Welcome back Riders, just another day on the Darkside. And what is a Darkside day if you don’t have issues.
After a medium length happy hour, last night’s dinner was, as expected, exceptional. The carrot soup was pheonominal. Or was it sweet potatoe soup. Or was it Squash soup. I have asked 3 different riders what the soup was, and those are the three different answers I got. Whatever it was, it was orange, and delicious. Followed up with a flank steak perfectly cooked with some grilled sweet peppers and thick potato spears. I’m pretty sure the desert was a blueberry cheesecake with chocolate mousse. It was a fine meal in the Bush.
Before dinner, Yamaha Kevin prepped the just out the dining room door, open fire pit, with a tee pee of kindling and firewood. During dinner, Robere’ got some newspaper from the front desk for some fuel, and got the fire going.
After dinner, a few riders gathered around the fire, with a beautiful lake and mountains hidden in the dark in front of us. There was a light rain mixed snow falling on us, as we gathered around the fire with some cold rocky mountains. Lots of conversation and laughs.
After the fire group got wet enough from the falling snow, the group in Cabin 1, Orange Helmet, Connecticut Jim, Wiki Rob, Action Dan, The Wanderer, Robere’ and Stick sporaticly gathered around the two 6 person tables for more lively conversation and such., with the wood burning stove cranking off the heat.
This morning’s call time was, well, there really wasn’t one. We only had about 80 miles, to Mont-Laurier QC. The morning started with NFG Shawn and his Arctic Cat with what Connecticut Jim often refers to as a “known problem”. Apparently, the starter relay switch under the hood froze and needed to be warmed up for the Arctic Cat/Yamacat to start up. Fortunately, most on this team know the problem, and they had his sled running in no time. Now we are waiting on Truck Driver Brian. He is still down at cabin 2 trying to get his heated helmet shield to work. After closer observation of the magnetic helmet cord, he found a dime had gotten stuck in the small space between the cord and helmet connection point. A dime richer and down the trail we went.
For about 3 miles. Then Orange Helmet starts throwing his left arm up in the air telling the group to pull over to the right side of the crusty frozen trail. Stick is third in line on this trip, directly behind Orange Helmet, and Craig walks back and informs me that he left his glasses, that he wears during all waking hours, back at the lodge. How do you get on your sled, go 3 miles, and not realize you can’t see? Anyway, the group kept moving forward, to catch up with the oblivious Action Dan, to let him know that the whole group was no longer behind him.
Action Dan finally got caught up with and pulled over, while we waited on the trail for Orange Helmet to catch back up. It wasn’t long, and we were back down the trail.
The next issue of the morning was Sticks ski doo was running warm. The frozen crusty trails were not providing much broken snow off the track to cool the heat exchanger above the track. Ski Doo Matt was requisitioned for consultation and his Unauthorized Factory Support response was, spin the track more. Ok, will do.
Hopefully you're realizing now that I was overdramatic on my opening line today. We had no big issues to deal with. We had a good ride, the sled cooled down, Orange Helmet had his glasses to read the intersection signs and we had a nice ride today.
Our ride took us to Montagne du Diable, or Devil’s Mountain, where we stopped at the Relaise at the top. We actually got lunch again today, a very good tomato soup, with a ham and cheese pressed sandwich, and I saw a couple Cesar salads go around. After a group picture, down the trail we went.
The next stop on our tour was to swing by a viewing point for a large water fall/rapids observation. Sorry, no pictures, I have been here before I stayed back at the sled with a few others, and watched Truck Driver Brian’s nature moment. He was very welcoming of the stop on the trail.
Today is, however, a special day on the trail. We celebrate both The Wanderer’s and Ski Doo Matt’s birthdays today! Dylan finally got phone service and can’t express enough how much he appreciates the many texts of “happy birthday” he is receiving. Make the boys feel special today!
We arrived into the Quality Inn Mont Laurier at round 2:30pm. The snow is thin here. The sidewalk across the bridge we have to travel to get here usually has 4 feet of snow on it. It was concrete today.
Most of the group checked into the hotel, while The Wanderer, Action Dan and Robere’ headed to the Ski Doo dealer to try and get Robere’s cracked A Arm replaced. In a separate group, Ski Doo Matt and Hedgie also went to the Ski Doo dealer to try and get Hedgies’ heated helmet shield cord replaced. Apparently, the mechanic at the Ski Doo store goes off shift at 4pm, and they arrived at 3pm. So Robere’ has the A Arm, but not replaced and Hedgie got a part for his cord, and Ski Doo Matt repaired his cord. Ski Doo Matt has had some billable hours today.
The Quality Inn is a fond place of mine. Back in the day, we used to park the trucks/trailers here and launched from here. Special memories with special people for me.
We used to have dinner in the restaurant here, but apparently the restaurant is only open for breakfast at this time. Too bad, they had a top notch FRENCH onion soup back in the day. So dinner will be coming up soon at the Brew Pub next door.
Tomorrow, we have another scheduled 60-mile day to Club Meekos. We shall see.
Bye for now,
Cheers
Stick