2019 RWTC

[400brian]

The 2019 Ride with the Champs is in the books, and what an adventure is was for us.

Serious planning started in October. Our good friends Gary and Renee had purchased a house in Manitowish Waters ( which is about a half hour north of Minocqua ), and they wanted us to come up and see it. They had purchased a new Arctic Cat Pantera touring sled, and were looking forward to doing some riding.

The plan was for us to drive up on Tuesday. Wednesday we would ride the sleds down to St Germain and have someone drive us back to their house. Thursday we would drive the trucks down, do some local riding, and then Katy and I would check into the Whitetail like normal. Gary and Renee would stay at their house, but take part in the RWTC activities.

A lot of preparation went into this year’s trip. After Christmas I got the X8 in the garage and began the rebuild of the track. Over the summer I had acquired 48 new cleats from 3 different sources, now it was time to get them bolted on. The trailer also needed some serious attention, as the previous repair of the frame rails had failed. A 2 x 3 x ¼” thick aluminum angle 10 feet long was bolted on each side of the frame rails to stiffen things up. I also wound up replacing the bearings in the hubs, and the tires, as all of these were over 10 years old and had seen better days. Unfortunately, I didn’t get this project done until the Sunday before we left. The truck also required serious brake and fuel system repair, the local economy got a boost from all that.

On Monday the 11th, we loaded the sleds, gas cans, tools and parts, finishing up after midnight. It was snowing as we did this, and the forecast was for 8” or so by morning. My mother was suggesting that we put off our departure until Wednesday, but I wouldn’t hear of it. Tuesday morning arrived pretty much as advertised. We did our morning chores, the snowplow came through, and while Katy did last minute preparations, I plowed the driveway out with the skid loader.

We departed by 1:00 or so. Locally, the roads were pretty good. We get on I-39 at Portage, and for the first 50 miles things were quite good. Somewhere around Plainfield we caught up to the snow, and the further north we went, the worse things got. Very soon I was in 4 wheel drive, and our speed had dropped to 30 - 40 mph. As we made our way towards Wausau, we saw cars in the median, semis slid off into the ditch, cars smashed up, and my personal favorite, the car on its roof. The right hand lane was slushy with wheel tracks, the left was snow covered.

By the time we got to Wausau it was dark. The road north was slightly better as the right lane was mostly clear with the snow blowing across rather than sticking to it. North of Merrill, I-39 drops back to HWY 51, and 2 lanes. This was the worst stretch, as it had not been recently plowed, there was several inches of snow on the road and still snowing, I stayed on the road by just staying between the snowbanks.

FINALLY, we made it to Minocqua! We stopped and refueled, then continued on to Gary and Renee’s place. We had Gary on the phone directing us in, as a wrong turn was going to be bad, with no place to turn around. As we neared their house, I said “Gary, this isn’t a road, it’s a snowmobile trail!” his reply was that it was both, and about that time 6 sleds passed us on the right. We turned on to their driveway and promptly went over a cliff! I said to Katy, “we will never get back out of here!” One last turn took us into a drive just wide enough for the trailer, and then we were there!

170 or so miles in 4 wheel drive, twice the driving time as normal, but we were there! I was pretty much wiped out. We hauled in our gear, Renee fed us, and we hit the sack.

[400brian]

Wednesday February 13th. Hi temp 25 Low temp 17

Wednesday morning was bright and sunny. Our hosts had some errands to run, so when we rolled out, we had the house to ourselves. Eventually I got myself going, and got outside and unloaded the sleds. Each was fueled and taken for a quick rip on the freshly plowed driveway. Everything seemed good to go, so as soon as our hosts returned, Gary and I drove the trucks down to St Germain. The original plan was to ride the sleds down and have Rainville drive us back. He had to pick his wife and son up at the airport in Rhinelander around midnight, so we would keep him busy. However, his truck was at the GM dealership in Minocqua, where they were trying to chase down a no-start in the morning issue.

I pulled up to the Snowmobile Hall of Fame, and found Tom Otte chipping ice off the steps. As I got out of the truck, Tom was yelling, “We are closed!” It was good to see Tom, he had been involved in a horrific motorcycle accident last summer, and had been badly injured. I asked if I could leave the rig in the parking lot, and Tom replied “ absolutely, anything you need.” Gary and I headed back to the house, stopping briefly at the Whitetail to tell Rainville ( who was standing in his trailer ) to quit goofing off and get something done!

Back at the house on Papoose Lake, it was time to suit up and get going! The plan was to ride to Boulder Junction for lunch, which Gary thought was about 20 trail miles away. We were about halfway there, things were going well, the trails were decent, the weather great. We were coming out of a woods, down an incline, then a mild curve, then uphill to a road. Stopped at the road, I looked back for Katy and saw nothing. I waited a moment, then stood up and stepped off the sled. Looking down the hill, something caught my eye, I don’t know what I saw, but something told me to walk down the trail. As I walked, Katy came crawling out of the fluff and onto the trail.

I asked if she needed help standing, and she indicated she wanted to be left alone for a moment. Gary and Renee had gotten there by now, so while Renee looked after Katy, Gary and I turned our attention to the sled. It was just off the trail, sitting at about a 45 degree angle in fluff up to the headlight. It was running, but it was so buried that you couldn’t hear it. I carefully worked my way down to the front of the sled, stomping the knee deep snow down, looking for the downhill ski tip. Once I found it, I gave it a pull while Gary pulled on the other, and we quickly had the sled sitting upright. Gary thought I should just drive it out, so I blipped the throttle and by golly, the sled moved forward! I slowly walked the sled back up onto the trail. By this time, the wife is standing, and is ready to get back on the horse.

I looked at the tracks in the snow. She had come into the curve and just hadn’t turned! At the very least, she got behind it, the outside ski got off the hard pack, and out into the rhubarb she went. The biggest mistake was that when the sled started tipping, she stuck her foot out. This was like throwing out the anchor! The foot in the snow took her off the sled, pretty much doing the splits as she came off. Back in ‘77 Katy was a High School cheerleader, but even when she was 18 she says she couldn’t do the splits. Trying it at 60 was painful, and she wrenched a knee in the dismount as well.

We arrived in Boulder Junction at 2:15. The Cafe closes at 2:00, so we were a bit late for that. I suggested that there were other places to eat to the north, but Katy claimed she wasn’t hungry, and wanted to eat at the next stop: Stillwaters. However, both women wanted to hit the head, so we drove to the gas station across the street.

Inside we ran across a couple about our age, who wondered if we knew how to get to St Germain? I said that was where we were headed, but by way of Stillwaters. They said; “we were there yesterday, is there another route?” I pulled out my map and showed them where they needed to turn, and they headed out. My wife who wasn’t hungry was now saying she needed chocolate, so I bought a bag of Snickers to placate her.

As we saddled up, Gary said that this is as far as he has been, I could now take the lead. So we head east out of town, find trail 8, and take off for Stillwaters and lunch. Trail 8 intersects with 7 north of Stillwaters. Once we are at that intersection, I know exactly where we are, having run through there every year on the Vintage Challenge. On Wednesday the trails have not been groomed yet, however, they are in pretty nice condition! Trail 8 turned out to be a nice run, we turned on to 7 and made the run down to Stillwaters. Looking at my phone after we sat down at a table, I was surprised to see we had made that run in a little under an hour.

Burgers, fries, a Dew, and some Advil, put us in good shape. Katy was needing a little help walking, as the knee was very sore. As we came out to depart, we immediately had a guy who identified us as the Deere riders, chat us up about the sleds. He took some pics of us and the sleds, and I think everyone gets a kick out of the fact that the sleds have e-start on them.

We rode across Star, Plum, and Big St Germain Lakes, on our way down to the SHOF. The lakes were rough with drifted snow, and not many tracks across. Thankfully, there was no sign of slush, which the Bennetts were telling us was a huge problem up on Gogebic.

The sun was setting as we pulled into the SHOF. We parked the sleds, got into the truck and headed for Manitowish Waters. On the way I was talking with Jason Peterson. He had just blown the bulbs on one of his sleds, and was heading into Minocqua to see if he could get a headlight at NAPA there ( he could not ). After talking to Jason, I talked with Rainville, who told me he had a couple extra V-regs, so I told him to call Jason and let him know. It later turned out that Jason’s V-reg wasn’t bad, just disconnected ( which is the same as a bad one ).

Once at the house, we had a bit of supper, played a little Euchre, pondered what we were going to do the next day, and hit the sack.

[400brian]

Thursday February 14 Hi 27 Lo 6

Thursday was overcast. The mission for today was to ride from the SHOF to Eagle River and back. The only real deadline we had was that a group of the Deere riders were planning to have supper together at Blink Bonnie’s at 5 ish.

We drove the two trucks to Minocqua, where I was going to fill my cans. I had the oil dumped in the cans only to realize that this station didn’t have premium gas. So we headed down 70 to the Shell station just west of the Whitetail ( which BTW now has pay at the pump ) . Cans filled, we continued to the SHOF where we had left the sleds the evening before.

Once we were fueled and geared up, the sleds were fired and we headed out. Now I had never rode to Eagle River before. I am familiar with the area as the wife’s family has a cabin just north of town, but had never snowmobiled there. Studying the map, we found that there is no real direct route to the east. We would be navigating through several short trails around St Germain, before taking either a north or south route into town.

Rainville and Adam had did this ride earlier in the week ( at night ) and had found it confusing and reported several wrong turns were taken. The problem is in my opinion, that the trails are not well marked. As we have seen before, you will come to an intersection and the signs will point to a destination 2 different directions. OK, but it would be helpful if they would indicate what number trail you were about to turn onto!

We were trying to navigate with Polaris Trail Command on our phones. I found this infuriating, as we would lose signal, or the touch screen on the phone would freeze up. I spent more time swearing at the phone than riding, so finally I just put it away and rode.

We wound up coming into town on the southern route, which at the end runs along 70. This means driveways and stop signs every hundred yards. We had to ride through much of town, as our destination was on the north side. Knowing the layout of town helped keep the wrong turns there to a minimum, and we finally arrived at Leif's Cafe.

I am not sure exactly what time we left the SHOF, 10:30 - 11:00 ish? But I took this photo at 1:07, and we had been there a while at that point.

[400brian]

The meal was excellent, Leif’s is a great place to eat! We headed out the door to depart, and as everyone knows it takes a few minutes to get everyone geared up and ready. I took a couple of photos, and that is when I realized that there was a bunch of people lined up at the windows inside the buildings watching us! That was kinda weird, but we just ignored the peanut gallery and fired up the sleds and rode off. Had they never seen Deere sleds before? I suppose they could have been enthralled with the Pantera?

[400brian]

We headed north out of town, found trail 10W, and tried the northern route back. Here is the thing about this trip: when you leave St Germain, you see a sign that says: Eagle River 19 miles. After you ride for a couple of hours, you will see a sign that says: Eagle River 9 miles! It is insane, and a bit disconcerting, as you just don’t seem to be getting anywhere!

We were somewhere around 5 miles out of St Germain, I came up to an intersection, and was waiting for the other two to show up. After a bit, Gary and Renee ride up and tell me Katy has ran out of gas. Now I rode that sled in the Vintage Challenge in 2018, and found the fuel burn to be pretty much the same as the X8, I have plenty of gas, what has changed with that sled? I dig the tow rope from under the hood, hand it to Gary, and ask: how far back is she? He says about a quarter mile.

In just a few minutes they are coming down the trail, and I can hear this howl. It sounds like drive lugs running cockeyed on the idlers to me. Once stopped, I go to raise the hood to take the belt off, when I realize that the windshield is smashed, the only thing holding it together is the black bead around it. I say: what the hell went on here?

It seems a ways back we were coming down a road that had been plowed, in fact the pickup with the V-plow on it was sitting there as we passed. The operator had left a ridge of snow down the center of the road. The side I was riding on was pretty rough, so in a spot where the ridge was smaller, I jumped over to the much smoother other side. The wife had followed my lead, just not successfully. She had flopped the sled on its side, dinging herself up some more, and smashing the last NOS windshield I had. It was in perfect condition as well. I was not happy!

With the belt off, we continued our journey back to the SHOF. When we arrived, I dumped a bit of gas into the green machine, and it fired right up. At that point I sent the two women to the Whitetail Lodge with the two trucks. Katy could get us checked in while Gary and I made some repairs. In hindsight, I should have just put the sled on the trailer right then, but at that moment I didn’t realize how bad things were.

I got a roll of packing tape from Jamie, and Gary and I stuck the windshield back together as best we could. We then rode down to the Whitetail, and I then understood the whole picture. The driveline was making more noise than the engine, and the rear end of the sled kept sliding to the left. I nursed it into the parking lot and shut it off, stick a fork in it, it is done! At least for this weekend. A quick look revealed that the track was running against the rear swing arm, so my guess was that a bearing was out.

We were supposed to be at Blink Bonnie’s at 4:30, and it was way past that, so I hustled into the room to get out of the riding gear. Gary and Renee decided to go home and feed the dog, but said they would be back in the morning. I unhooked the trailer, and Katy and I drove over to Blink Bonnie’s. It is on the other side of 70, but between the Inn and the Lodge. We had been driving by the place for years, but had never been inside.

It is not a large place, and they were doing good business, pretty much packed. A pretty good bunch of the the Deere crew was there, and more were on their way. Here is a shot that Rainville took, Katy and I with Mindy Bennett in the middle.

[340sracer]

Finding the stories very interesting, keep them coming ,looking forward to the next ones.
Glen

[rminier]

Yes, also enjoying the stories of your trip!

[Old Yamy]

Great job.
This is some good reading.

[400brian]

We were at Blink Bonnie’s in the early evening because Rainville had a board meeting at 6:00.
As we were finishing our meal, some of the UP crew arrived by sled, basically doing half the Vintage Challenge that afternoon.

We didn’t hit the bar afterwards, Katy’s knee hurt, and she wanted to lie down. I was on call, it seems that Rainville believes that his helping me with the track of my X8 last year requires me to help replace an exhaust elbow on his ‘72 400 this year.

Sometime around 8:30 - 9:00 he shows up, and we go over to the motel garage. Wade Bennett, Jason Peterson, Dustin Elder, Brock Weber, and David Clark are all in there already The project they were working on was the 800 that David’s nephew Andrew rode last year. It seems that Andrew had put dual Mikunis on the sled in the last year, and it wasn’t running so great.

The guys had pulled the carbs off and cleaned the pilot jets, made a few adjustments, and had the sled running much better by all accounts. The 400 repair went quickly, the old elbow was almost completely broken off, and once the springs on the pipe were removed, it was quickly twisted off. The half that was still on the exhaust manifold moved when twisted with a large pair of channel locks, and was soon off.

The reason the elbow had failed might have something to do with the fact that the swivel was completely rusted solid. Dustin had it in the vise, and carefully separated it with a small chisel. The unit was quickly back on the engine. The only issue was that one of the springs had broken
On disassembly, and while Joe had brought some springs, as with most everything else on the ‘72s, they are different, longer in fact.

As we all waited for the blood and cursing to start flying, Dustin stretched one of the new springs into position. The sled was started, and honestly, it didn’t sound much different! It could be that the bottom of the muffler is rusted out, you would pretty much have to pull it out to get a good look at it.

[400brian]

They have a new policy at the Whitetail Lodge this year. Everyone is to be out of the garage at 10:00 pm. This pretty much rubbed us the wrong way, as we often are going in about that time. On this night, I think we were out at around 10:00. And as soon as we shut the lights off, the woman from the front desk came out and locked up.

Dustin had the Raideere parked in front of the garage, and he fired it up while I watched. He had began the project in September, and it had been way more than a resto. The drivetrain had been majorly altered, chaincase and drive axles were all fabbed by Dustin. The engine is a 440/22, with the tuner pipe out of an 800 on it, but without the muffler. To say it barks a bit is an understatement! However, being as the engine is behind you, and the pipe points straight back, it isn’t all that bad if you are in it.

Dustin offered me the chance to take it around the parking lot. After some thought, I decided it was probably my only chance to do so, so I climbed in. Raiders were not designed for long legged people. My knees were tight to the dash, and the seat is thin and a tight fit. I made a lap around the parking lot. Thank you Dustin for that. It is unique, if not practical. Dustin painted it Mean Green, with a yellow graphics package to go with it. I will say the thing is a hoot!

A pic I lifted from his Facebook page.

[AirborneX4Special]

Good job Dustin, your creation looks cool.

[400brian]

Friday, February 15th Hi 17 Lo 0


Friday would begin the official RWTC activities. We were assembling the Bogie Bash group in the parking lot of the motel at 9:00 am. I left the room around 8:30, and the first order of business was to fire up the sled and fuel it up. I pulled the choke and cranked the e-start and nothing happened. This sled has always started, even when it was 20 below zero and the e-start wouldn’t turn it. I pulled the plugs, and they were dry. The fuel in the tank was low, and the sled was parked on a bit of an angle, so I decided to fuel it where it sat. Once fueled I tried again with the same result. I had a squeeze bottle of premix in the tool box, so I shot a bit down each hole and tried again. I got one pop then nothing.

The battery was crapping out by now, and the recoil start was not pulling the rope back like it should. My hands were numb at this point. I walked up into the staging area and found Chris Keltch. I asked if he would pull the sled up out of the hole in front of the motel. As Chris maneuvered in front of the sled, I dug out my tow rope. I think this is the first time the X8 has ever been on the rope! The snow is deep and the X8 is stiff, it was with some difficulty we got the sled up onto the driveway.

Rainville’s truck was running, so Chris pulled me up to it. Wade dug some jumper cables out of the snow in the back of his truck. David Clark got the hot terminal box opened up, and we got the cables hooked up. I asked the guys to watch if fuel was moving in the lines when I cranked it, but when I turned the key it started instantly! Thanks guys!

Rainville was dragging the Sprintfire off the trailer as the 400 refused to start as well. We had it running just a few hours ago! He said he apparently flooded it it, and changing plugs didn’t resolve it. He and Dustin had messed with it for a while and finally gave up. Other guys were reporting starting issues that morning as well, there must have been something in the air.

We finally had everyone assembled and running. We circled the lot and Don shot video of us departing. We ran along 70 east until we got to the edge of town. We turned north at the park and began the run to Eagle River.

Out of town we settled in for the trip. The trail was smooth and the sun was shining, a great day to enjoy sledding in the north woods in the company of friends.

We had just crossed a road when things went south, we had a sled down. Jason Peterson and I walked back to see what was going on.

[400brian]

David Clark’s friend Jim was riding the 800 that had been worked on in the garage the night before. Jim is a fellow airline pilot, and lives in Hawaii, he was raised in MN though, and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying his vacation in the snow.

The 800 was running, it just wouldn’t move! Dustin had the chaincase opened up, and discovered that the chain was running on just one half of the lower sprocket. We surmised that the out of alignment had taken the teeth off the sprocket. The chain was re-positioned, and I got a cotter pin for the top sprocket out my bag of spare parts. It seems none had been installed.

I thought we were good to go, but when power was applied, the chain spun on the sprocket. I guess that chain and sprocket was toast. In hindsight, we could have tried pulling the lower sprocket off and flipping it around, that might have worked. But Dave has reported since that the spacer behind the sprocket was missing as well, so there was a multitude of things going on there.

The sled went on the rope, and we resumed our trip.

[400brian]

When we were considering our destination for the Bogie Bash this year, several spots were suggested. We like to keep our options open so we can adapt to trail conditions or lack thereof. The season had not gotten off to a good start this year, the popular Christmas to New Years time frame had marginal conditions by the reports I was hearing. January wasn’t much better. However, February brought the Polar Vortex, and then snow, and snow, and more snow. All of Wisconsin was getting it. We had a brief thaw, then back to snow.

The north woods area had gotten 12 inches the week before we arrived, and then another 8 the day we drove up. We could ride anywhere we wanted to go! The only concern was slush on the lakes. The weight of the snow pushes the ice down, the water comes up through the cracks until an equilibrium is reached. Water under the snow is kinda like quicksand, you want to avoid that.

One suggestion was that we ride to Eagle River, we had never rode that direction. The next thought was: do you suppose we could get out on the race track? Now it started to get intriguing A few laps around the track and pics to prove we did it would be close to bucket list territory! A few years back this would not have happened, but fences have been mended, relations between the SHOF and the track are now good, and Rainville thought the new owners of the track would be receptive to the idea.

So here we are, zipping through the trees, on a mission to ride on the Eagle River Derby Track!
The pre-ride the day before was a good idea. No wrong turns were made, but because we hadn’t departed as early as we had hoped, we pulled in at the racetrack at 12 noon. The gal at the office told us the guys were waiting for us in the shack on the backstretch. We rode around to the back, and yes they were there. We were invited in to sign waivers, and were given pit passes. Procedure was gone through, and then they cut us loose.

Rainville and I were the first out. As we fired up the sleds, he yelled; YOU ARE GOING DOWN!
As if a mid-mount with a cleated track is any threat on an ice oval! The track was lightly snow covered, so the first couple of laps went pretty good. It is a half mile oval, with pretty good banking in the turns. We stayed low to start, just kind of feeling things out. The thing was though, the conditions rapidly changed. Once we had the snow blown off, we were now on ice, and none of us were set up to run on ice. I had started the week with brand new carbides, so the X8 was going where I pointed it, but I knew if I pushed it very hard the rear end would try to pass the front.

The word was that both Rainville and Dustin Elder did 360s in turn 4, though I did not witness it.
I tried running a bit higher up the bank in the corners, and it quickly became obvious that a fair amount of practice would be required to get the hang of this. I made a few laps then pulled to the side by the flag shack. Henry Keltch came by holding his phone up, filming a lap around the track for posterity. We decided to have a group photo taken on the start / finish line, so we all fired up and lined up there.

[jep_800]

The Eagle River track was a really cool deal!! So historic how they’ve been running races there for 50+ years. And we got to take some hot laps around the place. My 800 ran good all day, and it was fun to wind er’ up on the track! She, and my X8 don’t really like to drive slow... it feels much more comfortable when it’s 3/4 throttle or better..... I tried to limit that a bit this year since both engines were newly rebuilt, but now they are broke in, I will put them to the test next year!