MN Again!

Day 1
Per usual, the trip was awesome. Right from the airport, up to the shack, only to find that the logger had plowed a 3 foot snowbank, now ice, that was blocking the road a half mile away from the shack. Luckily, we were early enough, that he was still there. After dropping off some clothes, firing up the heater, and doing some shoveling, we then headed back to my dads house for a few beers, and then bed. BTW, on the way to the shack we saw a silver fox. Too bad it took off, I really wish I could have gotten some pictures. It was the first one I've ever seen in MN, and I've been in them woods all my life!
Day2
Up bright and early excited to hit the trail, we had 2 bars, 2 shelters, and 125 miles of trail to cover, before we got to the shack. We fired up the sleds at about 8:30, and were on the road in short order. Considering all the rain that MN had just had, we were happy to find that the trails were, for the most part, in good shape. The only exception being all the spur trails, heading to and from the bars....go figure. Pretty uneventful ride up, until we got right close to the shack. We had decided to stop and have a beer with the logger a half mile from the shack, and as we got there, Jamie, (my younger bro) hits some ice turning into the loggers landing, and tips his machine, and cracks part of his windshield. Hit the shack at 5pm, beer...dinner.....beer....sauna...beer...midnight....beer....bed!

McGyver'ed


Day 3
Up at about 8:30am, because everyone heres Jamie's boots thumping across the floor. He never took them off...still had his snow pants on too!!!! Problems with a frozen throttle cable on one of the sleds, so we don't get that fixed and hit the trail until about 11am. The nearest gas station is 20 miles, so we all put enough gas in the machines to make it, except Charlie, who has a 2.5 gallon container on back, just in case. Half way to the gas station Charlie runs out of gas, only to find that his container is empty. So we pull a couple hoses off his sled, and connect them so we can siphon a little gas from a couple different sleds. Then as we almost get to the gas station, his sled starts running like shit. After gassing up, we look at it only to find, that one of the breather tubes we used to siphon gas was melted to the muffler. LOLOL Damn Finlander's!!! 90 miles, 2 bars later, and 7 hours later we were back at the shack for...beer...dinner....beer....sauna....beer...midnight....beer.....bed!


One of the bars had a vintage run going on, lots of old sleds.


P.s. It was Valantines day, so we all strapped teddy bears to hoods of our sleds.


Day 4
The trip home was good, the trails were even better than the way up. pretty uneventful until we were 8 miles from home, when Jamie had problems with his secondary clutch. Luckily we were only a mile from a parking lot, so we towed it to there, as my dad ran to town and got his truck! Back to my dads house for a few beers, then an early night.

Day 5
It was a relaxing one. I spent most of the day kicking Jamie's ass in cribbage. (ended up ahead $22.05, playing $1 a game $.05 a hole!). Went out for dinner at about 6 with the whole family, then I went downtown and met up with some buds, where it got very drunk out.

Day 6
Not much all day, but went and watched the old hockey team kick some ass! They have a great team this year, sporting a record of 20-5. They were playing Hibbing, one of the teams that handed them a lose, earlier in the year. The student section chants started 10 minutes before the game. It was awesome, and brought back a lot of memories. The first period was a little slow, as you could tell both teams were a little nervous. They went into the locker room still 0-0! About 5 minutes into the 2nd, Hibbing broke the ice, with there only goal. Less than a minute later, Virginia's 4th line tied it up. Immediately, the student section started chanting thats our 4th line. It was great. By the end of the second period the score was 3-1 Virginia. Shortly into the 3rd period Hibbing got a 2 on 1, and bounced one of the post...to witch the Virginia student started chanting "You got nothing", followed by Hibbings chants of "you got lucky", then, Virginia came back with "With your mother". The whole stadium started laughing at that one, including Hibbing fans. The 4th period was awesome, Virginia scored 4 more to win 7-1, 6 of them scored by sophomores, and 2 of them were short handed.


Day 7
The sad day of the trip. I attended a funeral. While I was home a lifelong friend of the family passed. Gerry Foleman, or Uncle Gerry as he was known to most, passed at the age of 80! He was one of the happiest people I've ever known. He would often tell jokes, and always laughed at them himself. When he laughed, his whole body laughed, and his face would turn red. A laugh I'll never forget... RIP Unc!!!

Day 8
Lots of driving, as I went and had brunch with my grandma in the am, then went and got Ashley in the pm. Almost 9 hours in a car!! EEK!

Day 9
We woke up early and hit the trails again, taking Ashley on her first solo snowmobile trip. It was a little scary at first, and took Ashley a while to get comfortable with the sled. Good thing Grandpa volunteered to follow her, and let me ride in front of her, cause I don't know if my heart could have taken following her all day! We drove to a local bar/restaurant, and had lunch. It took us 4 hours to get about 40 miles, but by the time we got there, Ashley was really starting to get the hang of it, and it only took about 2.5 hours to finish off the last 50 miles of the trip! By the time we got back Ashley was dead tired, but said she loved it, and would do it again in a heartbeat.




Day 10
I got to go watch my oldest nephew play hockey. Unfortunately, he wasn't having his best game, and got pulled half way through the second period after letting in two soft goals. His team was playing a team that one of the other guys from the shack, has a kid on, so I got to see a couple hunting buddies too. After the game my niece and other nephew came back to my mom's. We had a good time goofing off, and watching some movies. I also took them both for rides on the sled.

Day 11
Got up early, ate some breakfast, then took the kids on some more rides, before their mom came and picked them up. After that, I had the task of the long ride bringing Ashley home.

Day 12
Home sweet home......
Vikes