The 2004 snowmobiling season went on record becoming 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 where they planned a ride to Northern Pond Road then onto the Goulds. The boys hopped on the pole line across from Paradise Irving 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 to Northern Pond Road in the area of Cochrane Pond Park continuing on to the Goulds.

After ripping around the Goulds for a bit they turned around to begin their journey home crossing over Cochrane Pond. A recent snowfall was wind driven which created a lot of tall drifts along the side of the pond so the ride was a little rough.

Maffer, who is not one to slow down even in rough conditions was clipping along pretty quick when he came upon a series of much larger drifts. The old Scandic hit the first drift, launched off the second, piled into the fourth which caused his body to pin the throttle wide open. The machine launched skyward off the last drift! 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 heap facedown  in the snow. The sled landed about the same time, barrel rolled up the pond, coming to a stop upside down and still running!

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

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

Cheers, MIKE