SLED-jack'd

[erkoehler]

Chad, how about the 12-14? Cabin in South Range???

[thatsmrmastercraft]

Made our trip to Rhinelander over the weekend. Put a bunch of miles on for the crowd I was with. Trails have just enough snow to be covered and smooth. Icy in a lot of the corners, but with studs it just makes it fun. Saturday rode west out of Rhinelander to Tomahawk, up through Lake Tomahawk to Minocqua, over to Eagle River, down to Three Lakes and back to Rhinelander. Only complaint were a few miles of Hodag Trails with some logging going on. Sunday's ride had me as lead dog on virgin groomed trails for most of the morning.

Fridays fish fry at the Al-Gen was fantastic. Tom the bartender was kept busy making one Old Fashioned after another for a couple hours.

[Thrall]

Originally Posted by Datdude

Anyone out riding? Our daughter Callie Marie arrived on 1/24 and my sled is sitting in the trailer patiently waiting to be ridden. I was hoping to ride this weekend, but that is not going to work. Hopefully next week sometime? BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP

Congratulations Chad!!!!!!!!!

Got out for the first time, last Sat. Snow was epic, but had the biggest clusterfark day ever. Took 1 buddy and 4 old guys from MN, "good riders", by their own admission. By the time we got to the top of the hill to start riding (12-13mi), 1 guy's hands were cold!
No more than 150' off the trail, 3 of teh 4 of them are stuck, skis pointed to the sky!
Go thru the stuck/unstuck every couple hundred yards for about 2-3hrs. (And they weren't much help getting themselves unstuck and needed the sled rode out too.
(This wasn't a big "stuck" day either. 2' of fresh over a decent 4' base, more in the trees though!)
I get to rounding up all these guys to see if they really want to continue so me and my buddy could go ride at least. 2 of them were cold, 1 b!tching about his goggles. My sled dies around the corner from where I sent them, takes about 30min to get it going, elect short in throttle safety switch.
Go to find the old guys (who I told to "stay effing put if you get separated from me, so I can find you and if you get messed up and end up riding out without me, stay by the orange sticks, trail, but not broken yet (this will be important later!)) and they're gone!
Me and Art figure they're all stuck in the trees. SPend about another 2hrs beatin the woods down looking for them. FInally we decide they must have gone down to the truck. Not sure if I'm pissed off or worried they're lost by now.
Ride back out about 5mi to the main trail and see them off in a bowl, sitting with one hood up, 1/4mi from the trail as a crow flies. The b@sterds did take off for the truck when my sled broke and none of them came back to tell me. I was only just around the corner in a big meadow from where they left!
Get down there and one of the rental sleds snapped the primary clutch bolt off! Fark! (Remember I told them guys to stay on the trail of they were not with me?)
Tried probably 20 times to tow the dead sled out. Couldn't get it out with one sled pulling and a rider on the dead one...too heavy. Couldn't keep teh dead one upright while side hilling without a rider. Couldn't keep a 2nd pull sled upright or the dead sled upright with only 2 people that knew how to ride!!!! (Me and Art). Oh and 2 of the guys split down to the truck right after Art and I found them..they were cold. I was sweating my @ss off. It was in the 20's and mostly sunny!
Finally get one of the flatlanders to stay on the dead sled while me and Art pulled a much longer route, but less steep. We're about 300' from the trail, slight uphill, slight sidehill, going for broke. Sleds are pulling like champs we're almost there. Old guy gets bucked off, it takes off down the sidehill, I try to keep it going Art tries to slow down, dead sled rear ends mine. Bends the tunnel, cracks the bumper and tail light. Now the dead sled is downhill in untouched snow towards a creek bed. Fark! I get it off of humping the back of my sled and hook it back up and tow it down near the creek where there's some tracked up snow. Give it a couple more tries getting it up out of there and that was it. Packed up and left it there for the night. Guy that owns the Cat dealer and Tom (the 4th old guy that I'm buddies with) went up 2 days later, couldn't get the clutch bolt drilled out, so they brought up the owner's sons and towed it out.
Shoulda just kept on going when I saw them broke down. Not only were they p!ss poor riders, they had no idea fo teh terrain up there and didn't listen to a word fo instruction I had given them.
That's the last time I take newbs up on a powder day!

(On a good note, the few times I did get up in the trees, it was over the hood powder everywhere! Would come out looking like a big white lawn dart!)

[JohnnyB]

Chad,

Congrats on the new baby....where are the pics???? That deserves its own thread.

[erkoehler]

Originally Posted by Thrall

Congratulations Chad!!!!!!!!!

Got out for the first time, last Sat. Snow was epic, but had the biggest clusterfark day ever. Took 1 buddy and 4 old guys from MN, "good riders", by their own admission. By the time we got to the top of the hill to start riding (12-13mi), 1 guy's hands were cold!
No more than 150' off the trail, 3 of teh 4 of them are stuck, skis pointed to the sky!
Go thru the stuck/unstuck every couple hundred yards for about 2-3hrs. (And they weren't much help getting themselves unstuck and needed the sled rode out too.
(This wasn't a big "stuck" day either. 2' of fresh over a decent 4' base, more in the trees though!)
I get to rounding up all these guys to see if they really want to continue so me and my buddy could go ride at least. 2 of them were cold, 1 b!tching about his goggles. My sled dies around the corner from where I sent them, takes about 30min to get it going, elect short in throttle safety switch.
Go to find the old guys (who I told to "stay effing put if you get separated from me, so I can find you and if you get messed up and end up riding out without me, stay by the orange sticks, trail, but not broken yet (this will be important later!)) and they're gone!
Me and Art figure they're all stuck in the trees. SPend about another 2hrs beatin the woods down looking for them. FInally we decide they must have gone down to the truck. Not sure if I'm pissed off or worried they're lost by now.
Ride back out about 5mi to the main trail and see them off in a bowl, sitting with one hood up, 1/4mi from the trail as a crow flies. The b@sterds did take off for the truck when my sled broke and none of them came back to tell me. I was only just around the corner in a big meadow from where they left!
Get down there and one of the rental sleds snapped the primary clutch bolt off! Fark! (Remember I told them guys to stay on the trail of they were not with me?)
Tried probably 20 times to tow the dead sled out. Couldn't get it out with one sled pulling and a rider on the dead one...too heavy. Couldn't keep teh dead one upright while side hilling without a rider. Couldn't keep a 2nd pull sled upright or the dead sled upright with only 2 people that knew how to ride!!!! (Me and Art). Oh and 2 of the guys split down to the truck right after Art and I found them..they were cold. I was sweating my @ss off. It was in the 20's and mostly sunny!
Finally get one of the flatlanders to stay on the dead sled while me and Art pulled a much longer route, but less steep. We're about 300' from the trail, slight uphill, slight sidehill, going for broke. Sleds are pulling like champs we're almost there. Old guy gets bucked off, it takes off down the sidehill, I try to keep it going Art tries to slow down, dead sled rear ends mine. Bends the tunnel, cracks the bumper and tail light. Now the dead sled is downhill in untouched snow towards a creek bed. Fark! I get it off of humping the back of my sled and hook it back up and tow it down near the creek where there's some tracked up snow. Give it a couple more tries getting it up out of there and that was it. Packed up and left it there for the night. Guy that owns the Cat dealer and Tom (the 4th old guy that I'm buddies with) went up 2 days later, couldn't get the clutch bolt drilled out, so they brought up the owner's sons and towed it out.
Shoulda just kept on going when I saw them broke down. Not only were they p!ss poor riders, they had no idea fo teh terrain up there and didn't listen to a word fo instruction I had given them.
That's the last time I take newbs up on a powder day!

(On a good note, the few times I did get up in the trees, it was over the hood powder everywhere! Would come out looking like a big white lawn dart!)

Sounds EPIC!

[Thrall]

Originally Posted by erkoehler

Sounds EPIC!

Yeah, it was outta this world!

[Datdude]

Originally Posted by erkoehler

Chad, how about the 12-14? Cabin in South Range???

I might be able to make a day trip, but don't want to push my luck with an overnight yet.


Hey thrall......that sounds like a bad day in the snow. Losing people in the group is the worst! If the broken sled was not mine I would have left it there. That will teach them to leave you.

[Thrall]

Originally Posted by Datdude

I might be able to make a day trip, but don't want to push my luck with an overnight yet.


Hey thrall......that sounds like a bad day in the snow. Losing people in the group is the worst! If the broken sled was not mine I would have left it there. That will teach them to leave you.

Yeah, if it was one of the tool's sleds it would still be sitting there as far as I'm concerned, but the local Cat dealer rents sleds (to people he knows mostly). He's a good guy, from up by Hurley of all places. He's always taken good care of us, like $150/day to rent new or newer 800's and 1000's when my friends come out to ride, so I was trying more to take care of him than the goofballs that actually rented the sleds.
Ended up smashing the hood on the broken 1000 when tool #3 fell off on the pull out and it crashed into mine. Mr. Dealer didn't even charge them for the hood and gave back 1/2 day of rent, said it wasn't the rider's fault the sled broke! (After he spent a day up on hte hill getting the sled out!)
One of the older guys, Tom, who I'm buddies with does alot of business with Gary too. Has bought a sled, 4 wheeler and a Prowler from him in the last few years, plus he uses Gary to process all his game (and this guy hunts like 100 days per year!). It was Tom's brothers and friends that were out here from MN.

Know it's a long ways from you guys in IL and WI, but for anyone out here looking for a Cat. Boyz Toyz in Eagle, CO is an awesome dealer. Not only does he do good stuff like the story above, but he sells pretty much all his machines at cost...period. His philosophy is he wouldn't make much per machine anyway, so he basically sells sleds for no profit, but the more machines he gets out on the hill, the more parts and repairs he makes money on.

[Datdude]

I wonder if that is the guy that used to own the Cat dealer in Hurley? There used to be a dealership as you came into town from the South that has been closed for a while. He sounds like a nice guy, and now I understand why you helped get the sled out. It is nice to hear about dealers like that

[thatsmrmastercraft]

Any of you guys had any dealings with a sled shop in Mercer (I think)? It was run by a guy named Leon, who we referred to as f***ing Leon because his choice of vocabulary would make a merchant marine blush. We used to ride up in that neck of the woods a lot, and I know he came through with some parts on more than one occasion. Great guy, just keep the one's with sensitive ears at a distance.