Ox

Yes, very aware. I was there... Did not need to drag home the emptys tho. We spent 3 days in the bush when the one fuel dump was empty. Steve (Gail) and Dennis (Margie) built Halfway, so no - there was nothing there prior.

LOL! As a matter of fact, Willie did actually run something like that out there back in the day.

I just HAD to see this! So, new bed is yellow with black and says Doo?

But Cat aint any of those. Cat barely has an ATV/SxS business at all, and when Text bought them, they relabeled them "Textron" for a few months, and doo to overwhelming fussing, they re-issued new CAT nameplates and stickers to be put on them. My chum was a dealer for them at the time and of course they made it all sound like it was going to be "HUGE", and yet, here we are - what - 4 years later by now? 3+ anyhow.... Yunno, those hold-over sleds are gone by now .... If it wasn't for the Alpha, IDK if they'd even be selling sleds at all hardly?

"News" out of Cat would be that they were actually going to see aboot producing motor toys for big boys again at some time in the future. At this point - Cat aint on the radar hardly any more that Yammi. Textron didn't seem to doo much good for Polaris in the 70's. Doesn't appear to be making headway here either. They must make some bucks somewhere, but it Shirley aint been in the toy market. (apparently they are big in military)

[Prolly told this story already, but since it's true I can tell the same story many times without changing the names and events... Something my wife never seems to be able to doo] IDK, must'a been 7-8 yrs ago? Me and chum got a late ride on Easter weekend out west. Picked up a trailer that a chum of his had left at their camp in Colorado for some reason. (?) That late in the yr the snow there was terrible, so we drug that trailer up to Dubois where the snow was only slightly less terrible and we rode there for a cpl days, and headed home. Then the next summer my BIL had the forktruck stuck out here, and he hooked a chain onto the truck hitch, and tugged a bit, and the 2" sqr tube plug-in broke ratt in half. It was rotted 3/4 away all the way around - basically at the outside edge of the receiver. There it lay, on the ground.... "Dang, we just drug a small enclosed trailer halfway accrost the bloody country a few months ago with that!" I guess that's what the chains are for? [/Prolly told this story already, but since it's true I can tell the same story many times without changing the names and events... Something my wife never seems to be able to doo] -------------- "I guess that's what the chains are for?" Well, on our way home from Laramie a few weeks ago (again - on Easter) my chum tells me a story that I think that he may have told me before... A chum of his who has always been single and had more dollars than cents had this big motor home, and a trailer that he towed behind it that was built to have been a dbl decker race car trailer, but they had it stuffed full'a snowmachines. They had just gotten back from a trip to Colorado, and was backing into his driveway - when the whole hitch just broke away from the frame of the motorhome and hit the deck, with the trailer still attached. I'm thinkin' that in this case - those chains weren't gunna doo much good.... Can you imagine driving down the road and having a dbl decker race car trailer with a tongue full'o sparks crossing the yellow line with you in it's sights? Have I ever mentioned that I hate tow-behinds? I love my goose!

I guess I am on the other side of that. I want it done snowing when I unload. I don't like to ride while it's snowing if I can help it. On the other subject, I fully expect, and quite honestly _ appreciate _ "bad" weather roads when I go sledding. Just part of the experience I guess? I don't have a 6 place enclosed hooked behind my Suburban, and then bitch aboot the roads that I cannot run 115 klicks safely. (and doo it anyway) (not that pulling a 30' enclosed behind a 'Burban in the summer is all THAT safe either) [most always] I toss two sleds on the deck of my flatbed dually truck and I go anywhere. If I can't git through, no-one else will either.

I fired a truck lines for this. "Surcharge" has been WAY over abused! Katrina hit in '05 eh? Fuel was $4 US for nigh on 15 yrs after that! And somehow $4 fuel still demands a surcharge? Couldn't find time in the last dozen years to update the cost/mile fee and just roll it into the cost of dooing business? Then the price of fuel finally started dropping, and even got down to pre '05 rates, and yet there is still a "Fuel Surcharge"? REALLY pisses me off! Then one day a trucking company (steel hauler) decided that it was a good idea to save $ on postage, and they started e-mailing the invoices. Well, those come into MY 'desk, not mamma's post office box. For the most part I don't handle the money here in over 20 years, but now that some of the invoices come into my desk now - that helps me to know what's what. Well the bill for a 1/2 load of steel coming out of Chi Town had what seemed like a big surcharge to me, so I did the math. I don't recall the numbers anymore, but the surcharge was enough to have paid for every drop of fuel used to propel that truck from Chi-Town to my door, and I only had half the load. I'm sure the other guy was going to be paying even more yet as he is further down the pike yet. So then - what is the "baseline" for fuel, that the surcharge is added to? I found a new trucker. I don't care that he is cheaper or not, just call a spade a friggen spade and don't try pullin' any fast ones! If it costs $5/mile to run that rig, then bill $5. Not $2.40 with a huge rider on the side! (out of proportion values, just emphesis)

The cruiser is rubber up, doo you still git a Failure to Control ticket?

It snowed for prolly 4-5 hours here yesterdee. Didn't stack up here, but my chum on the other side of the Indiana line said that the ground was white over there.

Wait - that WAS done this year - wasn't it? I'm sure I seen a post here, or maybe even a writ aboot that in a sledding mag maybe, or ????? I think that it is the link from Mani to Hornepayne that is still not opened yet? The west end of that goes through some nice hilly terrain, and then dumps you out on (next to) Industrial (?) Road on the Hornepayne side, and then seems to flatten right out all of a sudden. Not rode that section in decades. I don't like to ride the flats...

Yeah, I guess I should have included the owners of the subject as well. That would have been the year recently (not this last year) that had a really late start doo to cold I think? Where he spent basically the whole month of Jan at The Bristol?

Strange... I wonder if they knew that he was gone via posts on F/B? Still, IDK what value would be to be there, as opposed to down by Linus/Pee Wee - where we have camped sometimes. Funny how 3 of us here are all in about a 50 mile circle from each other.

Squatters? Like moose and bear? Steve [and Billie] had an issue with one large bear that eventually squatted right through the kitchen wall. He was hanging on the wall soon there after, and a large cross-cut saw was hung on the outside wall - upside down after that.

I doo agree that is likely the case, but others have used the term "can't", and that simply is not the case. I rode that trail for 3 years before Halfway was there. Purty sure that it was Dec '99 when they opened originally, and I was of the first group/night of customers. (Should have been there the night before, but we slept in the bush that night) It was a groomed trail when we started riding it in March 97. (although it was under 18" of fresh snow from the day before - but it had been groomed anyhow) I just ass _u_me that the groomers had a lot of jerry cans on board and slept in the groomers. This trail is NOTHING like it was back then either! It is mostly on new logging road now, and is several miles shorter on the south end than it was originally, as we used to have to run Ranger North all the way to where it crossed the hydro - at the sand pit, but now you can cut a few miles off with a new cut line put in many years ago. ... but then you doo need to add a few back on I guess since they haven't used Point Lake Rd in a coons age - in favor of the faster [easier] Ranger North... It was "TOP D" trail at that time, but was also running under "Wilderness Trail" designation - just like the trail up the back side of Wakamata Lake. (Doo they still use the "TOP" nomenclature anymore?) This is the mid to late 90's, back when a snowmachine couldn't make it more than 100 miles on a tank - even on groomed trails. Now-days the new roads and bridges have completely erased the old Toll Creek crossing, and oodles of other remoteness. I love the fact that at least the 15-20 klicks from Bauparlante Road to Cross-over Rd is still Old Skewl. (where y'all bugger off the hydro line at the warm-up shack, and then ride right past another warm-up shack @ 50mph on Cross-over that you don't even know is there) Now - I doo understand that this aint the 90's anymore as per liabilities as well. AND - as has been said - you could EAT GAS NOW* in Searchmont back then, but this really isn't an issue for Yanks IM/HO. Even when Searchmont was open - anyone that I knew always unloaded in Searchmont anyhow, and didn't need gas or food there. Even AC/YA staged there ..... Also note that the trail out to Pineal Lake / Chapleau wasn't opened up until some time during or after The Crash, and after the mill @ Pineal Lake closed - which then opened up the road(s) over there for skidoos. That was NOT part of the early days / original plan. My chum and me scouted that route for possible trail (other than the road) back around 2004 or 5 prolly? (I have pics, so I can date it) I really miss the old trail through the bush, but "Progress has taken it's Toll". ** * C W McCall ref ** John Anderson ref Here is a pic of old skewl Toll Creek with the beaver dam on the one side. It was almost always running water there. Pic taken a year before Halfway .

I have no idea how this would have NOT happened after this season. It would have been bad enough if they just left it closed up all winter, but then they went in to doo _ due diligence on keeping the trail open, even tho the border is closed. You take Yanks out of D north, and y'aint got much. Then doo the provincial wide shut down, and no snow, and .... Not quite understanding the donation thing? Not a go fund me? .

Not sure if the weight of the snow will harm the 15" tall wheat or not? So far it looks like it will be OK. Lot of corn in the ground around me tho, and some of it's been there for a while already. 25* tonight won't doo it well. Today's variety's are awfully forgiving compared to what I played with 40 yrs ago, but I expect to see some replanting going on in a cpl weeks. Some beans in the ground too. No clue what to expect with those. But after it quit melting on impact, we totaled up as much as 5". I've never seen the like. Snow flurries in April - sure, but not more than an 1" accumulation at most before. This dang Global Whining has got to stop! Did you'uns get anything on your side of the river?

IF it was real cold: IF we decided to go riding anyhow: IF we were riding the Zx's: Then - yes, we would likely rummage around to find some windshields. We take them off for hwy travel anyhow. BUT! A) I typically ride smarter, not harder these days. I have my -40* badge/T-shirt already, and my boy already has permanent frost damage to his cheek from -30*, so no real value in still riding in the bitter cold anymore. C) We don't ride fast. We are mostly off-trail'ers. We can and have gotten stuck on trail at times, but we pull over and let y'all around. D) I don't even have a windshield for my G4. I have thought aboot maybe seein' what it would take to put a shorter one on it for cold weekends, but really isn't an issue...

We seldom use the windshields on our Zx's anymore, and my G4 doesn't even have one (Summit), but back-in-the-day we used to just keep adding them on to the 'shield. The longer you went w/o blowing up the windshield, the more years worth of tags that you had built up on it. Then, when it dies, you can hang it up on the wall in the garage eh?

I was in Culvers in Cheyenne, Wyoming on Saturday afternoon. No masks. Full ketchup bottles. And in wheels a fella in a Razor. His whole family jumps out and comes in for dinner. He said that it was legal anywhere in the state - except the freeway. I noted that he had pick-up tarrs on it. I cannot imagine paying for knobbies and then running the roadways! .

I know that you are highly safety conscious - or at least you like to think so... You will have your helmet and your chest protector on, and then go out and buy a new KTM, hop up the motor, intend to get in a race with hundreds (?) of other people on the same course at the same time. That is obviously "reasonably safe" in your mind. But if I want to take my ATV and cruise through the bush with maybe 1 or 2 other people, not racing, but rather enjoying the natural beauty of the Algoma bush, you are going to say that I should have all that gear on too. "Well of course, be safe aboot it eh?" But if it takes all that to be "safe" in what I doo, how is it even remotely safe for you to doo the other at all? Who is more at risk? So, you jump on your Rice. You have your helmet on, IDK aboot your chest protector here(?), but I'm sure that you will be sporting your Power Ranger suite on (in place of your sledding jammies?) and then not only intentionally run the Tail of the Dragon, but you will intend to doo it as fast as you can reasonably make it through. While if I happen accrost the same stretch of road in my dually crew cab, I need to have my seat belt on? And then once I was told by a fella with a screen name of Need For Speed, that I need to wear my seat belt. "Oh really... ?" Eric, I am not here to tell you not to play like you want, but don't preach safety, let alone legislate it. .

I saw that when it came out on the Yukon page a few years ago, but I don't recall the canoe in tow thing? I wonder if that was edited in since then? This is aboot all I have to say aboot pancakes:

A) I cannot imagine sledding w/o a bucket, but only for the porpoise of staying warm and dry, and maybe keeping the wind out. However - I doo ride with one fella that wears a bomber hood and goggles in stead of a bucket. (off trailer rider) B ) I despise any law that is there specifically for my own safety. You worry aboot you, I'll worry aboot me. I'm a big boy now... C) In the name of the health care cost argument - I can counter that easily. So, let's say that Billy gits into a jackpot. C1) Billy will be off werk for a few weeks, but is expected to make a reasonably full recovery. He will now retire and suck off the tit of other workers and the system (that he paid into while he was working) for the rest of his life. C2) He is all messed up. He will likely be on disability for the rest of his life, but he will live - b/c he had his brain bucket on. Billy will now be a drain on society for the rest of his life. C3) Billy is a veggy, and will be for the rest of his days, however long that may be. He will be a drain on the system for the duration. He will be a financial drain on The System and his family. He will be a source of angst for his family for the duration. But lucky for Billy, he had his bucket on, and he would have simply been pushing up daisies sooner than later. C4) Billy got into a pickle, he did not have much safety equipment on, he died on the spot. 3 days later he is pushing up daisies, and life for the rest of the world goes on and recovers. Billy is not a drain on the system at all. The System actually saved a BUNCH of $ b/c he paid into it for the time that he was working, and will now not be drawing off of in his retirement years, saving The System a SCHIDT POT full of Loonies in the end! Billy was out taching out his rice rocket and missed the turn, and pile drove into something a wee bit harder than feathers, but at least he was safe aboot it - he had his bucket on - per the law.... .

I don't normally pony up for all that fancy schtuff. In this case - I just use 2" rattshit straps. You'll rip an A-arm off before you rip the strap.

Well, if they are limiting builds this year, then the used market is likely to stay strong.