where the T.C.H. intersects the Harbour Arterial, they continued on past the next Irving station to Northern Pond Road and Cochrane Pond Park and Cochrane Pond.

Along the way they met up with Harve, Harding and a few fellas and followed them for awhile before turning around as they were going on a much longer run. After ripping around the Goulds  for a bit they began their way home crossing back over Cochrane Pond. The recent snowfall was wind driven which created a lot of drifts up the side of the pond so the ride was a little rough.

Maffer, who is not one to slow down even on rough trail was clipping along pretty good when he came upon a series of much larger drifts. The old Scandic 503 hit the first drift, launched off the second, piled into the third-causing his body to pin the throttle wide open, and went skyward off the fourth! The sled took flight one way, while Maffer (as described by French) was "thrown like a rag doll cart wheeling though the air", landed in a pile on the snow. The sled landed about the same time, and barrel rolled up the pond coming to a stop upside down and still running!

The funniest part of the story was when Maffer came to his senses but thought he was blind! During the tumble his visor went up and his helmet packed full of snow. He was relieved to regain his sight when he cleared his helmet out!

The damage to the sled was mostly cosmetic, the windshield was reattached, but the bonnet was cracked up pretty bad. This accident never slowed Maffer down for a second, and it also spawned an Area51 project Stealth 503 where we repaired the bonnet and painted the whole sled a new colour.

Cheers, MIKE

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