Tuesday, December 28, 2010

First ride of the new season!

Last night I took the '95 Ski-Doo Grand Touring on a worldwide tour of the goat path to NH. 6 miles round trip and I could hear the rocks slapping the skis the whole way. A trip not without excitement, the little trickle of water I usually cross was a veritable TORRENT! Three feet wide and maybe 4 inches deep. On the way back I hit a rock on the upslope and tipped the sled on its side. For an IFS sled this machine is VERY tippy. Angie and I had it on its side way back in 2008 trying a similar maneuver after crossing a smaller brook.

The '78 Pantera will start but won't run. I'll get Angie's help to tow it out of the backyard and haul it to Randy's. I'll have to borrow his trailer though, after the last run last spring on the return trip home the tongue ripped out of my trailer. Turns out all the metal that holds (held?) the pivot is GONE, rusted away completely. Further inspection shows tons of rust perforations all over the thing. I could probably weld it back together to get through this season but instead I'm going to junk it (maybe weld it back enough to use on the farm) and get something new. After months of searching I finally found an 8x8' trailer out west of here for a good price. Its funny I followed all kinds of Craigslist ads but got nowhere. Then I finally posted an ad on Craigslist and one on the NHSMA board and got 2 good leads... An 8x8 will be nice to have, my 6x6 was really too small for 2 sleds.