Thanks guys. The straight trail comes when you pay 10 thousand for a new sled and has GPS auto pilot. Those who've followed my journal can tell I'm not a very good driver and prone to make poor decisions. This should help, had to widen out my trails and keep the GPS hooked up to 12volt. The Polaris Profloat Skis help greatly.
Came home off the line today. Took a few extra riders with me this trip. 5 of us started out and 3 finished the ride. Took my neighbor and his wife along to show them the trail to their moose camp where my tent camp was at. A buddy of mine Kevin,also came with and we brought The ATA mascot Woody with who evidently has been in solitary confinement for many years. Not sure how to take this fella yet. So we started are trip in the morn with blue bird skies and +45 degrees. Around 12 miles into our journey, approaching McDonald creek, where I saw the otter last week, from a distance it looked to be covered in overflow. I was rapidly gaining speed when realizing that what I thought was overflow was actually the river wide open and flowing. Hard on the brakes and sliding out of control, the sled containing Woody, groceries and 8 wolf carcasses overran the Studded up Tundra and spun me backwards, dragging the sled off the ledge into the flowing creek where we came to a stop. This was very exciting. Kevin was wondering why I was speeding up when I saw it. May need to get my eyes checked. The wolf carcasses all floated away and we hooked a strap up and yarded it back onto the ice. Sorry about that Woody, first trip out and almost killed him.
What a knucklehead move. Thank you for studs. If I didn't have those picks in the track, I would have surely been in the drink. We went up and down the creek looking for a ice bridge worthy of crossing and found one upriver about a half mile. After saying goodbyes to the other two riders we continued on up the trail. They had enough excitement for one trip, heck their shorts weren't even soiled.
About a mile up the trail we found this young moose stuck in the creek exhausted and scared. There was nothing we could do safely and let mother nature take her course.
45 miles up the trail, all forward momentum came to a screeching halt. I lost a wheel off the back of the track tensioner and the axle shoot out. Lucky to find all the parts and were able to throw it up on a drum I picked up on the river and put her back together. What can go wrong next. Both episodes were operator error though.
Made it to the cabin got unloaded and pulled Woody out. He was a little reluctant to come out after the ride he got. A little wet but no worse for wear. Got a fire goin and gave him something to ease his nerves.