Frost Bytes Day 5, 01/26/2022... We Found Snow And The Temps Are A Falling (Brrrrr)

Well the goat path road we traversed to get to Rangeley, ME, gained a casualty. NFG Kelly’s Ram truck threw a dash light that the air ride went out by the time he arrived at Saddle Back Inn. He, and Yamaha Kevin, located a Ram dealer about 40 miles away, and got it into service before they closed for the evening (they borrowed the Bumble Bee for a chase vehicle). I tried convincing NFG Kelley that we have had a guy, Connecticut Jim, buy a sled on the trail, but it would definitely raise the bar if a new truck was purchased on the trail! He wasn’t so thrilled with that prospect, and was relieved when the dealer said it was just a fuse.

Anywho, while those two were screwing around with that project, the rest of the crew conjoined in the indoor swimming pool/hot tub building for adult beverages and friendly banter. After they had got their fill of soaking, we moved across the sidewalk to Recreation Room. A couple tables, a TV, a recliner and a couch, and the group was settled in now for the evening. We moved our bar set up from our rooms to the Rec Room, and a good time was had!

The Saddleback has a bar/restaurant on the premises, but I am not sure what the reason is that it is closed at this time, so this morning we loaded into trucks and drove about a mile into town for breakfast at the Rangeley Inn & Tavern. It is a beautiful bar/restaurant, and we were filled and ready for the trail in not so short order. Tomorrow we are going to try the Moose Alley Bowling and Restaurant/Tavern for breakfast. The real saddle bag ride begins in the morning, and we need to be on the trail in proper time.

We were on the trail by 10am this morning, and we did about 100 miles on a local trail loop. The trail conditions are MUCH improved versus where we were Monday. Pretty uneventful first half of the day, we stopped at the Looney Moose in Stratton ME, after about 50 miles. We entered the small entryway to the diner, and because there was 12 of us trying to offload our helmets and gear, the line went out the door. We were promptly reprimanded, by the only waitress, to “Close the damn door”. As we started to take seats in the front room, 1/2 the group sat at the first 8 person table. while the others roamed to the back room. The back room crew came back and said, “Hey, there’s room back here for all of us”, so we all moved to two tables in the back room. This prompted the waitress to holler at us “I hope you’re better at finding your way on the trails than you are at finding a table!” She was quite fun and provided us with a lunch filled with laughter.

The lunch special was Lobster stew, cup for $19.99 or bowl for $29.99. There was a few cups of the lunch special served, as well as some burgers, reuben’s and other lunch fare. Good lunch, good laughs, and we were back on the trail.

We headed back to proceed on the Loop that was marked on the 2022 trail map. After about 8 miles, we came to a trail head, and struck up a conversation with a homeowner. Action Dan & Craig asked the kind gentleman if were on the right path, and the kind gentleman informed them that the trail had been shut down by the local Indian reservation.

The time was getting away from us, it was about 2:30pm, the sun sets earlier as far east as we are, so we decided to do a partial track back to be in before dark. Good call, as it is getting cold here tonight low of -24 is forcast.

As we were hustling back on the mostly groomed trails, NFG Kelly lost a bogey wheel on a turn, Chip Nasty pointed it out, and I stopped to pick it up off the trail. The last time a guy rode an Arctic Cat in front of me, I was picking up his gas can, saddle bag and whatever else flew off that particular day. I hope my old Indian friend Paul is sipping a scotch and reading this right now, he’ll know who I am talking about.

The rest of the ride in was uneventful, and the plan was to order some pizzas, run down to the local IGA and restock our adult beverages. Half that plan came to fruition, we made it to the IGA for provisions, but we decided to head back to Sarge’s for food and the free wifi so I could punch this nightly blog out for my seven followers (I gained one somewhere).

Dinner is over, dessert is being had by a couple of the team, and this day’s edition of Frost Bytes is wrapping up.

I believe breakfast call time is 7am, tomorrow, we need an early start with earlier sunset… we shall see.

Bye for now…

Stick

Frost Bytes Day 4 01/25/2022... Goat Path

Chip Nasty has really embraced his new moniker

Last night we had grand night, quite literally, as we celebrated Hedgehog Phil’s birthday. An excellent dinner was served in our designated dungeon wine room, I believe they kept us isolated so as not to disturb the rest of the dining guests. For dessert Phil even got a chocolate lava cake with a couple candles burning in it! The staff at the Common Man Lodge was very accommodating, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

After dinner, most of the crew retired to the horse shoe bar, and many Double Doubles were downed to celebrate the birthday on the trail. Plus we had the extra advantage of not having a “hard” departure time, so we could un-wind a bit more than normal and last call was at 10pm, when they shut down the bar.

After our local ride yesterday on the thinly snow covered trails in New Hampshire, the decision was made to trailer to Rangeley, Maine. We will now be launching from the Saddle Back Inn. We will actually be here for 2 nights, as we will do a local trail ride tomorrow.

This morning we had breakfast with Tom, again. We lingered around, loaded sleds and everybody was on the road by about 10:30 am. We had about 130 miles to drive to Rangeley. Beautiful ride through some mountain ranges, and a very bumpy 30-45 mile ride along a river, hence today’s title Goat Path. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you the trails we rode sleds on yesterday were smoother than the roads we drove today. And it was a paved road. All together we have now driven approximately 1050 miles in truck and 90 miles by sled! Not our best, not our worse.

Just when I thought it was going to be a slow news day, Action Dan came to the rescue. After we unloaded our sleds at the Saddle Back, unpacked our bags, and got ready to head about a mile down the road to Sarge’s Sports Pub and Grub for our late lunch early dinner (the lodge doesn’t offer dining/drinking) we were asked to park our trucks and trailers around back out of the way. 4 out of the five trucks were able to easily back our trailers into the wide open parking lot. Not Action Dan. We drove around back before departing for the restaurant, to see what the hold up was. Action has his truck and trailer off the compacted, snowplowed parking lot, and stuck in the snow filled drainage ravine. Of course we were ready to help him out, but not until after a few pictures, of course. A few more chuckles amongst the growing spectator gallery, and Ole Man Ron backed his GMC up to the “Bumble Bee” Ram and gave him a quick tug, and then proceeded to drag him to the end of the parking lot with Action helpless behind the wheel of Bumble Bee.

Bumble Bee’s do not belong in the snow

Dinner has been had, some pizza’s, some wings, and some French Onion Soups and Clam Chowder soups, and the group is relaxing around a couple tables having a cold one.

That’s about it for today, tune in tomorrow to see how we do.

Bye for now…

Stick

French Onion Soup

Sarge’s Pub & Grub

Frost Bytes Day 3 01/24/2022... Less Than Perfect, Always Could Be Worse

Boys being boys in the hotel lobby

The trails today we a little bit of snow, a little bit of granite. We managed to get about 90 miles on the sleds though. I’ve been asked in the comments about the snow here, quite frankly, they need some snow. But we’ll come back to that later.

This morning started in the small cafe with a diner counter to belly up to. I’m pretty sure the old dude cooking was named Tom. He had a tattoo on his forearm that said “TOM” that looked like he got on $1.00 Letter Day at the Tattoo Shop… I’ve never understood getting your own name tatted on your body… kinda like having “NiCK” tattooed on your arm when your name is Nick. Anyway, back on topic, breakfast was included with our room charge and the choices were french toast with diced potatoes or a breakfast sandwich with diced potatoes. It did the job and the conversation with Tom was worth the price of admission.

After breakfast, we had to run down the road about a mile to the local hardware to get our New Hampshire trail permits ($149 American for us out of staters) The people here in Plymouth have been very friendly and strike up conversation with us pretty readily, especially when they see our Michigan license plates. 6 guys went first with 2 trucks while the other 6 unloaded their sleds, and the process reversed when the trucks returned. We were on the trails, I think, by about 10:30am.

I’m not going to dwell on the trails, they just need snow. We still rode, took our breaks, shot the snot with each other and the comradery we have more than made up for the trails we rode. The trails are thin, lots of rocks exposed, tree limbs and one stretch through a field we literally rode on grass for several hundred yards. One thing that was very noticeable, however, was when crossing roads, most passenger vehicles stop and allow our group to cross the road unencumbered. Very thoughtful and very appreciated.

I guess there was some excitement on the trail. When we departed just about all of us needed fuel, and instead of riding down the asphalt road about a half mile to the nearest gas station, we chose to ride the trail to the first gas station. The first gas station wound up being about 15 miles down the trail, and I think most of us rolled in with zero bars on our electronic fuel gauges, and the bright orange gas pump lit up on our dashes. But we made it.

Birthday Day Boy

We returned to the Common Man Lodge around 4:30pm, parked our trail hardened sleds and proceeded to shower and quench our thirst at the 10 person elongated bar top in the restaurant/bar. We have a birthday to celebrate, Hedgehog Phil is celebrating the big 60 today! Happy Birthday Phil!

Due to the low snow conditions, we are contemplating trailering to tomorrow night’s destination. Reports are that the trails are not much better going east. We will have a few adult beverages, come up with a plan, and you will find in due time. However, those same reports also are telling us that there is plenty of snow in Maine, we just need to fast forward to there.

Anywho, that’s about all I’ve got for today.

Bye for now,

Stick

Frost Bytes Day 2; 01/23/2022... Fun Filled First Night, NFG's Are Fitting In Just Fine

This morning we had a 9am wheels up call time. Ole man Ron pulled out about 8:45 am to pick up his wingman Chip Nasty (Nasty has a place about 25 miles away that he stayed at last night), and the rest of us departed about on time. We had the complimentary Continental Breakfast in the hotel lobby (Note To Self: no more fake scrambled eggs for me). But lets pick up where we left off…

Last night after I logged off, the Crew showed up at the Texas RoadHouse, Rob & I already had a 2 top table for ourselves in the bar area. The restaurant was not going to accommodate a group of 12, because as I stated last, they were packed. Ole Man Ron, Nasty and Rimel took the first booth available, and soon after the horseshoe bar opened up completely and the rest of the crew jumped at those seats. Except Ski Doo Matt and his partner Brian, who got miscommunicated and went to the neighboring Buffalo Wild Wings, which will lead to our next chapter in our saga.

Ski Doo Matt and his long lost twin

After their dinner at the BW3, SkiDoo Matt and Brian hitched a ride to the Roadhouse with a gentleman they had just met at that bar. Somehow, SkiDoo Matt believed that the kind gentleman they had just met was his long lost twin brother. As you will see in the picture, I kinda see the resemblance, but I think he better get a DNA test before he invites him to Thanksgiving Dinner. Somewhere in their conversation I heard they knew who their father was, but they werent’ sure who their mother was…? Anyway the twins hung with us at the bar until closing time, and alot of laughs were shared.

Speaking of closing time, 10pm, my wingman Rob said to me this morning “wow, we had a late night last night, we closed the bar! What time did we get in…1am!?” I calmly stated “No, the bar closed at 10, the bartender let us finish our drinks, and we were in the room around 10:45.” There were a couple other foggy heads this morning, probably from the “double doubles” Grey Goose and waters that started flying after dinner!

We had about 390 miles by road to get to The Common Man Lodge in Plymouth NH today. Dry roads and mostly sunny skies prevailed. Other than a bit of salt dust, the rigs are still fairly clean! Our ride in was really quite beautiful, lots of mountainous terrain, a combination of interstate highway, state highways, and local 2 lane roads. We traversed many small towns, and beautiful country, a very enjoyable ride overall. The crew did split up on our ride today, I prefer using my cruise control and maintaining a consistent speed, Action Dan prefers his foot and the variable speeds that leads to, and Hedgehog and SkiDoo Matt are afraid the bar may run out of Miller Lite before they arrive, and they run hot.

We all arrived within a 1/2 hour of each, parked our trucks out of the way, as they will be here for the next 10 days, and began the last preparations of our saddlebag gear. The Common Man Lodge is a pretty cool place and we have taken some good pictures to give you an idea of what it entails. The service has been very warm and hospitable, and the other snowmobilers have returned from their day ride and are congregated in the Tavern, the Tampa Bay Bucs and LA Rams are on the big screen (not looking good for my Bucs currently LA 27/TB 13 at this time) and I have a tasty Coors Light for lubrication.

Dinner is at 6:30pm for our group of 12, and from the plates I’ve seen coming out of the kitchen, it looks to be a fine evening!

It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but I am expecting a 9am skis up launch in the morning… we shall see.

Thank you to my 6 followers (ironically I had 6 comments on last nights blog, lol) that left a comment on yesterdays Frost Bytes, we do appreciate the feedback!

Tune in tomorrow and until then, GO BUCS!!

Bye for now,

Stick

This was on my floor board this morning, those that know, know.

In case any body is wondering what an NFG is… New “Effing” Guys, always read to the bottom of my posts, it’s where the lessons are learned.

FrostBytes 2022... Rona Can't Keep Us Off The Trail... The East Coast Tour

Craig, Rob, Kevin, Action Dan, Ron, Kelly

Yes, the Darkside Adventures Team was truly dark in 2021. To bring you back up to speed, the last time we were live was February 2020. The Rona virus was just starting, and within weeks of our return to the states… well you know, you lived thru it (hopefully).

The Michigan and part of the Indiana contingent of the Darkside Team did do a Loop the Yoop in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for about a week in February of 2021, but a full fledged Team effort was delayed… until now.

Due to continuing restrictions in Canada and our weariness of what the scene was going to be, our faithful Leader Craig put together a 10 day ride on the East Coast of the good ole USA. We departed today, Saturday January 22, 2022, and we are currently outside HorseHeads, NY. We are headed to Plymouth, New Hampshire, where we will park our trucks and trailers for the duration of our saddlebag ride.

While the tried and true Team Members are here, Fearless Leader Craig, Bullet Catcher “Action” Dan, Stick, the old man Ron Nicks, Yamaha Kevin, Chip Nasty, Hedgehog Phil, Rimel, and Ski Doo Matt, we also have a couple newbies on this run. We will get to their introductions later, if they make it past day 3.

We are excited to ride the East Coast, obviously it is new territory for most of us, me anyway. I hate to admit this, but I never really looked at the North American map very closely on our previous trips to Quebec and New Brunswick. I see now how close we were to the U.S. border, Maine in particular, on those prior trips! You should check it out for yourself, just don’t belittle your writer for my lack of geography.

Yamaha Kevin and his tasty breakfast sandwich

The Michigan crew met at Craig’s shop in Fenton, MI, and after a tasty breakfast sandwich prepared by Fearless Leader himself (bacon, egg, cheese on a English muffin) and a quick run back to my house down the road for a forgotten item, we were on the road by 9am, not to far off our scheduled 8am departure time! I believe the Indiana crew got a bit of an earlier start than we did, as when I called Hedgehog around 7:45 am to check on them, they were apparently misdirected in the cornfields of Indiana… I think Ski Doo Matt had his GPS programmed for the nearest Miller Lite dealer, instead of New York!

Shockingly, we had an uneventful ride from Michigan, thru Ohio, part of Pennsylvania, and into New York, about 590 miles, and we arrived around 5pm. The most shocking part to me was, for years I insist upon leaving Base with a clean, freshly waxed truck and trailer… and it never fails… we drive on wet, snowy, salty roads and the black truck looks gray/brown after just 30 miles. Not today… my buddy RS would be happy, we arrived with mostly clean trucks, as the roads were dry and the sun even poked out a couple times. The Indiana crew beat us in by about 45 minutes, and Chip Nasty already had our room keys for us! I love it when things go smooth ( I am aware I probably just jinxed myself).

My new wing man ( this is my third for those keeping track) and I are sitting at the Texas Roadhouse, across from the Fairfield by Marriott that is our lodging for tonight, enjoying a delightfully cold tall Coors Light draft in the bar area, while I type this effing blog for my 6 followers ( I used to have 8, but they keep dropping like flys on me). The rest of the crew, there is 12 riders on this tour, are pre-gaming in the hotel room. Apparently our dinner time is 7pm, hope it works out, cus this place is packed right now. The Titans vs. Bengals game is on, and I’m ready to get off this writing gig for the night.

It feels good to be back, I will even admit it feels good to be back doing this stupid blog that I bitch about all the time, and I am really looking forward to 10 days on the trail with these guys… it’s been too long, and they’re a good bunch of guys.

Tune in tomorrow night and see how Day 2 on the Road goes.

Bye for now, and “GO BUCS”

Stick

Rob and Stick

FrostBytes Day 9 and Probably 10, 2/28 & 29/2020... My Tablet Broke, We Went Dark

This morning we left at our usual call time of 9am. It is a big day. We are celebrating two birthdays today… Bond turns the BIG 5-0 and Munising Matt is the runner up at 49 today. We started the day with the usual Snowmobilers breakfast and were on the trail at our designated time.

The ride today was a cloud filled day, with light snow falling. The sleds had about a fresh inch of snow layered upon them this morning. The trails were freshly powdered, and a fun ride. We had nice trails, soft bends, and a few rail tracks that we crossed over and under. One in particular was a steel girder trussell about 200 feet in the air crossing a valley. I felt like I was placed in an HO scale train set up. Got a couple good pics.

At one of our stops along the way, as we congregated around the front of the 13 sled team, somebody noticed that Fearless Craig’s Yamaha was missing a bolt from it’s front left side A-Arm. I couldn’t help but chuckle. He casually hollered back to Yamaha Kevin “ Hey, you got a spare bolt for the A-Arm?” Again, I chuckled. Of course Yamaha Kevin had the bolt out of his broken right side A Arm available, to which we all knew. As Fearless was bolting away his A Arm bolt, I couldn’t resist stating the obvious…” You guys need a Ski Doo to follow you Yamahas’ along the trail with spare parts!”

We were soon back on the trail, Yamahas’ bolted together like Frankensteins. How many does it take to make one? More nice trails on the way.

Another stop on the trail, we went right when we should have gone left. No biggie, we were only 100 yards down the wrong trail. Might as well take a break before we turn around.

As we are shooting the breeze with each other, we are pretty casual as it’s not much further in, we have time, I glance beside me and see Yamaha Kevin ripping side panels and the hood off his sled. This is humorous. Connecticut Jim is there as moral support, and I gently ask “What the F*#k is going on now?” Yamaha Kevin states simply that a code “86” just started flashing on his dashboard. Connecticut Jim casually responds “Oh, that’s a air leak code”. Only a fellow Yamaha rider could rattle off the error codes so fluently. Yamaha Kevin got his handy tool kit out, and tightened up the hex screws to all the plumbing beneath where his hood usually resides.

After our break, confident the code “86” was dismissed, we were back on the trail. After about 140 miles, we were at our night’s destination…Saint-Alexis-Des-Monts and the Du Lac Blanc. This was a really nice place, with a main lodge with many rooms, and scattered smaller lodges. I got the room above the snow shoe/cross country ski shop. I feel like a flower in the attic. But the main floor of the main lodge is the dining area, and the lower level is the bar/entertainment area. A fun set up and we are celebrating a couple birthdays. Perrrfect location.

Unbeknownst to me, a few of the Team had gathered already downstairs at the bar. I was upstairs trying to get my trusty Surface Pro tablet fired up to write this godforsaken blog. But I must have packed my tablet wrong, because it had a small hair line crack across the screen and would not go past the start up screen. I enjoyed two tasty double doubles waiting for my tablet to fire up, sitting by myself at a corner table in the front lobby of the lodge, when a couple other DarkSiders came in. They informed me that the “real” bar was downstairs, and that our Team was already gathered there! Thanks for the heads up guys.

While I was thoroughly disappointed that I would not be able to write this blog for my 7 followers tonight, I took joy in the fact that I could continue with the Double Doubles. After all, we are celebrating a couple birthdays on the trail!

The dinner bell rang at 7pm, and we made our way back upstairs to the dining room, and the long table that would accommodate the 13 of us. Dinner was some awesome choices of white fish, escargot, steaks, and such. Dylan casually asked Fearless Craig if we could have a late start tomorrow, maybe…9:30am? Wish was granted.

I snuck out and back to my attic after dinner, but I understand SideShow Ron entertained the crowd with his famous penny trick for a bit.

FROSTBYTES DAY 10 2/29/2020… It’s A FLUKE…

We really didn’t need the late start of 9:30am, as we were all ready at our sleds by 8:45am, The usual goings on, Hedgehog with the trash can from his room, filled with hot water, defrosting his steering arms on his Yamaha. There was one fluke. Indian Guys Ski Doo didn’t have any power. Nothing, notta. Put a battery boost pack on the batter… nothing. When Hedgehog got a break from defrosting his steering mechanism, he came over and pulled a amp fuse out, blew on it like a Yamaha rider does, and plugged it back. Boom, fired right up. Everybody wanted to be sure I would write about this slight mishap in the blog, I did, but remember, it was a FLUKE and it took a YAMAHA rider to even have that thought in their head.

Only about 120 miles to go today, and there was ALOT of Saturday traffic on the trails. We didn’t rush, enjoyed the ride, and stopped for lunch around 12:30 at a wonderful place we found on the trail. A buffalo/bison farm on the trail, that has restaurant.

Very busy place at this time of day on a Saturday. But we got no place to be. We can wait. After about 40 minutes they were able to seat our group of 13. It gave us plenty of time to observe the full bison mounts, and many others that you can see in the pictures below. Also, excellent food! I had the bison vegetable soup, and shared the bison burger with Fearless. Excellent.

After lunch, we were back on the trail, and headed to Pont Rouge, and the Bon Air Motel. One of our favorites. Our trucks were waiting for us, and so was the best ONION soup.

As the kilometers were clicking down, I worked my way from the back of the pack where I have diligently stayed for the last 9.5 days, and made my way to the front. I gave each rider a “thumbs up” to let them know all’s good, but i’m moving forward. I finally made my way to Fearless Leader Craig, with Action Dan about 50 more yards in front of us. I pulled up beside him, let him notice my presence ( I saw a big grin thru his clear helmet shield), and we rode side by side for a few. He then gave me a tip of the helmet and welcoming hand wave to take the lead for the last 3-5 miles. I head nodded back, and accelerated past Action Dan, and rode point for a bit ( I learned long ago, never pass the leader). I enjoyed the open trail in front of me, no snow dust to contend with, plenty of visibility and let her eat. But after a couple miles, I realized I enjoy being the sheep dog following my 12 wingmen, and fell back to ride side by side with Fearless. As we approached the last left turn into the Bon Air Motel, Action Dan turned right, Fearless and I turned left, and led the pack across the finish line side by side. A knuckle punch was exchanged, and one by one the riders disembarked their sleds and bro hugs and “great ride” was exchanged amongst each other.

The weather was formidable, and we took our time loading our sleds, tying them down, and wished a farewell to Connecticut, Bond and Yamaha Rob, as they headed back to Vermont. The rest of us gathered inside our accomodations for the night, showered, and joined in the bar. It was time for Double Doubles. A great end to a great ride.

This was a great ride, with some new riders, some of our old cast and crew, but always a great day on the trail.

Can’t wait for next year, this was trip #11 for me, and I can’t wait to see what Fearless has in store for year #12.

If any of my 7 followers knows of anybody that would like to partake in this annual excursion, contact Fearless Craig Willour @ 313-410-4680. We are always looking for new victims.

Farewell my friends, and a special “thanks” to RS for ever getting me into this saddlebag riding thing.

Double Double, Same Ole Same Old,…bye for now

Stick

FrostBytes Day 8, 2/27/2020... Sunshine Shining Became Snow Fall Falling

Last nights dinner was a working dinner. But a LOT of laughs were had, all around. Probably one of the most entertaining nights on the trail yet. Unfortunately it’s not suitable for this forum, I don’t remember the details and so on and so forth. You had to be there.

This morning’s snowmobiler’s breakfast was at the standard 7:30am. Naturally, as I made the trek from my room in the lodge accross the parking lot from the main lodge, I passed Yamaha Kevin working on his sled, again this morning. It was deja vu’, as when I went to bed last night, I passed him in the same position then too, just less sunshine.

By 9am we were on the trail, on our way to La Tuque, and the Marineau A La Tuque, our overnight stay tonight. Probably about a 130 miles for our ride today. That would be accurate if we had pulled out of the lodge going the right direction on the trail this morning! Instead we went about 8 miles back down the trail we came in last night. Fortunately, Action Dan and Fearless Craig are quicker learners these days. In the old days, we would have gone 30 miles in the wrong direction before doubling back to the correct direction. Good job gentleman.

As we came back into last nights lodging, we continued accross the parking lot we had just departed from about 40 minutes ago, kept going, like we knew what we were doing, and crossed the lake that the trail departs on for our day.

We stopped around the 90 mile marker at a Relais for a quick lunch. It wasn’t that quick. But it didn’t matter, the sunshine we have enjoyed for the last 6 days was now converted to heavy clouds with heavy snow falling. And we were ready for some fresh snow on the trails.

Relais Du Trapper was very rustic, and with a couple wood burning stoves and a single, one armed gentleman doing all the work… host, order taker, cook and server. As he was cooking our burgers, hot dogs and frites, the small venue began filling with the cooking smoke coming off his hot griddle. Munising Matt opened a door on each side of the small one room building to ventilate a little for us. When the orders would come ready, he was setting them on a tray in the serving window from the kitchen, and Indiana Guy played server to help the gentleman out, and he could keep cooking the meals still to be prepared.

Bond entertained us with an acoustic guitar that Chip Nasty found sitting in a corner, making up his own lyrics to such classics as Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead or Alive, and Poison’s Every Rose. Entertaining for sure. Outside, the snow was still falling and putting a nice layer on top of our sleds.

After dinner, the bill was paid, and the gentleman was tipped well for his hard work. We dusted off our machines and continued down the local club trail, headed to Trans Quebec Trail 73. It cannot come soon enough. The local trails we were on today were rough, and we only did 113 miles on them!

At the juncture of Trail 73, we started with a left turn, went 100 yards down the trail, realized it’s the wrong direction, and pulled to a stop. During this hiatus, Bond decided now was the time to get his big Ski Doo Expedition stuck, just like he has told us all week that couldn’t wait to do. He shot to the right up a small hill, crested it, and promptly rolled it. As he was attempting to get up, and sank in snow up to his chest. The rest of us sat on the trail, a couple of us made the comment, well he finally did what he wanted to do.

Action Dan couldn’t wait to mount his new Ski Doo Expedition and go on rescue mission. We watched him disappear over the crest now too. A couple of us softly said to nobody in particular, that somebody is probably going to have to go help those two. Fearless and Stick politely declined, and Munising Matt promptly said, I guess I should go see what’s going on. Sounds good, go ahead.

The rest of us enjoyed the entertainment from the trail, and Connecticut filled us in with the conversation on the other side of the hill, as he and Bond have helmet communicators and he could hear everything being said. Like listening to ball game on a transistor radio when I was a kid. His main narration was “there’s a lot of huffing and puffing”.

Finally back together on the trail, we did a quick U Turn and was on to a much smoother trail for the remainder of the ride in. We got fueled up for tomorrow’s ride, and Yamaha Kevin stopped at the beer store and grabbed us a case of imported Coors Light to enjoy in our “drive up” rooms accomodations tonight.

Dinner is the standard 7pm call time for chow. We gathered in Yamaha Kevin’s room (he had the cold Coors Light on the sidewalk outside his room) and Bond was playing videos on his laptop of some videos that Indiana Guy has made from the GoPro attached to his sled. Quite humorous the things we see and discuss when there is evidence to the storys we hear about at night.

The Darkside Team would like to give a shout out to Mama Nasty back home following Chip Nasty’s exploits on the trail. Apparently she caught up on Frostbytes yesterday, and when Chip Nasty got in last night, he had a voicemail from Mama Nasty wanting to know what he has done to get his new moniker.

Hell Fire, I almost forgot an important detail of the day… Fearless Craig, a true blue, dye in the wool Yamaha man, took Munising Matt’s Superior Bombardier Product for a good ride down the trail today. Could we be witnessing a conversion that nobody could suspect? I can’t wait to find out either!

Double Double, Same Ole Same Old, bye for now…

Stick

FrostBytes Day 7, 2/26/2020... "It's A Known Problem"

It’s a good thing the mattresses were extra puffy WITH a box spring, instead of the thin, hard mattress on a piece of ply wood like the last 4 nights. It was a welcome upgrade for the Team. Or we blew our breakfast money already… No Snowmobilers breakfast for you. It was your choice… Rice Crispies or Brand Flakes , a hard boiled egg or the optional deviled egg, make your own toast, white or brown, with fruit.

Anyway, we were on the trail by 9am, and the sunshine was shining. But before long, Indiana Jeff’s Arctic Cat is overheating, on the frozen groomed trails. Hedgehog let him cool down, both literally and figuratively, and and at the proper time said, how about we get going and you ride in some open snow whenever it’s available. Aparently the next opportunity was at the stop sign at the road crossing… in a snow filled off trail ditch, He promptly got stuck from there. Chip Nasty grabbed a snowbungee, as well as Indiana Guy, with Connecticut Jim in hot pursuit… at least I got the picture in time! We gave it a few tugs, and made little progress.

Indiana Guy generously offered to back his Superior Bombardier Product to the arctic cat, so I asked Connecticut to move is YAMAHA out of the way. No problem, he states.

Yamaha won’t start. Will turn over, but won’t fire. Now this is funny. Connecticut promptly starts ripping every side panel and hood piece off the YAMAHA. I got pictures. He reaches into his warm coat pocket and pulls out a ziplock bag full of black 4 prong fuses. Interesting. He promptly goes thru the fusebox, pulling looking, pulling exchanging… let’s give it a try. Nope. Goes thru the process again, but also now thru the little two prongers…. let’s give it a try. But to back up a bit, during his second run thru of the fuses, I innocently inquired why some fuses had a sticker and some not. “It’s a known problem with these…” I let him finish and my only response was “and you just told me that?”. I write the blog, bro. About this time Indiana Guy walked back up and said “did I hit something on your handlebar when I lost my balance walking by?” Yep. Accidently hit the kill button. I can’t make this up. In Connecticut’s defense, he does’nt normally use the kill button, and just uses the key. But did I enjoy it.

Bout the time Connecticuts sled was running, Bond was coming back to check on the group. He backed his big Ski Doo tanker up to the skis of the arctic cat, hooked up the snowbungee, and popped the sled out.

This was all within the first 15 miles, I might add.

After that we rolled along on some nice “irish hills” trails, rolling hills, sweeping turns, fun, nice pace. Good ride… some patchy areas, some mogul areas, not shabby, but the sunshine shining.

Before long, we landed at a local club’s relais for luch of all dressed cheeseburgers, grilled cheeses and vegetable soup. 

More nice trails, sunshine shining, rolling along.  If you haven’t noticed, I’ll point it out.  If you look at our between overnight stays, by road or trail it’s not very far.  There a lot of local club trails along our route that bounce in and off of the Trans Quebec trail that is our main path in our 10 day adventure.  But sometimes the local trails are not as well marked as the Trans, as it’s mostly club members using these trails and they don’t need Rand McNally to figure out where they’re going.  This has allowed us to get our 140-195 mile days, but not the worry that our daily Tom Foolery will make us miss a scheduled overnight.  Or so Fearless Leader says.  We still had a nice loopy loop, across the road, down the trail 100 yards, and back across the road, but back where we just came from. 

Some head scratching took place at the front, and before long someone decided to cross the bridge that was to our right, not across the road, and back on the trail we were.

We did about 140 Ski Doo miles, and we are at Auberge Eva.  Beautiful lodge with a 6 person bar to the right of the entry, and directly across from where Fearless Craig was checking our group of 13 in.  Munising Matt and I decided there was no reason for this bar to sit empty.  Before long Indiana Guy, Bond, Fearless, Hedgehog, and Action had joined us for Big Bud Lites, at the bar.  It was a crapshoot if this blog was going to even be started tonight.

After a couple, our old friends Gaf and Dan came walking around the bar.  Our buddies on the trail from New York are staying at the same place.  We have crossed paths and stay overs at the same places over the years, and it’s always a good time catching up.  We just missed Ed! Next year buddy!

Dinner is the customary 7pm, but was pushed to 7:30 due to our early check in… at the bar.

Double Double, Same Ole Same Old, bye for now…

Stick

FrostBytes Day 6, 2/25/2020...If A Hedgehog Could Chuck Wood, How Much Wood Would A Hedgehog Chuck?

My recollection was correct… the ONION soup at Auberge 31 is a solid 4.0. With a little persuasion, and a little more begging, I asked Natalie, our bar maid, waitress/server, and bar maid (yes I know I repeated “bar maid”, it was the chronological order of things) for the last 2 days, if I could please get ONION soup before my lasagna dinner. I must be living right, because she said for a small up charge, tonight, I could have the ONION soup. And for dessert, I had the chocolate cake with raspberry drizzle, and I pushed my luck and asked to have it a’la mode with a scoop of vanilla icecream… Natalie must’ve taken a shine to me, she gave me the scoop of vanilla with no extra charge. I also noticed Action Dan’s and Bond’s choclate cake come al’a mode, as well as Muninsing Matt’s suger (coma) pie. Guess the shine didn’t last.

Departure time was 9am, and the Sunshine shining accross the lake, and beating the trail ahead of us. The first 20-25 miles was a little messy with small roller moguls, but then opened up to a fun ride all day long. Lotsa straightaways and soft turns you could see through and keep the momentum rolling. Still warm compared to what we are used too, but the plan is working out… Later departure, more sunlight, warmer temps.

We stopped at a relais on the trail for a quick lunch of tomatoe with noodle soup, grilled cheeses, burgers all dressed, and club sandwiches. We gained another Facetube follower with Josee’ the waitress, cashier that helped us today. Very nice relais on the trai, Relias des Labrecque that is supported by the local club that also maintains the trails in the area, has a pretty full menu and is a fine stop along the trail to warm up on a cold day.

But this wasn’t a cold day, and we were walking back to our sleds carrying our coats and helmets, and gettying trail ready at a leisurely pace at our sleds, accross the road. There wasn’t much hurry, because we had to add some more coolant to Indiana Jeff’s Arctic Cat, because he has been heating up on the trail with our warmer temps (plus his coolant was low, nice ride prep Indiana Jeff). But we were soon back on the trail, sunshine shining. Fun trails to rip down, and not much traffic on a Tuesday afternoon is nowhere Quebec.

But too much of anything can lead to trouble. Hedgehog making a semi tight left turn, felt a little lazy and didn’t put much effort into his turn (his words) , and was off trail, and tyring to tackle a birch tree. I couldn’t get a picture quick enough to show the full effect, because Connecticut Jim was quick on the rescue to get Hedgehog out of the snowditch and back on the trail ( I have already had a private conversation with Connecticut to slow his rescue, once he knows the rider is ok… we need pics, bro, we’re writing a blog here). But to answer the question, a hedgehog could have chucked about an 4” Birch.

We got into Dobeau-Mistassini and the Auberge la Diligence, our overnight stay for today, around 4:30pm. 165 Ski Doo miles. Good day, no rush, good trails, sunshine shining. Plan is on.

Our Auberge, (lodging) does not have a dinner restaurant, nor bar, and there are 5 taxis scheduled to take us to dinner at their sister hotel accross town about 12 minutes, where there is a dinner restaurant and bar. But fortunately for us, while the rest of Darkside was showering and unpacking, Munising Matt and his partner were busy hitching a ride down the road to get the Team a case of tasty Labatt Bleue, and Coors Light. Nice treat after a warm shower.

We hung in Munising Matt’s and his partner’s room until the taxi call time, enjoying tasty beverages until the 6:30pm call time/taxi ride. Our five taxi’s ended up being one taxi making 5 trips. Double double while we wait for all Teammembers to arrive.

I’m uploading pictures finally because we have some decent wifi, you will have to use your imagination of where they belong…

Double Double, Same Ole Same Old, bye for now…

Stick

FrostBytes Day 5, 2/24/2020... Sunshine Sunshining, Pajama Days, Everythings' Good... Keep It Rolling

Last night we had dinner at 7pm at a long table that seated our group of 13. I’m pretty sure that I recall they have good ONION soup here, and my memory must be right because they were already sold out of it last night. But the escargot augratine looked good too, and I saw that at a couple spots on the table.

A few of us hung at the bar after dinner having large bottles of Labatt Bleue, and shooting the breeze. I didn’t hang much past 9pm as I really didn’t know what my morning was going to be like. Something that I forgot to tell you last night was that one of the Indiana guys chewed up his saddlebag in his track, on the trail yesterday, and lost his prescriptions on the trail! We had two issues to resolve this morning, he needed a doctor to prescribe the meds, and then a pharmicst to fill the script, and I had to come to terms with paying the $200 to the local yocal to cart my sled and my arse 40 miles to Chicoutimi to the Ski Doo dealer. I paid the money, in Canadian of course (there is about a 28% exchange rate to the US dollar right now, so it was about $150 American, my way of sticking it to the man).

With the help of several of my Darkside Teammates, we got my Ski Doo loaded into our drivers Dodge 4 door cab truck, and strapped down. I took all my riding gear because if I’m lucky, I’m going to be riding my sled back to the lodge tonight… you must go with the proper mindset. While that was going on, Jeff had the barmaid on two phones trying to get him into a doctor’s office to cure his ails. He is going to ride into town with me and my local yocal, at an additional fee of course, because the Dr. Apointment is for 12:40pm and the local is going to escort him to his appointment and bring him back to the lodge this afternoon.

The ride to the Ski Doo dealer was about 50 minutes, and after about 40 minutes, they had my Ski Doo unloaded and in the work bay. It took the mechanic about 40 minutes and lots of torch to get the clutch off my ride. My service writer, Tom, explained to me that they didn’t have the parts in stock to rebuild my clutch, and they didn’t have a replacement in stock. Oh boy, here we go, I’m thinking.

After unloading my sled for service, the driver took Jeff to his Dr. appointment, as there was no point for them to hang out at the Imperium Ski Doo dealer. I understand Jeff got back to the lodge around 2:45pm, and about $450 Canadian less in his pocket. But at least he had his meds.

Before Jeff could leave with his driver, I looked out the Service Room glass door and saw Feareless Leader Craig and Hedgehog Phil riding up on their Yamahas’. Looks like this is going to be family affair.

Back at the Service desk, my new best friend Tom the service writer, who spoke excellent English, was explaining to me that he was confident that another dealer in the area would have the needed clutch, or the worse case scenario, the local Ski Doo bone yard would have a used one to get me back on the trail. My new pal, Tom, was confident I would be back on the trail this afternoon! We shall see.

Apparently, the rest of the gang had a fun day riding the local trails, and off trail in the deep powder that is prevalent around here. Even the old man Ron had a good time playing in the snow today. East Coast Rob had a pajama day in his cabin, and enjoyed some solitude and rest on the trail. I was having pajama day at the Ski Doo dealer.

Around 1pm, Tom had gone to lunch, and there was no news yet about the availability of a clutch in the area. Plan B was sitting accross the dealership showroom floor. A new 2019 900 turbo. It was white though, not my first choice of Red or Black, but it would solve the problem if we get that far.

Fearless, Hedgehog, and myself were starting to get hungry, and antsy at the lack of information being provided to us. We decided to walk accross the parking lot to the St Huberts chicken resaurant, like a Canadian KFC, but first I wanted to let the Service Manager know how to reach me before we went to lunch. He stated, yes go to lunch, your part will be here in one hour. Exuberation filled my tiny cold heart, and off to lunch we went.

At lunch I saw the box truck doing parts deliveries backed into the dealership parking lot and said to my to lunch partners, my part is here gentleman. We finished our spiced chicken sandwiches and coleslaw, and meandered back accross the parking lot. Yes indeed, my brand new 6 blade clutch had arrived,, and within 45 minutes we would be putting on our gear, loading my saddlebags back on to my sled and be off. And for once, it worked just like that.

On our 40 mile ride back to Auberege 31, about 8 miles from the lodge, Action Dan, Yamaha Kevin and Chip Nasty were on there way to check on us at the Ski Doo dealer. We passed on the trail, pulled over, and let them catch back up with us. They each fist bumped me as they passed me on their way to pulling over on the right side of the trail to take our helmets off, and catch up on the days events.

After a few minutes of celebratory conversation, we were off and getting fuel at the gas pump in front of the lodge.

The group is mixed, some are in their cabins getting showers for our 7pm dinner, and the others sitting around the bar having tasty Labatt Bleues’. I’m with the group having tasty Labatt Bleues’. With a happy cold little heart right now. My Superior Bombardier Product is back on the trail, and we will finish this ride together (fingers crossed, knock on wood, and any other good luck saying).

Doube Double, Same Ole Same Old, and bye for now…

Stick