This is gonna' be a long one. So go grab a beer, hell grab two or three, and come right back!

I have been riding pretty reguraly now for about 8 years. At first I rode strictly in MA. But the last few years have made many trips to NH but have always heard how great the riding is in Maine but had never made the trip to the state where the Moose out number the people. Well one day around the middle of February I got a call from an old friend of mine I have known since the 4th grade and he asked if I'd like to go with him and his brother and a few other guys to Maine for a long weekend of ridng. Needless to say the answer was a resounding YES!

As the date for departure approached we were all watching the weather and trail conditions. Things were looking beautiful so a cabin was rented and plans were made as far as who's sled was going in who's truck and trailer and who was bringing what for food. and more importantly who was bringing the beer. (I think we all brought the beer)

So it is finnally Thrusday afternoon and my buddy arrives with my 2007 600HO SDI Blizzard in the bed of the truck, an 04 Firecat F-7 in the trailer alongside an oldschool V-max with like a thousand miles or some rediculously low amount on it. This thing was c-l-e-a-n! WOW!


So I squeeze into the back of the extra-cab Dodge Ram alongside my new buddy Ted, with Cliff at the wheel, and Tim playing co-pilot. Ted hands me a beverage and we are off! I commented to Cliff how clean his truck was. He commented that it had just over 99,600 miles on the OD. All he had ever done to it was replace the tranny once but otherwise had been an awesome truck.

All seems to be going well as we travel out through Hartford, CT into MA. Cliff makes a call to Tom and Peter who are already in ME at the cabin. They report conditions are beautiful and that we should get our asses their ASAP! We agree and press on. Unfortunately however they did mention that Toms Formula died while out on the lake and had to be towed back by Peters MXZ. So far all they knew was that it was not getting any spark but they are working on addressing the issue.

So nightfall came as we passed into ME. We stopped at a rest area just outside of Kittery. When we stepped out of the truck we all smelled something that just didn't seem right. After a close inspection Tim determines that the front main seal to the rearend is leaking gear oil!
Not everyone carries gearoil in their truck so Tim elected himself to be our travelling mechanic and added some 10W-30 to diff and some lube is better than none at all and we pressed on to find some gear oil. Now it was about 9:30PM when this happened. We made a call to Pete and Tom already at the cabin to see if they could drive down to pick us up along with our sleds. This was defineltly not an option. You see since they never did get that Formula running again they decided to do the next best thing...drink beer and lots of it! With this in mind we stopped at gas stations, rest areas, and eventually even found a Walmart in ME open at 10:15 and bought some gear oil and throat lozenges for Tim as his throat was beginning to bother him. With this said Ted and I decide it was time to buy some Vitimin C and Airborne to ward off any potencial oncoming illness. We noticed a Dodge dealer right after buying the gear oil and decided it would be best if we spent the night in a hotel and tried to get the truck fixed the next day. So we got two rooms, had a few beers before retireing for the night. When we were getting our rooms my buddy Tim warned all of us that he snores a little...I had the good fortune of sharing a room with him...let me tell you...a HEMI w/headers and a Borla exhaust system has NOTHING on this guy! (Sorry Tim)



The next morining we got up bright and early. Tim and I walked to Dunkin Donuts and got everyone coffee, and then got in the truck and headed to the Dodge dealership in town. Tim was sick as hell by now by the way. It was now 8:30AM when we showed up at the dealership. At first the service guy told us we would have to wait until Monday (it was Friday) for the repair. We informed them that we were from CT and were trying to go snowmobiling. This got us in right away. While walking across the street to get breakfast at this little diner, I nearly got killed by some kamkazzee redneck driver. Ted disapeared into the restroom of this little diner for about 30 minutes. We were getting a little concerned that he might have fallen in Eventually he emerged triumphant and the restaurant erupted in applause. After killing some time at the dealership we were finally on our way by 11:30AM...we were now just 3-short hours from ridng!!!!


So we arrive in Rangely at our cabin around 3:00 to see the Formula's hood as well as the the 2000 XC 600's hoods up. Tims XC was fine, however Tom's Formula was beyond repair. Never did get her going that weekend. We walked up to Rivers Edge, registered our sleds and rented Tom a hi-performance, fire-engine red Polaris 550 leafblower for the weekend. We all chipped in $30.00 dollars and he was on the trail with us. Aren't we nice guys? Here is the cabin we, as you shall read spent Waaaaaaaaaay too much time in.




So now it is about 4:00 and we are off. Cliff is on the F-7 and I am right behind him with the rest of the group behind us....Waaaaaaaaaaay behind us. We hit a nice stretch of flat, wide, straight and smooooooth trail 85mph was the rule for about 3 minutes. Eventually we stopped and let the rest of the group catch up.


So we got going again, found a nice little pond full of fresh pow to play in when we had a little problem. Tims 2000 XC 600 was not getting fuel. It was discovered that the fuel line was leaking because it was rubbing on the jackshaft. So we tore it down, fixed it up, and we were off...for about 75 yards... sled was still not getting fuel,this time the fuel line in the tank was bobbing around in the tank sucking fuel, then air, then fuel then air, fixed this up and decided to head for home.


As we were screaming along Rangely Lake, Peter on the 02 MXX caught up to Tim on the XC 600 going like 25mph. Tim was having more issues...as it was explained to me he had one hnad on the throttle and the other hand had the gas cap in his hand trying to poke the fuel line into the fuel as it had started to "bob" around in the tank on the way back. Wish I had video of this. Meanwhile Ted was trying like hell to keep up with the F-7 and me on the Blizzard while on his V-Max....not a good move as it quit firing on one cylinder 3/4's of the way across the lake.

So we get back to the cabin, and throw the lazagna in the oven that Peters wife had made. Which was delicious by the way! Tim is sick as hell by now and retires for the evening upstairs in the loft.



We put on the weather and start watching the radar....rain...lots of rain is in the forecast. So the the Poker playing and drinking begins and does not end until 1/1:30AM. While we are playing cards and drinking we notice that Peter, who broke his leg back in the fall, was missing from the table. Then we see the outdoor light go on and he is gimping his way around the cabin and into the snow. When he returns we ask where he went. He tells us he went take a piss. Now what makes this funny is he was sitting practically in the bathroom at the table and instead of just turning around to pee he walked practically all the way around the cabin outside. Funny **** in my opinion.


So Saturday arrives, and much to our surprise the sun is out, the skies are blue and life is looking good. After a breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage,etc served up by Chef Cliff we were determined to fix the XC 600 and the figure out what was going on with the V-max. Tim and I went up to the Polaris Dealer and got the parts to fix the XC 600


Cliff and Ted worked on the V-max. Turned out the V'max lost compression in one cylinder and he was out. The XC was up and running again. So lets see how are we doing here.....?


1 Formula with no spark = dead
1 V-max with no compression = dead
1 guy with the creeping death = not good either

So we are ready to go. Our group consists of me on the Blizzard, Cliff on the F-7, Tom on the rented 550 leafblower, Peter on the 02 MXZ, and Tim on the XC 600. We are about 20 minutes out and its starts to rain and the XC is not running right. Seems the main jet may have gotten clogged from all the screwing around with the gas tank and fuel lines earlier. So we limp our way back to Rangely lake in the pouring rain. Interestingly enough we get out the lake, open the sleds up, and it begins to clear. So we stop to see how the XC is making out...not any better.







We make a beeline to the cabin. The F-7 hit 107mph and I am quite sure the micro numbers on the Blizzards speedo had me somewhere around 100-105mph on the dreamometer. As we approach the cabin which is on the lake two guys are standing on what would be the shore watching us. As we get closer we noticed that one of them has a camera pointed at us with a lens bigger than a soft ball! After the rest of the group arrived the two gentlemen with the camera walked up to us and informed us that they were with The Boston Globe and were doing a story on snowmobiling in Maine! We chatted with them for a while and then retired to the cabin for more drinking. Here is the link to the story that they published in the Boston Globe a few days later.



http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2008/03/12/thrills_chills_and_fatalities/

We pretty much drank the rest of the afternoon and obviously all night as well. Dinner was a pot roast ala Chef Ted. Fantastic by the way. One things for sure we did eat good that weekend! We played some Setback and more poker. Poker was interesting this evening. We would start our with nickeles and work our way up to 1,2, and three dollar bets. Just for the recored Peter still owes Tom $8.00 and as far as I am concerned Peter owes me $14.00 You see when one of the hands was dealt Peter picked up my cards by accident and gave me his cards. I jokingly told him that if he won the hand I 'd have to unleash all the fury of hell on him. Well....He ended up with four Aces! Won the hand and began to take the money! We all had a pretty good laugh when I tried to take his er'...my winnings. LOL At this point in the evening however Cliff had made a few remarks that he too was not feeing to good. With this said more Vitamin C was passed around along with a few more doses of Airborne.

Sunday AM arrives, Cliff is now sick as hell, Tim is at about 80% but improving. The sleds are all covered with ice, it is drizzling out and we decide it is time to cut our losses and to head for home. We loaded the sleds and all our gear and begin the drive back to CT.



Oh by the way...did I mention that they had plenty of snow when we left?




The sun is now beginning to show through the clouds...(isn't this the way it always is?)The roads had frost heaves on them that would swallow cars whole so it was slow going out of ME into NH to pick up I-91. The ride home was uneventful save for more hits of Vtaimn C and Airborne by those of us not yet infected by the creeping death.

We got back to my place in CT around 4:30PM. To summarize the trip...
Total Miles on the truck was approximately 760
Total miles on my sled for the weekend was 85
Total beers drank for hte weekend 174!

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i should have taken your advice and got some beer to read that one:) sounds like you guys, even though you didn't ride much, still had a great time. im sure everyone has had a trip like that and still enjoyed every minute of it. snowmobiling just isn't about the sled, its about good times with buddies, beer and amazing food.

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Agreed, it is not ALL about the sleds. It is about getting qaway from the normalcy that is our lives and having fun...in what ever form it may come in! I had a great time, made soem new friends and got reaquainted with some people I knew as a child. Can't wait to do it again next year!

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Too bad they spelt your name wrong in the article :). How did the leafblower keep up??

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