19.   With a decent amount of snow on the ground and more in the forecast, Joe Hepditch and I loaded up the sleds Friday evening and headed out over the highway to Southern Harbor to meet up with the crew. In the future, Joe will remember to untie the sled before trying to back it off the trailer!

18.   Captain H., Joe and I got up early Saturday morning and left Southern Harbor around 8:30am. We headed west on the 'Groomed' Trailway to Clarenville where we gassed up the sleds and grabbed a coffee. We departed Clarenville taking a trail through town meeting back up with the Trailway in Shoal Harbor which actually was groomed from here - Westbound. The ride was much improved on this well maintained section of the trail, we met a lot of other snowmobilers also enjoying the day.

17.   We stopped for a minute at a friends Summer Home in Port Blandford to check out his new custom fireplace (sorry for the foggy camera lens!) then hit the trail Westbound once again to Terra Nova Lake.

16.   We stopped there and cooked up a good old fashioned scoff over an open fire just off the lake. On the menu was Salmon & Onions wrapped in tin foil, Beans, Bologna, Fresh Bread, and Tea, a meal fit a King.

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14.   Once we finished lunch we turned around and headed East for home, stopping for gas at Port Blandford and for another coffee in Clarenville.

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10.   Somewhere between the Warm up shelter at Thorburn Lake and Clarenville Captain H. lost his snow flap. A quick phone call to one of the crew in Clarenville and a new one was picked up, we installed it at Tyson's house before continuing home. Riding from Tim Horton's to Tyson's house holding a coffee in one hand wasn't easy but at the same time absolutely worth it! The rest of the ride back to Southern Harbor posed no further troubles, we logged over 240 km for the day.

9.   The following day we expected to wake up to the same storm that was hitting St. John's, but somehow the weather evaded us. Disappointed we didn't have fresh powder to play in we suited up for a ride anyway.

8.   Old Joe, Young Joe, Captain H., and I left Southern Harbor around noon for an afternoon of backcountry riding. We left the Trailway in the vicinity of Jack's Pond Park and headed North across country on a myriad of trails and ponds heading for the hills overlooking the Bull Arm Fabrication Facility.

7.   The country on the isthmus is absolutely beautiful. There are so many ponds to trout in, hills to climb and natural jumps to play on it's simply amazing.

6.   One hill in particular proved quite a challenge, Old Joe went first standing completely on one side of the machine lifting one ski side-hilling all the way up to break the trail. Captain H. followed taking a similar line on the very steep icy hill. By now the track was worn down to bare ice so I tried another route and got stuck on trees and stumps leaving the pond.

5.   Once free of the under brush I pinned the throttle digging quite the trench right to the top of the hill! Young Joe decided to try the icy side hill line of Old Joe and Captain H., and with a quick tug of the skis we were all on top.

4.   We circled back through the country coming out on the Trailway near Arnolds Cove Station. We did another loop South of the Trail Way near the Come by Chance Oil Refinery, crossed the Salt Water Pond in Arnolds Cove and eventually met up with another side trail that took us back to Southern Harbor.

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1.   All in all it was an excellent weekend of riding, we logged just under 300km for the trip, with another snowfall, the back country will be even better!