14.   Thursday morning a received a text message with this pic and "SOS" from good friend and fellow Gun Club member Scottie Evans followed by a phone call "are you able to help lol".

13.   Scott and his wife took their CF Moto 500 ATV in Northern Pond road to do a little moose scouting for the upcoming fall hunt when they missed a turn and went waaay too deep! The bike stalled underwater and was completely stuck.

12.   I cleared my afternoon appointment, loaded up Project Foreman and headed towards Scott's dropped pin location via Apple Maps. I'm familiar with the area but technology sure made it easier to find them.

11.   I packed some tools and filled the rear box with recovery straps to extend my reach and not get stuck myself.

10.   The trail had a lot of standing water, as Scott found out some puddles were way worse than others! LoL

9.

8.   Their bike was about 150' away from solid ground (where I was parked) so we hooked together a bunch of 3" ratchet straps then hooked on to Scott's bike.

7.   The bike wasn't buried bad, just dead in the water so I hooked the strap to Project Foreman and simply reversed out the trail pulling Scott's machine out with relative ease.

6.

5.   With the CF Moto finally high and dry we started assessing repairs to drive the bike out of the woods. The trail out was gnarly and would be a tough tow, if the CF Moto could drive I could assist through the rough spots if necessary. 

4.   The air box and engine cylinder were full of water, surprisingly the crank case was not which was a lucky break! We drained the air box, CVT belt drive case and exhaust system, removed a lot of the plastics to access the spark plug which was then removed. We turned the bike over shooting water everywhere, drained the carburetor then reinstalled the spark plug. We flicked the key and it started up rather quick! We had to drain the carb one more time, an oil check saw no moisture in the oil! Water in the oil would make it look like chocolate milk once you run the engine.

3.   On a belt driven ATV the only way to dry out the belt in the woods after draining is to hold it at medium throttle for awhile in Neutral then put it in gear and drive. The belt hated life for awhile and made some god awful sounds but soon came around as it dried out. It got better and better and successfully drove the bike all the way back to Scott's pickup.

2.   Note, if you have a CF Moto like this, pack an 18mm deep socket and wobble adaptor along with your extension and ratchet as it's about the only way to take out the spark plug!

1.  All in all it was quite the adventure and I was only too glad to help a friend get out of the woods with their bike intact. Repairs recommended to Scott when he got home was to recheck the oil for a milky colour and change if necessary (if oil is milky multiple oil changes will likely be necessary to get it to come clean). Next would be to take off the belt drive cover to thoroughly clean and service the primary & secondary clutches and probably install a new belt. Lastly check and change the front & rear differential oils and the Fwd/Rev gearbox oil as water may have contaminated those fluids as well. Check out the Snorkel install on Project Foreman for more tips for deep water riding & repairs after sinking!

Check out the bonus video with pics & video clips from Scott's Wife below:

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith