8306-R2_MSA_March2023

Short Stories From MSA Members

Always an Adventure By Don D.

Just aTrip to Camp By Michael Remillard

1 0:00 AM: I went snowmobiling today out toward Elsmore Landing, to check on camps and a generator. We have a 2” frozen base with 6” of hard snow on top. The temperature is 32°. I took Jerry’s, Arctic Cat and about two miles up the High Road (unofficial snowmobile trail) the Cat’s right ski fell into a deep pickup truck tire track and we rolled onto our right side. The snowmobile trail runs parallel to and on both sides of the truck trail and at times very close. If you’re not paying 100% attention, you could get in trouble. I wasn’t paying attention at that moment. It’s about the fifth time I rolled while on a snowmobile, but the first time I felt a snowmobile rolling on my leg. I instantly thought my leg could break, but luckily it was only the soft seat that I felt roll on me. As I was pulling my leg out from between the Cat and snow, I noticed gas leaking at the cap. I shut the key off and then made sure the cap was tight. It was. The gasket must no longer seal correctly. All else looked fine so I tried putting the snowmobile back on its ski’s and I couldn’t. After several tries I had to take layers of clothing off because I was overheating. While trying to right the sled, I pulled a right ham string muscle, or tendon, or some thing. I felt instant pain for 30 seconds and then that leg became useless for power. It became a cane. Les, Brinda and I all figured lots of sleds will be out today. I kept looking for help but no one came along to give me a hand. I did notice the sled was rocking back and forth when I would try to right it. I figured if I try to roll the sled completely over, it would rock back and then I could grab the ski and slam it down to the snow covered ground. As I tried harder and harder, the Cat would rock back further and further. I gave it four big rocks in a row and as the Cat rocked back more and more I grabbed the ski and smacked it down, like if I was on Wild World of Wrestling. The Cat pounced right side up. I took my time and looked over everything. Gas cap, injection oil and all else was fine. Equipment was still bungee cord tied down. I turned the Cat’s ignition key, but the two carburetors didn’t spring to life, even after more than eight starting attempts. She would always start but run at 1/4 speed only. Finally, the right amount of gas must have reached the carb’s and she sprung to life. I layered up and moved on. All camp’s and the generator were fine. Weston, Wyatt, Cyrus and others from the Young Gun Gang were ice fishing out towards Deer Cove. I wanted to visit them but all things considered, I felt that I should head for home, and did. The unofficial High Road trail is not nice. The pickup truck tire tracks take up the best part of the trail. Snowmobilers can run in the middle of the track, or on either side. No matter where you decided to run, the trail is not good and you end up running on all three trails. When motor boating I always tell my young guns to look behind you before turning left or right, because you must assume a faster boat is about to pass you. The same goes with snowmobiling. Today I probably looked 90% of the time, but you are always switching trails and driving over that pickup truck tire trail in search of the best trail to run. Always looking behind you before you change lanes is near impossible. As I was cruising along at 25 MPH in the right lane, two snowmobilers unexpect edly flew by me in the tire track trail at prob ably 50 MPH or more. In my opinion that is way too high of a speed to pass another snowmobiler at such a close dis tance. I doubt if they even knew what could have happened. I made it back to the Log Cabin Garage and leaned back and closed my eyes with a sigh of relief. I shut off the Cat, took three steps and fell down on the snow covered ice. My feet were basically on hard ice, but luckily my body hit the ground on 1 FT of soft snow. I think I should go home, lock the doors and take a nap.

It was a bittersweet trip to Caribou Maine this past Thursday to Mon day. We put on over 400 miles in all the riding we did from Friday to Sunday. Traveling up, from Western Mass early Wednesday morning after leaving our homes at 4 am. Our final stop before reaching our base camp in Perham we stopped to fuel the pickup truck and our 5-gallon sled gas cans with non-ethanol sweet fuel for our sleds. while parked, truck and sled trailer, a guy backed into our snowmobile trailer and scuffed up the side panels of our immaculately maintained sled trailer. NO structural damages-just cosmetic, but frustrating to say the least.The exchange of insurance papers and the kindWashburn police officer who assisted us made the interaction a mutually pleasant one. Day one of riding my buddy Bill lost control on a tight corner on the trails and went into a deep ditch filled with powdery snow that padded his landing so no damage. It looked like a gutter ball during a bowling game. Day two my other friend Will had some fuel issues with his snowmobile and we had to basically had to watch his sled stutter back to base camp. Later that day, a bolt came undone from my secondary clutch and my belt started squealing like a scared pig. I pulled over to find just a few threads of the bolt were left before the secondary would have fallen off. Day three my other friend Dan’s sled broke a drive belt but had a spare and we did fine the rest of the day. Last day, Sunday took 100 plus mile ride round trip that included a stop at Lor ing AFB and while on my last 6 miles heading towards base camp my snowmobile engine seized up. Motor is dead and I’m now done for the season. I’m a retired Air Force Aircraft Crew Chief and preflight’d my sled thoroughly, but there are unseen things that are going on inside a 2014 snowmobile with 7000 miles on it you can’t plan for. Believe me, I’m a very thorough person when it comes to maintenance and taking care of my cars and toys. Traveling back home with truck and trailer, more than a 500-mile trek, my buddy’s pickup truck transmission started slipping.We took it slow and easy all the way home and what usually takes 7.5-8 hours took a little over 9. But we made it safely and it’s in the shop now getting checked out. We took the good with the bad this weekend but the trails were fabu lous and the views were spectacular and I have no regrets. We took home all the positives of the weekend and left the negatives in pieces on the road home...

MARKYOUR CALENDARS - SATURDAY APRIL 29 TH is the annual MSA meeting/banquet. It will be held at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer. Reservation required for meal - $25.00 per person and prepayment is appreciated. Details and RSVP can be found on mainesnowmobileassociation.com Get your nominations and memberships in and plan to attend the final event of the 2022-23 season! ANNUAL MEETING NOTICE

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