2025 RWTC story

[400brian]

double

[400brian]

Saturday February 15 Hi temp 24 Low 15

We awoke at 6 AM to find that the snow that had begun falling in the late afternoon Friday, had continued through the night. We had several inches of fresh fluff on the ground! I hadn’t hit the sack until around midnight. After putting a wire connector on the Cyclone coil wire, getting the gas cans filled and placed in Rainville’s trailer, helping him get the truck hooked onto the trailer, and other things to prepare for the Vintage Challenge the next day, it made for a short night.
Gary Whirry would be driving the support truck, which we were very appreciative of, and would soon come into play.

The Cyclone fired right up in the garage, and I made the quick ride over to the Whitetail Inn. The guys had an open chair at a table, so I grabbed some breakfast and joined in the festivities.
The plan for this year’s Vintage Challenge was to ride the 45 miles over to the Rustic Roadhaus just south of Manitowish Waters, and back again. This would take us through Boulder Junction, the same as the day before.

As we lined up in the driveway to depart, we had 11 sleds. Rainville was riding the Sprintfire today, and I was on my wife’s Cyclone because I had never gotten to ride it any distance since rebuilding it. The fresh fluff we had gotten overnight was going to put a cloud behind every sled, but otherwise things were pointed towards a good day.

As soon as we were confident we had everyone who was coming, we got moving. As you can see from the photo taken at the Sayner Mobil, we still had snow coming down. We paused while Jason snugged up the track on his 440 Cyclone as he thought he was hearing a lot of track slap. Once he had that done we headed north once again.

[400brian]

Here we are on the north side of Plum Lake just above Sayner. This is where Tom Rehberg reported that he had a broken exhaust manifold.
I called for the support trailer right away, but they were already aways down the road, and it took a while to get Rainville’s trailer turned around to come pick Tom up. Unfortunately for Tom, the bar wasn’t open yet, so he didn’t get an opportunity to make new friends.

As you can see from this angle, Stillwater’s parking lot is empty. I am on the phone talking with Renee’. But Tom’s 78 is looking good!

We needed to keep making tracks, so we headed north. See ya at Boulder Junction Tom!

[400brian]

The trail north of Stillwaters is twisty and in places heavily wooded. Snow was very thin in places. We got to the intersection with trail 8, swung onto it and put the hammer down.
The fresh snow made the Cyclone hunt ( dart ) a bit at speed, so I wasn’t riding one handed like I had been the day before, but the fresh snow hanging in the trees and swirling around us was glorious! The trails were much better than we had been led to believe, and the Cyclone was running like it is supposed to.

As we were coming into Boulder Junction, Rick Mielke’s Mercury Trail Twister started acting up, and as we were lining up at the trailer to refuel, he put it on the trailer. I believe he was having a drive clutch problem. One other issue that came up as we were fueling was that Mike Doll, from Mosinee, thought he was seeing a fuel leak on his late Liquifire. I looked things over and my initial reaction was that his sled looked well prepped and his fuel system looked good. But yes, I could see fuel dripping, but I couldn’t tell from where. I called Tom Rehberg over to look it over as he has more experience with the Kawasaki powered stuff, and he quickly figured it out. He pulled the tank vent / overflow line out and repositioned it. Done, simple non problem!

Once we were all topped off, we again headed west on trail 8. Rainville and I were having a discussion as to how to get to the Rustic Roadhaus. We ran this route 2 years ago, and I was pretty sure one route delivered us right into the parking lot of the bar / restaurant. He wanted to argue with me about that.

Trail 8 west of Boulder was pretty decent, and we buzzed right along. As we were closing in on our lunch destination, we suddenly lost half the group. Rainville went back to see what was going on, so I had Andrew Clark pull Polaris Trail Command up on his phone to see where we were. Interestingly, it showed where we were, but not where our destination was. Not even the gas station that is right beside it was showing up. I was pretty sure we were within a mile or 2, and that made no sense.

Jonathan Doll’s Sportfire had gone down. There was speculation that the cooling fan bearings had failed, it was noisy and seemed to be running hot, but that is all I know.

Jason Peterson took him in tow.

[400brian]

So we took off once again, and I don’t think we went a mile when we came around a corner and drove into the parking lot of the Rustic Roadhaus!

The support trailer was parked there, so we were good. Pictured here at the bottom and going clockwise: Mike Doll, Jason Peterson, Jonathan Doll, David Clark, Andrew Clark, and the owner / waitress. Again short staffed, she was serving, her husband was cooking.


I had no problem with the food, and they got us in and out in a reasonable time. Life was good!

With Jonathan’s sled in the trailer, it was down to eight of us to pound it back to St Germain. Joe’s 72 400 was in the trailer as a backup, and he offered to let any of the guys in the truck ride it, but for some reason no one accepted the offer.

The ride back to Boulder wasn’t quite as nice, but we made good time. Pulling into Boulder we all took a splash of gas and headed back out. Rainville was getting tired of being on point and wanted me to lead. My objection is that I can't turn around far enough to see behind me with the helmet on, and the convex mirror I have on my left wrist only lets me see if there are headlights behind me. Nevertheless I am on point. As we worked our way out of the twisty’s and hit the straight flat section, I put the hammer down and let the Cyclone stretch her legs. I had never really opened it up to this degree before, so I was not throwing caution to the wind, but I had her singing pretty good. The headlights behind me dropped back, but I could still see them, so I kept her wound up until we came to the intersection heading south towards Sayner.

I insisted Rainville go back on point, because I knew the next section would suck. And it did, not the worst we have ever seen, but sections were trash. I was finding that the Cyclone suspension was not up to it, as it was bottoming out on every bump, and it hurt. You just grin and bear it. Soon we were at Stillwater’s and dropping down onto Star Lake. It was completely overcast and hazy out on the lake, and again the sleds are putting clouds of fluff into the air. Star Lake was reasonably smooth, Plum rough in spots. We came off the lake at Sayner, drove through the huge number of sleds parked in front of the Sayner Pub, and pulled up to the support truck.

[400brian]

The guys in the truck were in their shirt sleeves munching on snacks out of their goodie bags.

I think one or two of the guys took some gas at the pump, but the premix guys were good, so we headed south towards the Whitetail.

We zipped it out, and I made the final mile or so down the edge of the road.

Coming into the motel parking lot, I made my traditional victory lap around the driveway, then drove the sled into the trailer.
My butt was dragging, but after a hot shower and a Mountain Dew I was ready to head over to the Banquet.

Cari had saved a table for us, so we were good. The woman in red seated at the table is Kay, she is the manager at the Whitetail.

It was a wild week in the north woods! Despite our concerns that this season was going to be another bust. They got just enough snow to open the trails and keep them passable.

Booked the room for next year on the way out, and I know there are plans being made. Hint: 2026 would be the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the Liquidator and Brian Nelson’s I-500 win!

[jep_800]

Great write-up again Brian!

Point of observation: We went into this week with reservation that we'd have anything to ride on. Maybe not to the extent of last year with absolutely no snow, but so thin it was going to be not so fun. As it turned out, the snow gods were with us, and once Friday rolled around it started snowing and didn't quit until I was almost halfway home on Sunday. That turned out to be fantastic for our trip and riding with friends in the north woods was about as enjoyable as it gets.

See you all again next year!

[400brian]

Jason makes a good point. We had been talking about snowfall in northern WI, or lack thereof since Christmas. Cold weather moved in and froze the lakes up well, but the only snow that was falling through January was lake effect that doesn't reach down to Vilas county much, and clipper systems that came out of the northwest and dropped light powdery snows. Most of the winter had the storm track far to the south of St Germain. When we left for Land O Lakes on the 10th, we had no snow on the ground in southern WI at all.

A few inches did fall the week before the RWTC, but the heaviest went through the Wausau area. When we got up north, we found the trails were a little better than we were anticipating, and as Jason mentioned, the snow that began falling late Friday really made things look nice, and gave us a better outlook on how the week had went.

Looking back on the week, the Bogie Bash on Friday was probably the highlight for me personally. The sled traffic on the weekends sends the locals out on the lakes ice fishing for a reason.

[BU1]

The sled traffic on the weekends sends the locals out on the lakes ice fishing for a reason.

It would be nice if the RWTC event wasn't on Valentine's and Presidents weekend. The event at Bent's Camp also adds to the traffic.

[High Top]

Great stories and pictures, keep it up. Looks like a fun time and I’m hopeful at some point in the future I can journey north and tag along with the group. Glad you got snow up there!

[400brian]

The sled traffic on the weekends sends the locals out on the lakes ice fishing for a reason.

It would be nice if the RWTC event wasn't on Valentine's and Presidents weekend. The event at Bent's Camp also adds to the traffic.

When we first started doing this back in 07, the RWTC was held mid-week as the racers had to race on the weekends. Some years ago, the Whitetail wouldn't have us on Valentines weekend because it was one of their bigger weekends, but as the event grew, they relented as we were the bigger deal. I personally would like to make the run up to Gogebic, but I haven't much interest in doing it on the same Saturday as the Radar Run at Bent's Camp. There are a number of people coming up a week or more in advance, so as to avoid the weekend traffic. I believe there is an opportunity here if there are enough people who want to ride mid-week.

[400brian]

I forgot to relate this story in my RWTC recap.

On I believe Tuesday the 11th, Jason Peterson sent out a text informing us that Andrew Clark had shown up at David Clark's shop with an 800 on which some assembly was required. In other words, the engine was in a box. They assembled the engine including a new Hewtech ignition and got it in the sled, but he didn't have a carb for it.

They dug around in a box of stuff David had, and came up with several WRA-31 Walbros. Jason suggested they try the greasiest example to try first ( I would have probably agreed with that ) and so it was bolted on. The sled fired right up and idled! Jason and David who are no strangers to sorting out newly rebuilt sled issues were left shaking their heads.

Andrew rode the sled there a day or so, then they headed over to St Germain where he rode it on the Bogie Bash and the Vintage Challenge, and as far as I know, without any issues! Sometimes you can get by with being lucky is better than good, or at least it is easier. Anyway, good job Andrew!

[AirborneX4Special]

Excellent addition to the story and further proof that the best parties are the ones you don't necessarily plan.

Harrumph on the greasy carbonator choice.

[nick80lf]

As always great writeup Brian.