SNOWMOBILE TRIP FROM H.E. DOUBLE TOOTHPICKS

Saturday Chris and I had the opportunity to go sledding with Chris' brother Chuck, Chuck's friends and his Dad. We loaded up the sleds and took them to Avery Acres. When we arrived we found the area to be covered with lots of snow. The conditions seemed ok, so we headed out for the cabin. We made it to the cabin, but it was a slow paced ride. There were a couple of places were Chris and I ran off the road because we could not maneuver the sled correctly.

Chris and I decided that we would try to go on a ride to see if there were better places to ride, We each had our own sled, (instead of sharing) hoping this would make it easier for us to drive the sleds. We headed out for the top of the hill. It wasn't the best conditions but it wasn't the worst. We were following the fence line when all of a sudden the snow pulled me from the trail. I was heading for a large bush which was in front of the barbed wire fence. I stopped the snowmobile quickly, before I wrestled the barbed wire fence with my face. As soon as I stopped the snowmobile, it sunk deep into the snow. I tried to dig myself out but it did nothing. Chris came back to where I was. We were able to lift the back end of the sled just enough to free the sled. I hopped back on and we decided to head back to the cabin. The snow was just too deep and it didn't have a crust to keep the sled from sinking to deep.

We just made a "U" turn and was heading down from the hill, when I got stuck again. The same thing happened. I was heading for a bush and no matter what I did, it would not turn.... Yep I was stuck again. Chris and I tried for about 30 mins, trying to dig our way out but we just kept sinking. We could not budge this thing. We could not lift it and we could not dig it out. We were stuck good.

Chris told me to hop onto his sled and ride it down to get help. I didn't want to at all. I was terrified that I would get stuck again, but Chris said to go as fast as I could and don't stop. It took me a few minutes to get my nerve up to go but eventually I took off for help. I didn't sit down on the snowmobile this time, I rode it like a motorcycle, but with one knee on the seat, just in case I had bail from the snowmobile.

I made it down to the cabin and got Chuck and John. They headed up for where I described his location. About 45 mins passed and I heard a single snowmobile. Chris walked in frozen solid. I stripped him down and made him go stand by the oven to get warm.

About another 15 minutes passed and Chuck and John walked in. They had managed to get the snowmobile unstuck. They were laughing when the came in. I guess while Chuck and John were trying to find Chris, Chris had managed to get the snowmobile unstuck, but ran into the same conditions as I did. As he was driving it out, the snow pulled him in the opposite direction and he was headed for a tree, the only difference was, he actually ran the snowmobile up into the tree, and that is how Chuck and John found Chris. Chris us on top of the sled, jumping up and down hoping it would snap the branches and he would be able to use them as traction. But the branches would not give, it just made a funny looking trampoline.

After Chuck and John warmed up, we all decided that we had had enough of this excursion and decided to head for home. We made it home safely and decided that we would try to snowmobile again, but not until we know there has been some melting up there to make the snow have a crust on the top layers.

View from the deck. As you can see the snow was higher than the railing,

(In some areas there had to be around 5ft of snow)