Winter 2008

August 22, 2015 Goulds ATV Run: (15 Photos)

15. While the rest of the world experiences higher than average temperatures this summer, here in Newfoundland we are in a bubble of sorts. It's not just cool, but it's been one of the coolest summers on record! However August arrived with much better weather so Maffer and I headed out to the Goulds for a easy, relaxing cruise on the bikes. Maffer piloted his Can Am Outlander while I rode my very trusty steed, Project Foreman.

14. We left the trucks near the pump house and headed in Cochrane Pond Road. Here we took a narrow ATV path dead straight off the roadway that eventually leads to the weather radar station out by the highway. Our easy cruise plan quickly went out the window when I found a bog hole that didn't look too bad, but was absolutely that bad.

13. The mud was as thick as it was deep, good tires and a front locker still won't get you through every situation.

12. A quick pull with my trusty WARN winch and we were underway again.

11. When we reached the radar tower, we continued out the dirt road past Frontline Paintball towards the highway, then turned West following an ATV path along the side of the TCH. We rode in Northern Pond Road, turned left where the old bus used to be and came back to the Goulds via the farmers fields near Bay Bulls Big Pond.

Of course we found a couple bog holes along the way.

10. Since the easy ride plan had been thrown out long ago, we decided to take a run up the old Southern Shore Railway track which begins near the back of Bay Bulls Big Pond. Although the water was pretty deep, the water holes were actually much lower than usual making the first part of the ride not too bad.

7. In the first big open area, the old track disappears as mother nature reclaimed her ground. We both got stuck here picking a way around, it was a WFO calculated stuck as there were lots of trees nearby to act as winch anchors.

6. However, THIS was absolutely not calculated. While I was trying to find a route to further advance our progress, Maffer slid his Can Am sideways into the very water/bog hole we were trying to avoid.

5. It was a state, the snorkels were underwater so we knew we had a mess on our hands. Since bike couldn't run we couldn't risk using the winch on the Can Am. If we ran the battery flat there's was no secondary starter nor booster cables on board.

4. Maffer may be short, but that's still a pretty deep hole!

3. I parked by Foreman behind a large tree to anchor it, ran my WARN 2000lb winch line to Maffer's bike, through a snatch block attached to his front receiver hitch and back to my bike for a combined pulling force of about 4000lbs. We got the bike tipped up out of the hole, then repositioned and made a final pull back to solid ground.

2. It took us over an hour to get the bike running, mostly because the sparkplugs on this V-twin are a real PITA to get at. We had to drain the CVT & Airbox, lift bike up on its back rack to empty the exhaust, remove the sparkplugs and turn the bike over to pump out the bog water slop. Somehow, water didn't get into the engine oil, at least not enough to worry about. Finally the bike started right up so we put everything back together and rode home with no further troubles.

1. All in all it was a great day. There's never a dull moment riding with our crew, and although Maffer probably has a few fluid changes in his future, the bike is none the worse for wear.

Cheers, MIKE