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February 6-10, 2019 Annual Cabin Trip: (109 Photos) |
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109. Once again our Annual Winter Trip to the Sooley family cabin in Whitbourne is upon us. The Shed-Headz crew are eager to head out over the highway for a few days of relaxation & outdoor activities. Ronnie and AJ were the first to hit the road leaving a couple days early to match up with AJ's work schedule arriving at the cabin Monday evening well after dark.
108. With the trucks unloaded, wood stoves lit and bags put away, the boys hit the pond on their studded out Yamaha YX250 dirt bikes & AJ's new sled project his '97 Yamaha Vmax's shakedown run. By all accounts the sled ran great with no major troubles reported.
107. Meanwhile I was home getting Project Foreman ready for the trip in-between my daytime work, and evening ceramic tile work!
106. With low snow conditions and a lot of very slippery ice covered trails I decided to install 700 1/2" dirt bike studs in my 12 year old, well worn Mud Lite XTR radials. This will make trail riding and hill climbing a heck of a lot easier.
105. Tuesday morning Ronnie & AJ took advantage of marginal snow conditions (which were forecasted to melt overnight with warm temps & rain forecasted) logging some miles on both the Vmax & their studded out YZ250 dirt bikes. This is the 3rd year for the boys running studded dirt bikes and they continue to work flawlessly.
104. Later that afternoon AJ popped a belt on the Vmax, not a big deal being a used machine with a belt of unknown age. It most likely let go due to age & dry rot.
103. After a couple phone calls & text messages to the crew for technical support Ronnie had the spare belt installed in no time.
102. Tuesday afternoon French arrived at the cabin and fired up his track equipped 2017 Argo Huntmaster for a rip up the pond with the boys.
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100. Wednesday morning finally arrived, with work commitments finished for the week Sooley & I hit the highway west to Whitbourne to begin our trip! Project Foreman was loaded into the bed of my winter mode Silverado along with enough gear to support all sorts of outdoor activities piled high in the back seat.
99. Rain overnight Tuesday melted all of the snow, but I did take Project Powertek REV up the pond while there was still lots of standing water to cool the heat exchangers just to burn off some of the 12 month old gas from the carburetors.
98. Sooley and Jessica arrived just after I finished unloading my truck and proceeded to unload what appeared to be all of Sooley's worldly possessions from TWO vehicles into the cabin. LoL
97. Project REV is in need of a new battery and a taillight bulb but is otherwise working extremely well!
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95. Sooley's mom even sent up a cake to celebrate her little 'byes 40th birthday later this week!
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93. The new tire studs in Project Foreman are working absolutely amazing, better than I ever imagined they would. Grip is outstanding particularly on the power line trails which are off camber and consist of steep climbs which are now all covered in glare ice.
92. AJ also took advantage of the water soaked pond and burned another few litres of gas in the ol' Vmax. Even after all these years since Bill sold the machine, it still sounds absolutely amazing. There is nothing quite like those old Yamaha 700 triples!
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89. I spent most of Wednesday afternoon trail riding and checking out all of our usual riding, fishing and hunting locations all around the cabin and Highwaters.
88. Some areas of Highwaters simply never freeze up, but overall ice conditions are much better than we've experienced over the last few years.
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86. While I was out riding French, Sooley & Jess set a few ice fishing lines at the top of the pond and got a fire going in our fire pit clearing.
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83. Ronnie & AJ stopped up to the fire pit clearing for a warm-up and a yarn.
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77. Every year I try to complete this hill climb on project Foreman, it goes directly off the pond up to the pole line ATV path, with zero success to date. Its been many years since we've had enough snow to try it on snowmobile. Maffer has made it most of the way on his Can Am ATV (however nearly flipping every time he attempts it), and AJ successfully completed the climb last year on his studded out YZ 250 dirt bike. This year my studded Foreman ATV finally completed the climb with ease, while AJ once again made it look pretty easy tackling the steep hill on his YZ.
76. Wednesday evening we put together quite a feast of perfectly seasoned barbeque steaks, fresh mushrooms & onions, and pasta side dishes.
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72. After supper we headed out to the garage to give Ronnie a hand replacing the broken driver side door handle on AJ's 2007 Silverado.
71. It was a pretty straightforward affair but a couple hands made it much easier.
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69. Thursday morning arrived and brought with it cold weather, relatively clear skies, and an awesome breakfast prepared by yours truly consisting of my homemade Oktoberfest & Italian Moose Sausages, fried eggs and toast.
68. On Thursday AJ started having an issue with his Vmax. During wide open throttle pulls the sled would loose power, sounding like it was dropping a cylinder. We checked coolant temperature which was fine, replaced three spark plugs, tested and found one plug boot defective so we picked up 3 new ones in Blaketown but the problem persisted. The problem has yet to be fully solved but Ronnie & Bill are troubleshooting towards a solution chasing down possible clutch binding (need inspection/cleaning), fuel delivery problem (maybe bad pump or vacuum pulse line) or a bad coil or two (each cylinder has a single individual coil).
67. Cold temperatures froze up Project Foreman pretty good but it still started right up and was ready for another day of adventures.
66. Sooley and French went for a walkabout scouting out Rabbit runs between the cabin & highway and found more damage caused by the family of Beavers living in the little gully in front of the cabin.
65. They have been so busy hauling sticks that they now have a well worn trail down over the hillside to the gully!
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62. These animals have been busy building a chalet of a Beaver lodge and a massive food cache!
61. Since I've never trouted in the front gully I decided to give it a try setting out a few lines for the afternoon, however luck was not on my side or there are just no trout in the little gully.
60. Later that afternoon Janes finally pried himself away from the city and arrived at the cabin in his beautiful 2018 midnight edition Silverado. Hopefully next year he will also have a matching ATV sitting in the bed of the truck!
59. While I was ice fishing, French and Sooley were busy setting out a few Rabbit snares and building a pen created from tree limbs and 3 snares.
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56. A few birch tips were dropped in the centre to hopefully attract a bunny or two.
55. By suppertime it started to get a little stormy with 5cm or so forecasted overnight. Taking advantage of the fresh snow I took Project Powertek REV for a few rips up and down the pond to scratch the ol' snowmobile itch. It's a terrible winter for snowmobiling but at least I'll manage to burn off some of the old gas.
54. Supper Thursday consisted of amazing Nachos, homemade Guacamole, and awesome salsa prepared by French, Janes and I.
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52. We made enough to feed an army and it was awesome, so awesome that there were none leftover from the two huge trays!
Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith |
