13.   Ice Fishing Season opened in Newfoundland just over a week ago, today our crew finally got out for a day trouting on one of Newfoundland's many frozen lakes. Sooley, Maffer, Adam & I loaded up the sleds and hit the highway West to Whitbourne,  destination the Sooley Family Cabin. With years of fishing experience in this area we were confident that we'd have decent results fishing.

12.   Since the Avalon Peninsula had been plagued this past week by 15mm rain, warm temperatures and fog, we weren't expecting to find very good riding conditions. We planned to only use the sleds to get up the to our fishing destination. gear in tow. The edges of the pond provided just enough traction & cooling to run the machines thanks to the snow flurries from the previous night.

11.   I was piloting Project Renegade, Sooley his trusty 1994 Skidoo Mach 1, Adam his 2002 Skidoo Summit, and Maffer his 2006 REV 500ss. Once we arrived at the top of the pond, Sooley and Maffer set to boring holes and dropping lines, they even caught a couple of trout right away!

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8.   Meanwhile Adam and I were busy gathering wood and starting a fire in our cookout clearing.

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6.   An hour or so later we were joined by French who was late leaving town this morning. Not wanting to chance damaging his brand new 2009 Yamaha Nytro XTX in the less then ideal snow conditions he opted (probably wisely) to take his Honda Foreman ATV.

5.   After a lunch of Moose Sausage, Beans, Kippers & Tea we decided to go for a little run on the machines. I checked out the transmission line trail conditions earlier while gathering firewood and was surprised to find it in decent shape for riding.

4.   There was still plenty of old snow cover, enough loose snow for cooling and was relatively smooth! We travelled along the pole line to an area known as High Waters, which is the headwaters for the Rocky River.

3.   Although the hills and tundra up this way were pretty well devoid of snow, the South East corner of the pond caught every bit of powder snow that blew down the ice!

2.   Here in the midst of mediocre riding conditions was a hidden jewel of fresh drifts and powder 2 feet deep to play around in!!! Needless to say we had a lot of fun tearing up that fresh powder!

1.   After our run we returned to Sooley's Pond, restarted the fire and cooked a quick supper of Moose Sausages and Stew. As darkness fell we packed up our gear and headed for home after an amazing day in the country. Unfortunately my day ended on a sour note with a tire blow out on my Colorado heading home. Fortunately I safely got the truck & trailer to the side of the road, changed to the spare tire and we were back on our way.

Cheers, MIKE