Ox

OK, so you are neither Anyweather Lewis nor Clark eh? .

"Can't go w/o a guide"?

If you stay @ Hawk, one ride that I highly recommend is that you take the trail east out of town, past the sub-station. That will run you out to a beach landing on the chain of lakes. I have some pics of 4wheelers and my truck there, but can't find them. (maybe never scanned in?) I hooked up with another group for the day, and the guy running point for them took us up river, and eventually up to Ernies for burgers. You doo need to git off the water and take a portage between Whitefish (Manitowik?) Lake and Dog to the north. (A klick of whoops!) You need to take the portage as apparently there is a "narrows" between the lakes that doesn't freeze well, or at all. I did not see this narrows as I was just following the group, and I kind'a question it's existance as that spot should be the Arctic Watershed, as Whitefish Lake flows south to Anjigami and the Michipocotin River and dumps into Lake Superior near Wawa, and Dog Lake to the north should flow north via the Missinnabi River to James/Hudson's Bay, so ... ??? I wish that I had pics of the ride - other than what I have. It is similar to running the Magpie, only ... "more" is prolly the best that I can describe. Rock walls shooting up on both sides of the waterway. I labeled the lake here as Manitowik in the pic, and that lake doesn't show up on the online map, but since I labeled it as that, I'm guessing that the TOPO map must have shown it better? I doo highly recommend that you don't make first tracks tho! Only go if you can follow old tracks.

Well, maybe not, but the scum does have the legal right to beat the Schidt out of the sleds until caught. I mean ... at least that's sumpthin' eh?

I figgered "Triton" as well. I meant that the hot sleds would only be valuable as parts sleds? I kan't imagine that you would ever be able to register either of them again - w/o swapping on the tunnel from a dead machine eh? And that's a lot of werk for an older machine like these. And maybe I am just showing my ignorance - as I haven't been overly involved in the hot market, so ....

Yunno ... I understand that this was likely a case of low hanging fruit, but the punishment (if you git caught) is the same as if you stole a trailer full of new sleds. Seriously - what total value is there on a good day, let alone trying to fence hot goods? The sleds are likely only good for parts? What aboot the trailer? Does that have any sort of ser# on it?

Ugh.... Any idea what their target age bracket is? It sure sounds like it must be the "20 sumpthin' " crowd.

You're fussin' aboot taking a skidoo over those? I took my ton truck over this one @ Wawa.

Does this water never freeze? Nor any major section above it? If so, how does a unit like this handle break-up?

Wait ... what? You wunna post that again ??? Slowly, and out loud ....

2013/2014

Can I "like" that one 2wiced?

LOL! IDK if I even got to sled that year. Obama got in Nov '08 and sales of black guns took off like a prom dress! (in the worst economy that 99% of us seen in our lifetime) Didn't see outside 'till August I think.

Well, as a rule - I don't see it, and I had tried a refresh before I posted, and it didn't change. So - after your post I hit refresh 5 times, and no change.

Occassionally when I go the the Main Forum page, I will get a side bar along the RH side that shows the recent posts, but then the next time I go back to it - it's gone. Which mouth holding technique is used to get that?

'78 was a good year eh? LOL! IDK aboot y'all's Polar Vortex's, but in 13/14 you could see a winter map from NOAA that essentially showed Michigan as dark blue. It wreched down just enough accrost the Ohio line to catch me too. LP in short supply, so we fired up two pellet burners that we hadn't been using to heat farm house and shop. I could still git LP, but I had other options, so I went the other route so some old couple didn't run out on my account. I had snow piled everywhere! edit: We kept puting off our last ride to Wawa in March b/c is was still so bloody cold! I figgered that one of these days -20 was going to turn into +5, so as the calendar kept Marching on, I kept gitt'n nervous... We finally went the end of March 2014, and it was still very cold, and the one night that we were out 'till 2am, the sky was so clear that you could see more stars than you knew was possible. Just as dense as a good night at 13,000' in Colorado! There were so many stars that you couldn't begin to see constelations. ... and yet it was so cold that it was condensing snowflakes out of the tad bit of moisture in the air anyhow.... This was just the beginning @ Jan 7th:

Me and my chum rode from Mani to Hornpayne with Darrel Chisholm (District 16 Gov for OFSC back then) back in Feb '97 I guess. BIG snow year! The groomer had been through to pack once, with no drag. The snow was DEEP and they just couldn't git ahead of it. It made it tough to navigate at times with the tracks (trenches) in there, but if we started to bog down, it was nice to be able to git back to those at times. The trail east outta Mani had a lot of rolling hills, and I was sporting a Grand Touring at the time (I was after a long track) and I would ride from the top of one hill to the top of the next, and then stop. Darrel was riding that ole' VK540 that he had back then, and that thing only goes so fast, and with the airplane gears that the Touring sled had, I couldn't go that slow and break my own trail too, so I would let him/them get ahead a bit, and then I'd go aggin. One time - kind'a near the end of Mani's section I think, I was coming down off this one hill and I didn't see the guys, but they were trying to wave me off. I had my eyeballs set for my line, not on them. Then someone jerked the snow ratt out from und'a'neath me! POOOOOOFFFFFFF! Maybe a 6' drop-off from deep powder - to ... more deep powder. There was a LOT of snow on the north shore that year! They don't usually git that much, and sometimes hardly any, as you don't normally git winter storms out of the South too often... .

I wonder what the "new" part of the trail is? Shirley they are still using the bulk of the old [wood pole] hydro line eh? That's a nice trip between those two towns as you can play off trail most of it. I recall there being one short distance that goes through thick young trees that early season ice was usually a problem. Been a long time since I've been there, but then - there hasn't been anywhere to stay really up that way in quite some time. (Mani / Horn) I'm sure that you could connect north or east if you are ok to ride "Wilderness trails". I'm sure that there will be tracks between towns at some point that you could follow? Might not be for the short track or two-up crowd tho.

Doo they limit the ice crossing to lighter weights as springs comes around? I guess I haven't watched enough Ice Road Truckers to know that? Meaning - that come spring and some warm days - the ice will git rotten, but then it could re-freeze for another cpl weeks. Down here - that has happened in Feb and then the big freeze came in and it was solid for 6-8 more weeks. (Algoma 1998) It would seem not fit for heavy haulers anymore maybe, but would that be opened for 4 wheeler traffic after a re-freeze? I've taken my truck accrost the Gardiner Ferry just north of Cochrane before. .

Ice wasn't "out"yet? Sounds bassakwards to me. How doo you mean? I would think that you could drive accrost while the ice was in? And not git accrost 'till next season? Shirley you can't ford that river even in the middle of summer - can you?

Actually - now that you say that, it seems like the last time that I shipped LTL to Toronto - it too got lost on the dock - but in Toronto I think... It arrived a day late. Two on the outside. So - we still have time to git them up to y'all.

Ships LTL!

My cousins are lookin' to unload a pr of 1990's Doo Touring type sleds (with covers) if you are looking. My uncle has been gone since '99, but they till sit in my G-ma's garage - much to her dismay... My aunt just died this summer, so they are motivated to unload now. No clue why my aunt wouldn't unload'm all these years? She may have - had they been sitting in HER garage! Prolly make you a screamin' pkg deal! Only 3 hrs from International Bridge... .

Oh heck, those coils weren't going down the road with 2 or 4 chains on them before anyhow. Sure, a coil cradle can somewhat limit, but I doubt all that much. They could easilly have a "dock plate" or some such to cover that hole when not used. You are going to end up with a heavier trailer, I git that, but if everyone else had to doo it that way - then it wouldn't be a financial sacrifice to be safe. IDK what most coil trailers look like, but it wouldn't need to be a huge hole. If the coil set in 18" would make a whole werld of difference! Heck, 12" would be WAY better than a cpl 4's chocked up in there.... And who gives a Schidt if that's all they can carry anyhow? So floating coils costs more doo to having to pay round trips (dead head)? Not that it would ever need to be that bad. I am sure they can find freight that will fit on an empty coil trailer... But I've never seen a livestock trailer with back haul freight.... I've seen coils in the median of 3 or 4 lane / side roadway. I seen'm rolled up into the cab of the truck that was pulling them. I just seen one at an entrance ramp the other day! 10-20 tonne rolling down the freeway on it's own just doesn't tend to end well. I've got more straps and chains that Carter had them little liver pills, and I use'm! I know that a lot of loose freight goes down the road in covered wagons and such, with no bindings, and only a pc of 1/2" plywood between it and the rest of the traffic, and once you put a tarp over it - it hides all sins, but I've seen more coils along the roads than I ever have stuff falling over/out of covered wagons. Not that "vans" are much better. Typically "securing" a load in those is more for show and tell that reality. Neighboring shop owner picked up a big stamping die at a customers and when he backed into his shop _ the guys noticed that the truck was listing to one side. The die had slid and went through the fibreglass wall, and was sticking 12-18" outside the truck! .