2025 RWTC story

[400brian]

We began our annual north woods vacation differently this year, as we tried something new.

I became aware of a show and ride taking place at the Gateway Lodge in Land O Lakes in I believe November or early December. We have enjoyed supper at the lodge several times while staying at our cabin in Eagle River in the summer. Land O Lakes is about 20 miles north of Eagle River, and is literally on the Wisconsin / Michigan border.

The Gateway Lodge began operations 100 years ago, so it is an old school facility.

We arrived in the early afternoon Monday the 10th, after an easy drive up. We parked the trailer, and got our gear hauled into the room. Note to self; next time try to get a ground floor room!

The room was a studio with a single king size bed, very cozy.

Tuesday morning we were up fairly early, and found ourselves looking at an outside temp of -17. This took a little of the enthusiasm out of the moment, even though it was bright sunshine outside.

We decided we would wait until it had warmed up a bit before we ventured out to fire up the sleds. Eventually we bundled up and got our day started. The first thing was to get the truck started so we would have a place to warm up if need be.

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Next we went to work to getting the hold downs off the three sleds, once that is done we can get down to business.

Katy’s Cyclone would be the first off the trailer, so with some trepidation I started the process. First you pull the rope a few times to limber up the engine a little. It initially pulls really hard, like at risk of breaking the rope hard, but it gets easier after a few pulls.
You have to haul the Cyclone with the gas shut off, otherwise it will fill the engine with fuel. But it seems to empty the carb bowl while you are on the road.

Once the engine was limbered up, I tried the e-start with the enrichener on full, but got nothing. This means we would have to pull the spark plugs out and squirt a little premix down each hole to physically prime the engine. On the first attempt, the engine barked right off…and died. Repeat the process, same result. We retreated to the truck to warm up my hands.

Back in the trailer, I believe it was on the fourth priming that the engine fired up and stayed running.YAY! I made a few laps around the Lodge to get the engine warmed up before I returned to the trailer. Katy then got on and started making some laps.

Moving back to the 73 X8, I pulled the choke, and started pulling its engine over. After a few pulls, the recoil began not wanting to suck the rope back in very fast. I decided it was time to try the e-start. After 10 - 15 seconds of cranking, the reliable old Kioritz 440 rumbled to life! Ahhh, life is good! Moderating the choke, I drove the sled off the trailer and began making laps with it. I am not dressed for riding, so it is a bit nipply.

As I am going around the building, I am drawing a bit of attention from onlookers. I am looking for Katy, but she is nowhere to be seen. I am wondering where the heck she has gone, but on about the third lap I discover she has snuck in behind me without me seeing her.
We parked the two sleds in front of the lodge and walked back to the parking lot. I wanted to grab a bite to eat and it was getting to be around noon, so we got in the truck and headed a short distance down the street to the Pine Cone Cafe’.

A ham and cheese omelet really hit the spot, and it gave us a chance to warm up and contemplate what we were going to do next.

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Returning to the Lodge, the 74 X8 fired right up just as the 73 had. After a few warm up laps were put on the 74, we took the Cyclone and the 73 back to the truck to get them fueled up for the vintage ride we would be going on the next day.

After all the sleds were back in line, Katy went inside while I chatted with some guys who were out riding and had paused at the lodge for a pitstop.
50 year old sleds in good running condition do tend to initiate conversations.

Eventually, I headed into the room to warm up and get suited up. The plan was for the two of us to take a quick rip with the Cyclone and the 73 to confirm they were ready for a ride. As we had not had any snow to run them on for two seasons, we wanted to hear them run free out in the wild!

We headed out around 3 PM, and just ran a few miles to the west to see what the trail conditions looked like, and how the sleds performed.

The snow cover on the trail was thin, with snirt and gravel stones showing here and there, but overall fairly smooth and rideable.

The sleds performed up to expectations, it looked like we were ready for the ride. We put all three sleds back in the trailer for the night, as a little snow was forecast.

There was a meet and greet in the Lodge lounge later in the evening, where we sampled some snacks and a beverage, and got registered for the vintage ride the next day. We then retired to the room to watch a little TV and relax, it had been a good day!

[400brian]

Wednesday morning broke cold with light snow. I had to brush off the windshield of the truck before we drove it over to the trailer. We were supposed to be at a drivers meeting at 11:30, so I think we gave ourselves an hour to get the sleds fired up and out in front of the Lodge.

The Cyclone did start without priming despite the -12 degree temps overnight. I had just come back to the trailer after having run a few warm up laps, when a 78 Liquifire came buzzing in. I recognized the driver as Lincoln Hoffman from MI. He wanted to know if I had any tools, as Mark Staudt had broken a fan belt on his Cyclone just as they were approaching the Lodge.

A few moments later, the whole JD gang that had been riding up in the UP that week came riding in! They drove their sleds over to where everyone was lining up in front of the lodge, and Mark began calling around to see if a belt could be located.

The driver’s meeting was brief, after which the organizers invited the UP gang to sit down and have pizza with us before we left on the vintage ride. I think they appreciated that, and I thought it was a nice gesture.

Out in the parking lot, another Deere owner that we had never met, offered Mark his pickup truck to run down to Eagle River where a belt had been located. When we came out after lunch, Mark was busy putting the belt on. We left before it was assembled, but I learned later that they had got the sled running again. Mark was saying that “a smooth sea does not make for a good sailor”, so he was taking it all in stride. These guys have repaired sleds on the fly before.

The vintage ride departed the Lodge at 1:00 PM, heading for Bent’s Camp, 13 mi away.

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Just south of the Gateway is a small airport. As we departed to the south, we looped around hangers, and then headed to the west. We hadn’t gone a half a mile when I found I was asking myself what the heck I was smelling? It smelled like a cross between rubbish and a grass fire. There was a bit of a haze in the air behind the sleds in front of me, and I had to conclude there was a connection. Then it hit me, somebody is burning a mouse nest out of their muffler!

We didn’t go much farther when a mid 70s Boa Ski slowed to a stop. He said it just wouldn’t pull itself. He screwed the gas cap off and it fired right up, so we jumped back on the sleds, but we didn’t go a hundred yards and he was stopped again. The driver was commenting that his muffler had a funny two tone look to it. We told him that we were smelling something really funky behind him, and that is when we concluded he had a mouse nest blocking his exhaust. Time to put that one on the trailer.

We took off again, but our guide was long gone. I have been to Bent’s Camp many times, but we had come in from the south, today we were coming in from the east. The group had turned off the trail to cross a small lake, but I missed that. Our friends the Whirrys were riding behind Katy and I on their modern Cat, and Gary ran me down and pointed out that the group had turned. We backtracked to the lake access and headed across. On reaching the opposite side we found the group waiting.

The tail gunner rode up after a bit saying that another couple of guys had taken the same wrong turn that we had made, but that he couldn't run them down. So we continued on to Bent’s Camp.

We weren’t too far out of Bent’s at that point, and the ride went smoothly after that. We were soon on trails that I recognised, and arrived at our destination without further problems.

We parked on the Lake in front of the bar / restaurant and headed in. I hadn’t been on a snowmobile ride in two years, and I was feeling it. By the time we got up to the building I was ready to sit down. The Whirrys and us sat in a booth right inside the door, the rest disappeared out of sight. We decided to order a couple of burgers and fries to split between us for a snack, but because there was a shift change with the cook or something, they didn’t show up for around an hour!

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Shortly before the burgers came, our guide stopped by and said they were getting ready to depart. I told them to go ahead, we would find our way back.

The food finally came, we ate, visited the restroom, got geared up, and headed out the door. As we got out on the lake I was surprised to see the group still standing out there! As we approached I saw why. The Deere guy who had loaned his truck to Mark earlier, was pulling his guts out trying to get his Kawi powered LF Deere started. This situation is a running joke among the Kioritz powered Deere owners. As I got there it sputtered, sputtered some more, then a few pulls later caught and ran!


It was nice that they waited for us!
We took off and ran back to the Gateway the same way we had come, and it didn’t take near as long. The sleds that were left hung tight together and ran at a good pace.

We loaded the sleds into the trailer and tied them down in preparation of the trip to St Germain Thursday morning.

Katy and I had supper in the dining room, and later Jona Eliason, the granddaughter of Carl Eliason gave a presentation about her grandfather Carl, who is credited with designing and building the first snowmobile out of his hardware store in Sayner in 1924. That sled is in the glass case behind her. She was a good speaker, and even Katy enjoyed her talk.

Awards were also handed out. Katy and I won the best vintage dressed couple. We received a couple of Gateway Lodge T-shirts. It was a good day!

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Thursday February 13th. Hi of 11, low of -11

Thursday morning brought bright sunshine with cold temps. A couple of inches of fluffy snow had fallen overnight. Katy and I got our gear packed up, and started dragging it down to the ground floor. I had to clean the snow off the truck, then backed it up to the door to facilitate loading. Once the gear was on board, we hooked onto the trailer, remembering to open the door on the trailer and shut the fuel off on the Cyclone before we left. Never had to do this on the mid-mounts, so I am still getting used to having to do this.

We headed south to Eagle River, the downtown Ice Castle was quite resplendent in the morning sun, then headed west towards St Germain. The road wasn’t too bad, and we rolled into the Whitetail at 10 AM. The motel had told us that morning that we could get into the room around noon, so we had some time to kill. We dropped the trailer in the parking lot, then went inside to see what the Rainville’s were doing. John Deere Joe was thinking about getting dressed, and indicated he wanted to get sleds into the garage. It seemed that the Sprintfire had yet to start in the northern WI temps.

Katy and I headed into town for some breakfast at the Wolfpack Cafe’. They do a good job there of getting you served quickly, so we were in and out fairly fast.

Heading back to the motel, the gal at the desk agreed to let us into the room, so we hauled two cart loads of gear down to the far west end of the motel. We normally get a room right off the lobby, but for some reason we didn’t get it this time.

After moving in, I went out and grabbed my fuel cans out of the trailer, and went down to the Shell station just west of the motel and mixed up 12 gallons of git r done 91.

Returning to the motel, I found Joe in his trailer getting ready to tow the Sprint over to the garage. I drove the tow sled while he steered the Sprint, and we quickly got it inside. Joe kept talking about going riding, but my position was screw that, his stuff wasn’t running and it was dang cold out. We had no more than got started looking at the Sprint when Richard and Cari were in the garage. Richard was gung-ho to ride his sled, so Joe took him out and led him around the parking lot. Eventually Cari took over, and Joe got back in the garage.

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So Joe had not been able to get the Sprint to run since arriving in St Germain. He got busy pulling the carb off the sled so we could take a look inside.

Once the float bowl was off, I suspected we would find nothing, as it was very clean inside. The main and pilot jets were removed and found to be clean. The needle jet was popped out and inspected, it too was clean. So the carb was re-installed on the sled. The spark plugs were removed and appeared dry to me. I had brought my squeeze bottle of premix in with me, so I put a squirt down each hole. The plugs were re-installed and before I could yell: “bring the thunder” he had pulled the rope and it was running. Ok, that was easy.

Next, the 72 400 was driven in. The plan I had been assured was going to happen was that a new engine was going into this sled during the off season, but here it was. We had worked on getting the timing correct on this sled last February when there was no snow to ride on, and had identified a number of things that needed correcting. As usual, Joe had started working on it about 2 weeks out, so there was no time to assemble a new engine. He installed what he told me was a good used set of points, as the originals were worn and wouldn’t allow setting the timing correctly on both sides. The breaker plate had been set back to the original position, and the engine ran. He had put new plugs in it so there was no color on the plugs to adjust the carb by. I gapped the plugs and opened the main needle up a bit to where I thought it ought to be.

At one point Richard came into the garage somewhat upset because his sled had died in the depression in front of the motel. It turned out he had bumped the kill switch, so that was an easy fix. I think he went through most of a tank of gas that afternoon.

Around 5:30 we headed over to Blink Bonnie’s for supper. Jason Peterson, David Clark, Andrew Clark, Tom Rehberg, the 3 Rainville’s, Katy and myself enjoyed each other’s company that evening.

At 8 PM, we were back out in the garage because Joe had discovered that the brake on the Sprint refused to hold adjustment. We adjusted it several times, but it wouldn’t hold the adjustment when you pumped the brake handle. He finally pulled the assembly apart, and it was very obvious why. The floating square pad the cam pushes on had a drilled hole in the center. This was an aftermarket pad that physically fits, but is made for a Polaris hydraulic brake. The Polaris cup would never touch the hole in the center, but on the Deere mechanical system, the adjusting bolt lined right up with it, and as you adjusted the bolt in, it pushed through the metallic pad breaking it into pieces.
A parts run was now on the schedule in the morning.

[400brian]

Friday February 14 High of 19 Low of -19

We had put out the word that the Bogie Bash would depart from the Whitetail parking lot at 10 AM sharp! Rainville’s 400 had been left in the 60 degree garage, so I was confident it would start. Katy and I headed out around 8:45 to get the sleds out of the trailer and the fuel topped off. The low temp of the day had been early in the morning, and by 9 AM was rising above zero.
I think we again had to prime the Cyclone 4 times before it ran, while the 73 X8 fired up and was quickly ready to go. After a few warm up laps, we fueled the sleds up. Sleds were pulling in shortly after 9. Joe returned from the Polaris dealer in town with a new brake pad ( that was a surprise ) However, Cari and Richard had decided to stay at the motel because of the cold temps.

Katy’s Cyclone has bar warmers on it, but she put a heat pack in the thumb of her right mitt for good measure, and I put one in each of my mitts.
By 10 AM we had 15 sleds in the line up! 14 Deeres and one Scorpion. The destination for the day was Boulder Junction, roughly 30 miles away.

We got started north in the ditch alongside county C. We had no more than got started when I got out of shape in some moguls past a driveway, lost my grip on the bar with my left hand, and slid right off the sled. This was embarrassing! Then when I went to get on my feet my foot slipped and I went down a second time, OK this is worse. Katy helped me to my feet, where I then turned to face the group and took a bow.

Back on the sled, I pulled out onto the shoulder of the road and bypassed all the hazards and put the wood to it, I was waiting for the group up near the trailhead leading to Sayner. Joe had rode as far north as Stillwaters Resort on Wednesday, so we didn’t know exactly what we were getting into. We ran through Sayner, made the run across the 2 lakes, then headed north into Indian country.

Here we are at the intersection of trail 8 west. This runs to Boulder Junction, and much of it is straight, flat and fast! Unlike the trail to this point north of Stillwaters.

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The ride west was pleasant, and without incident. We ran a good clip on this smooth straight section of trail, we were living the dream! We had one intersection near town where another well travelled trail feeds in. From there into Boulder it wasn’t as smooth or straight, but it wasn’t long and we were pulling into town, and the Granary Restaurant is within sight.

And here we are lined up at the restaurant! We had been talking about taking the Bogie Bash to Boulder for a long time, but for one reason or another it had never worked out. We finally have that box checked!

The trails had turned out to be better than we were expecting, and as we didn’t get to ride last year at all, everyone was pretty happy.

Like most every restaurant we have visited since the Covid years, this one was understaffed. One guy cooking, and one serving. The Whirry’s had arrived by vehicle a short time before we arrived. Cari Rainville had called the restaurant and told them a group was coming, but the Whirry’s reported that when they arrived, the server seemed a bit put off that a large group was inbound.

Nevertheless, they set us up at a large table, we got fed, and I thought the food was good. I thanked the server personally on our way out, and I don’t think we had made their lives too miserable by stopping in.

The next part of the mission would be to get everyone through the gas station across the street. I only put two gallons of gas in each sled to top them off, so I really didn’t need to. By my odometer we had travelled about 30 miles on the way in, and my sled with the 6 gallon tank should get me close to a 90 mile range.

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Once we had everyone fueled up, we pointed the group east the way we had come, and took off. We had a very good day, everyone’s sled ran, and we just cruised back. The snow consistency had definitely changed as the temp had risen into the upper teens. It now had a looser or more sugary feel to it, at least that seemed to be the seat of the pants consensus.

We were a mile or 2 from Stillwater’s Resort when we lost half of the group. We stopped and shut the sleds down to listen for them, and heard dead silence. Eventually a few modern sleds came through and told us they were not far back. Rainville was turning the sled around to go see what was going on when sleds started dribbling in. It seems one of the Indiana guys had lost a suspension bolt ( which they found lying on the foot board ) but after putting the bolt back in, they discovered the outside belt on his Sportfire had been torn. He could drive the sled, but only slowly. So the plan was made to get him to Stillwater’s where they could bring the trailer up to get him.

When we got to the Resort, there were lots of sleds parked out front, so he was going to have the opportunity to make a lot of new friends! Hey, it’s way better than sitting out in the woods somewhere! We dropped down onto Star Lake and continued our trip. Ran the rough mile between the lakes, then ran across Plum Lake to Sayner. We were waiting to exit the lake when Katy came up quite slowly and told me it wasn’t running right. By the sound it was making, I judged it to be running on one cylinder. Lifting the hood I saw that the mag side coil feed wire had a broken ring terminal and it was arcing to ground. Very simple diagnosis. Mike Horn assisted me in getting some insulation stripped off the wire, the wire wrapped around the stud, and the little nut tightened back down. The sled fired right back up and quickly cleaned out the excess fuel it had been getting fed. We were ready to go!

This photo was taken by Brandyn Horn at some point on our way back, and is one of my favorite photos from the day!

We got back with time to spare to make it to the fish fry that evening, and I put the Cyclone in the motel garage so I could make a more permanent repair after we got back.

It had been a good ride, and an epic day!

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