56.   We waited weeks in eager anticipation for the Annual Winter Trip to the Sooley Family cabin, and just like Christmas it arrived & was over in a flash. With fantastic snow conditions and lots of ice on the pond we very excited especially after a few winters of lack lustre conditions. Thursday afternoon, Maffer, Sooley and I hit the highway Whitbourne bound to the cabin arriving around 4:30pm.

55.   While Sooley and Maffer fired up the tractor Snowblower to clear the driveway, I started shovelling out the doors and decks around the cabin. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground since our pre-trip visit two weeks ago. It took us nearly two hours to clear everything out, get the trucks off the highway, and gear unloaded.

54.   After a quick Barbeque of sausages & hotdog we suited up for a quick night time rip on the snowmobiles.

53.   Sooley rode his 2009 Renegade 800r, Maffer his 2006 REV 500ss and of course I piloted Project Renegade. First on our to do list was to check the thickness of the ice all over the pond. We were content as we found a consistent 10-12" of ice all over the pond, and slush from two weeks ago had frozen. We spent the evening hitting all our favourite jumps along the edges of the pond, eventually heading up the pole line to an area known as Highwaters, the headwaters for the Rocky River.

52.   Sooley had his first episode (of many to come) climbing the first hill on the pole line which was rutted out by snowmobile traffic. Near the top of the hill. his sled hooked in a rut, stopped suddenly which sent big ol' Sooley over the handle bars! It was a funny sight!

Conditions on this chilly star filled night were amazing for riding. Deep snow we got stuck in a couple weeks ago settled and was topped with fresh fallen powder. Getting stuck was not nearly as problematic, and traction on the ponds was near perfect. We played around all our usual hot spots until nearly 3am when sleep finally got the better of us and we called it a night.

51.   The next morning Jason and Andy (two buddies that work with Sooley) arrived as we were having breakfast at Monty's Place in Whitbourne. We got back to the cabin shortly thereafter and suited up for a day riding. The majority of our crew are not long distance riders,  we love to play, explore, jump, skim water, climb hills all with no particular destination in mind.

50.   Skies were clear, temperatures cold and snow settled, fantastic riding conditions continued.

49.   We started out today's adventure on Sooley's pond tearing up every jump, especially the ones that were too sketchy to hit in the dark last night. We progressed up Sooley's pond then to the pole line and back to the massive expanse of Highwaters.

48.  On the first hill Maffer made an awesome climb carving left-right-left all the way to the top (that we have no pics or video of). Sooley tried the same hill taking a line I got stuck in the night before, and buried his sled even worse. Jason met a similar fate on the Sooley Family Arctic Cat.

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45.   At Highwaters we spent a couple hours tearing up the hills, and skimming over our favourite shallow open water spot.

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42.   Sooley's work buddies were hesitant to try skimming open water at first, but quickly got the hang of it riding Maffer's 500ss REV.

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40.   The boys were a little damp but none the worse for wear!

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36.   Leaving Highwaters we continued East on the pole line to Ocean Pond, our newbies used their newfound water skipping skills to cross an open gully that was blocking the path.

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34.   At ocean pond, I managed to limb out a Juniper Tree that flicked my sled bottom up, but a quick re-attachment of the albeit broken windshield and I was good to go.

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32.   The rest of the afternoon was spent in an area just South of Sooley's cabin where we got some great pics and video of a dandy little kicker jump.

31.   Unlike many jumps in this area, we didn't have to hop the bank at the waters edge, we could hit the kicker with a  little more speed. There were a lot of trees blocking the landing area so we couldn't overdue it on flight time.

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26.   As you can see, Sooley went bottom up once again this time trying to navigate a tree filled hill climb, (which had been easily navigated by Maffer and I moments before!) LoL...E for effort though.

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24.   When we got back to the cabin Janes arrived and we headed back up the pond for a little ice fishing and even more riding.

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18.   Its hard to pass up a beautiful jump after one guy hits it, even with darkness setting in. While teh boys tended the ice fishing lines Maffer, Sooley and I hit another awesome kicker just on the other side of the pond.

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11.   After an awesome supper consisting of  BBQ steak, fries, mushroom-onions, and vegetables we suited up and took some beverages up to our fire pit clearing at the top of the pond. It was another awesome night in the woods, unfortunately this was the calm before the storm.

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9.   As with so many cabin trips before, the crappy forecast came true and we woke up Saturday morning to high winds and 30mm of rain.

8.   Needless to say we didn't get out snowmobiling so after breakfast we took a trip to Whitbourne for a few supplies and spent the day around camp.

7.   Out in the garage made some minor sled repairs and installed a new set of headlights in Sooley's F-150. These lights are a nice upgrade and include projector style H.I.D. low beam bulbs that are much brighter than stock but don't blind other drivers with glare.

6.   The weather cleared supper time so we suited up for a little rip and some ice fishing. During the rainstorm temperatures were mild but that quickly changed as the it dropped to -2 in the afternoon, in no time the pond was freezing up creating glare ice.

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3.   Snow in the woods was softened by the rain so we had to be careful again getting stuck. Maffer and I took a run to Highwaters but the trail was a mess, we often had to skip hundreds of feet of flooded slushy bogs.

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1.   By nightfall the pond was frozen solid so there was no fresh snow to keep the sleds cool. We opted to relax in the cabin, enjoy a few brew and watch the U.F.C. fight. For supper we had another BBQ with steaks and all the fixings, all in all it was a nice relaxing night. Sunday brought cold clear, sunny skies as we cleaned up the cabin and packed up our gear to head home. Even though the miserable weather Saturday cut our riding short we still had an awesome trip. We experience the best snow conditions and riding we have had up there in quite a few years.

With February all but over we're all hoping for another storm or two before winter ends. The now hard frozen snow will make a great base for fresh powder. 

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith