Sledding

Saturday, March 7 - Sunday, March 8, 2015

I finally got a chance to go snowmobiling.  Paul had booked a room at Spectacle Lake Lodge.  I left home at 3:30 am and arrived at Paul's before 6:00.  From there we got in his truck and headed to L'Amabe just south of Bancroft.  Evan and Paul unloaded the sleds.  

We headed to Bancroft and then on to Whitney and enjoyed lunch at the Honey Doo Restaurant.   

The trails and weather were excellent and we put on 150 Km's on our way to Spectacle Lake Lodge. 

Here's our cottage.  

We headed out the next morning and made a stop at this lookout before heading towards Barry's Bay.  

Barry's Bay is a Polish community and there is a Park there honoring Janusz Zurakowski the first test pilot for the Avro Arrow.  His nephew used to own the cottage next to ours in Limerick Lake. 

We continued on our way back to Bancroft along some beautiful trails. 

I was coming down this right hand turn.  It had a bit of a reverse camber and I went a little wide.  When you get off the trail the snow is much softer and you tend to go down in it.  

That's when it happened!!!! This tree didn't get out of the way!!!  Fortunately I was not going fast. 

But still hit it hard enough to make the machine inoperable.  

I was very fortunate not to get injured.   Paul disengaged the drive belt and hooked it up to his sled.   

Here's where it happened. We were about a mile and a half from highway 62 well north of Bancroft.  

We managed to get my machine to the side of 62 and we rode 3 up on Paul's machine for over 90 km.   Paul dropped Evan and I off at Hortons in Bancroft and went back to load his sled on the trailer and then came back to get us.   We drove back up 62 to retrieve my machine and then head home.  

The part that is unsettling is that I was not going fast or trying to avoid anything. I had gone through many similar turns over the two days.  We were very fortunate that things worked out as well as they did given the circumstances.  Luckily, it happened around 12:30 and we had enough daylight to get everything accomplished.

At the time of this writing, the adjuster has determined that the machine is a write off.   Very sad as it was an excellent sled in brand new like condition.