Figured you had been having a good time. Good to hear from you.
Figured you had been having a good time. Good to hear from you.
Glad to have you back!
WARNING: This post may contain material offensive to those who lack wit, humor, common sense and/or supporting factual or anecdotal evidence. All statements and assertions contained herein may be subject to but not limited to: irony, metaphor, allusion and dripping sarcasm.
And once again, Boy's and Girl's... Heading out first thing Saturday morning.
Week away from work and the rest of the bullshit, to do some sledding, and fishing.
Buddy and I went out last weekend, and packed some trails for this week, as there was over four feet of snow, and walking around in the yard was pretty brutal!
pics to follow
Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day!
Light a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!
Cat's are food... not friends!
If you're going to fight, then fight like you're the third monkey on the ramp into Noah's arc... and brother, it's starting to rain.
Have fun T. Hows the weather up there right now?
Good luck on your getaway.
Be ready now, you won't have that chance later.
Go then! See if I care! Lol
Be safe, have fun.
Common sense is so rare these days, it should be re-classified as a super power.
lol. made it back safe and sound albeit after a bit of an adventurous beginning. lol
A few highlights of the trip, for those who are interested?
Between pre-bungie and bungie, the Bissett area had a couple days of warm weather, which allowed the three plus feet of snow on the lakes to compress, and get heavy; naturally cracking the ice and turning them into one giant slush bowl. Then almost a foot of snow covered that nicely, and 40-60 KM winds blew all the fresh snow into four foot snow drifts.
Saturday:
After a crazy bumpy/jumpy run across Rice lake, which alternated between airborne and rooster tails of slush, we (Sniper, John, and his eleven year old son Joseph) made it into Caribou Landing after a rough but pleasant ride down Caribou trail.
On Caribou, the drifts were even bigger and the slush even deeper, but we managed to bounce our way across and into the river; where being somewhat sheltered, the drifts were a lot smaller, but the slush was deeper. At the last point before the Trestle, I was finally dragged to a stop by the snow and ice covered anchor that was my sleigh; and Joseph, unable to get out of my track buried Jim?s machine behind me. John was able to get over, but between all the slush on his sleigh, on the back of his machine, and the half blown belt, he too got dragged down. We all pulled the pins on the sleighs, but were unable to get enough purchase to move.
John trudged out through the knee deep water/slush, covered with two feet of snow, while I kicked slush up into piles beside my machine, packing it, and allowing it to freeze.
After getting dry footwear onto Joseph, and bags on our feet, we were able to lift my machine up onto the fresh hard pack, and then with water levels four inches above the plastic bags, trudged back out to John?s machine (closest to shore.) Almost four hours later, we finally managed to shovel, push, pull, and drag John?s machine up onto the hard near shore. Banging and clunking, we had yet to diagnose the belt issue, thinking it was a gear case problem; John ran up to the trestle and back to pack a trail, and then gave me a lift there; where I was able to start a fire.
John went back to pick up Joseph, and was pleasantly surprised to see my cousin drive around the corner of the point after picking him up. David had a Skandic with a 24" wide track and 8" wide skis, and without a sleigh, was able to drive over top of the snow/slush without breaking through. David headed off, taking Joe to Len's place as I stoked the fire, and John turned around and proceded to slip off the trail and bury his machine in four feet of snow at the mouth of the trestle portage. Banging and clunking, he couldn't get it out.
After bludgeoning down a tree with an epically dull axe, and burning most of it, we were warmed up at the core level, but our soaked feet were well beyond numb. We just started digging out the machine, and smoking the belt once again, when we noticed how absolutely destroyed it was. It always seemed to come to rest with its one good section facing us so it didn't look bad. We changed out the belt, and with a small pull from David's machine, we were able to get it out.
Assuring us that Joseph was fine at Len's, David headed off back there, while we hustled to the beach and got the cabin opened up just as night fell. We cranked the wood stove to maximum, and used stove lengths of wood to break the twenty plus pounds of ice off each of our boots and pant legs until we could finally pull our boots off and pour the ice water from them. We huddled in front of the stove for an hour until the bone-weary chill was finally out enough to take stock.
John had left a pair of pants there from pre-bungie, and changed into them, and we dug out every piece of footwear we could find, which resulted in a pair of rubber boots that fit John, but nothing that fit me. Finding some dry socks boosted our morale, and shoving my feet sideways into a pair of rubber boots we were mobile enough to start scavenging for additional dry/warm clothes for John to go pick up Joseph with; but just as we got him outfitted the best we could, David reappeared once again, this time bringing Joseph to the cabin for us. We called Jim, and gave him the Readers Digest Version, and told him to postpone both his and Doug's trip up until further notice.
Luckily, we had left some food and bedding from Pre-bungie so with all of our clothes hanging to dry, we had a bite to eat, and headed off to bed for an uncomfortable night's sleep, with nightmares of the work ahead of us tomorrow.
Sunday:
With the cabin still epically hot, our clothes (and boot liners) were finally dry, so we grabbed some tape and garbage bags. First a bag over the socked foot, and into the liner, taped up at the knee, then another garbage bag on the outside of the liner taped up over the knee, and into the boots. I grabbed all the ropes, and picks, shovels and axes I could find, while John re-broke the trail to the 5-Star portage, and staged the chainsaw there. Doubled up, we made it back to the point, which would become our staging area and base of operations for the tasks at hand.
John went back to get the chainsaw, and I started walking out, back and forth until I found an old trail and then walked that out as far as I could until I was as close to the machines as I could get. When John got back, he backed his machine down my footsteps, a little at a time, packing the trail, while making sure he didn't slip off into the slush. With a deep breath, I trudged out through the waist deep snow and slush back out to the machines and happily got there with both feet still dry inside my plastic bags.
John set to work chipping the hitch free from his sleigh, while I worked from my back chipping all the frozen ice and slush out from inside my track. Using the bumper jack off Jim's machine facilitated this, and I was able to get it clear and spinning in a few hours. After a couple of futile attempts to break his sleigh free from the ice with the machine and heavy white rope, John was resigned to chipping the entire thing free with an ice bar.
Once my machine was free, I set to work on my sleigh, while John repositioned his machine and started trudging out with the rope. After tying all our ropes together, John was able to pull my sleigh up onto the hard, and then re-rigging, took it all the way back to the beach while I started working on Jim's machine. Utilizing the Jack and a pick, I was finally able to break the track out of the ice, and as I chipped I packed all the ice back into the track hole to facilitate freezing and to provide a rougher surface for purchase, once it was ready to move.
When John got back, I was surprised to notice that it was already getting dark, so I warmed up my machine well again, and backed up on the packed slush as far as I dared, giving myself about a four foot run on the hard before I would hit the slush! but without a sleigh, it was no problem and now we had two machines and two sleighs on the hard, and Jim's machine was half in the air. We unloaded and hammered all the ice off the inside and outside of John's sleigh, and made it back to the cabin with both machines and both our food and clothing sleighs.
Even though it was an early night, it was equally restless, both from the aches and pains that we were both feeling and the anxiety of the work yet ahead.
Monday:
Up early and bagged up once again. Joseph held the fort while we went out for one last push to get Jim's machine and sleigh out. Being that it froze in relatively clear water, in addition to having a solid mass of slush to chip out from in and on top of the track, the bottom 3 inches were solid black ice, which made that particularly fun.
With an axe, John hacked around the skis breaking almost five inches of ice to get them exposed, and thankfully, they were still in open water below that, and were relatively ice free. With both of us now working on the track, helping direct the picks and bars for each other, we were able to get it free and spinning, but then needed another hour to chip all the ice out from around the rollers so they would spin. With John pulling on the skis, we were able to drive it out of the water and onto the hard.
John chipped out the tongue on the sleigh, and we were able to use that as a lever to break the sleigh free, which we dumped and chipped free of ice and slush there. We hooked the sleigh up to the machine and not wanting to trudge out again through the deep snow/water, john jumped in the sleigh, and I drove it out onto the hard.
Hopping back on my machine, we found/broke a trail back to the landing and after a brief discussion called Jim, and told him Bungie Boy was back on. Jim and Doug were due to arrive in the morning. Tired and sore, we headed back to the cabin for some warm food and a relax before heading out with Joseph to pick up the third machine. By dark we had all three machines, all three sleighs and all three people, safely at the cabin.
Aside from treeing the trail from the Beach right to Caribou landing, the rest of the week was standard bungie fare, fishing, hauling wood, and trying to keep warm in what turned out to be the coldest week in Bungie Boy history.
All in all, a great week, with great friends.
Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day!
Light a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!
Cat's are food... not friends!
If you're going to fight, then fight like you're the third monkey on the ramp into Noah's arc... and brother, it's starting to rain.
Sounds like you had a great time. Glad your back T!
I was wondering if you were going to get any time in for fishing. Better yet, make it back, but as long as it keeps freezing you'll be ok right?
Be safe.............the night is your friend.
lol, we only lost ice once when we were there, and had to leave the machines at the cabin and walk out.
Once again though, it is that time...
I'm off for my annual May-Long fish derby and will be gone for a week, possibly an adventurous one... as the lake is less than 1/2 open, so this time we may have to cut ice to get the boats in/out. lol
Sorry I haven't been on much lately, but I've needed some time to get things sorted out around the homefront; but hopefully next week I can start contributing again.
Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day!
Light a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!
Cat's are food... not friends!
If you're going to fight, then fight like you're the third monkey on the ramp into Noah's arc... and brother, it's starting to rain.
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