Riding with Dan & Dylan, Weekend of February 7, 2009

Friday, February 6, 2009. Weather was a sunny 30 degrees and rising at 1:00 pm.

Today we were on a mission to drop off the new R4RD Benefit Ride shirts at the sponsoring businesses. Here's a look at the shirts:

All you need to do to get yours is get a minimum of $100 in donations or sponsorships for the R4RD Ride. The easiest way is to ask people for a $10 or $20 donation. Ask enough people, and soon you will have a nice sponsorship for the ride, and a custom R4RD shirt. There was only a dusting of new snow since last weekend on our back porch, and the coming warm weather was not looking good. We drove across the lake to Kitty's Grill & Bar and gave Tammy a shirt for her to wear and one to display in the bar. We also dropped off one at Everbreeze Resort, and Della is wearing one at Doze Inn. You can sign up to ride at any of these places. We left the lake on the Everbreeze trail and headed north on 7 N RR grade to Schoolhouse Bar. We gave Sarge a shirt to wear as well as one to display in his bar. From there we got gas at Parkside BP and headed north on the railroad grade. We turned west on the 18 W trail and took that trail to the "Y". Trails so far were freshly groomed and in great shape. We headed south to Pine Grove, but they weren't open yet, so we headed east on the tunnel to 2112, and stopped in at Water's Edge. We gave Doreen a shirt to display in her bar, and headed across Anderson Lake to Rhode's Junction, then east to the pipeline trail. The eastbound trail on the south side of 2112 was rough and bumpy but all other trails were freshly groomed and in excellent shape. We headed south on the pipeline into the Bag & Bra trails, and made a loop towards Shay Lake, coming out again on the pipeline south of Crooked Lake. My sled was acting up, so we took the pipeline back to the trail leading to the Junction, back down 2112 and home.

Turns out I blew the crankshaft on my 1994 Arctic Cat 440, so now I'm in the market for a nice, used 2-up. We had some dinner and waited for Sablu to arrive. We got the trusty 1997 Puma out of the bullpen and took off on a ride with Sablu. We headed off the lake on the Everbreeze trail and went north on the railroad grade to get gas at Parkside BP. We took the grade north to the 18 W trail over to the "Y" and headed south to Pine Grove. We gave Rocky & Sally their R4RD shirts to wear, and they hung one up on display behind their bar. We met CPSC President Dan Huth and Groomer Boss Keith Uhlenbrauck at Pine Grove, and talked about the possibility of closing down the trails because of the warm weather. Dan said that most likely this would not happen, but he would decide and let us know. We headed east on the tunnel to 2112 back to Chute Pond. We could already see the trails beginning to deteriorate from the warm weather and heavy traffic. We cut across the lake and past Everbreeze to the 18 E trail. We took that trail to Randall's Resort in Crooked Lake. This trail is usually very lightly travelled, and it was in great shape today. We played a few rounds of the "Fan Game" with Tim's new jumbo cards from Las Vegas before heading through town to the pipeline trail south. The pipeline was in great shape, as was the trail back to the Junction. We cut across Anderson lake and went west on 2112 back to the Pond. The westbound 2112 trail was freshly groomed and in great shape. We rode 76 miles today before my sled blew up, and another 69 miles on the Puma with Sablu for a total of 145 miles today. Overall, the trails were in great shape.

Saturday, February 7, 2009. Weather was  a sunny 29 degrees and rising at 7:30 am.

Dylan, Sablu, and I all headed over to the Chute Pond Snowmobile Drag Races, sponsored by the Mountain Area Business Association, at the County Park to help set up at 7:30. There were fewer racers this year compared to last year, but the warm weather brought out lots of spectators. We helped out and joined in the festivities all day long, ending around 5:30 pm. Sablu & I headed over to Doze Inn for dinner. Dylan went on a short ride with a friend and was heading over to join us there. He called me from the lake to tell me that his sled was broke down. Turns out something went wrong with his oil (he had just filled up the oil tank and now it was empty) and his engine is seized up. Not a good weekend for sleds in our family. We are now in the market for some nice used sleds. If you know of any, please send me an email. Our second Club Breakfast and Ride is this coming Saturday, starting with breakfast at Mountain Bear Resort. We'll be there for breakfast- the riding part we still need to work out! Trails should be open again by this weekend, so we'll see you there!

Dan & Dylan

Comments and questions welcome at info@chutepondsnowmobileclub.com