26.   My last snowmobile trip of the season found me back in Southern Harbour for the Easter Holiday long weekend. This time the weather cooperated and we had unusually decent late season snow conditions. The snowpack was fairly hard but fresh falling flurries were enough too keep the sleds cool and the trails in good shape.

25.   The plan was to leave Southern Harbour Saturday morning taking "Groomed" Provincial Trail-Way west to Clarenville where we would stop for a coffee and fuel. Then we would head back East and travel cross country via map & GPS to Black River where excellent riding conditions had been reported. Young Joe's old Citation was dead after hitting a big jump earlier in the week so he may join up with us on ATV later.
 

24.   Captain H, Joe Hepditch & I left Southern Harbour and made decent time to Clarenville via the Groomed Trail network.  Joe was riding his Polaris RMK, Captain H. his 1996 Formula 583, and I was on Project Renegade.

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19.   When we arrived at the warm up shack just east of Clarenville we found the left side trailing arm on Captain H’s sled came off where it attaches to the body!

18.   Upon inspection we found the washer on the trailing arm bolt failed and the arm pulled off over the bolt. Some trail side ingenuity using the sled's tool kit multi-wrench as a washer got us back on the trail and into Clarenville. With some help from the guys at OMB Supply in Clarenville we made a proper repair with new washers.

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16.   After a quick Coffee and a fuel stop we headed as planned back East on the Trailway, destination Black River. Unfortunately we didn’t get far before Joe’s Polaris started losing power and shut down. After an hour of trouble shooting, we determined that the engine ran lean and burned down a cylinder.

15.   Luckily we were only about a mile outside of Clarenville so I hooked a strap onto the RMK and put my 1.25" rip saw track to work towing him back to Clarenville & up over the really steep hill to Tim Horton's. Joe called a friend with a trailer and got a ride back to Southern Harbour.

14.   Joe was the only one of us familiar with the Black River area so we aborted our cross country adventure to and stuck to trails we were more familiar with. Young Joe & Terry met up with us on ATV and we had a great afternoon exploring side paths through the country all along the Trail-way.

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10.   Of course no day in the woods is complete without a boil-up for lunch.

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1.   Even though the trip didn't go quite to plan we made the best of it and had a fantastic day on the machines!

Cheers, MIKE