Back from the SHOF RWTC, Feb 2011

[400brian]

It was pretty obvious that we had pretty much overwhelmed the staff at Fishtails last year, so this year they decided to try serving us buffet style in an attempt to get us through faster. I'd say that it did help.
The Ambers and Keith Bylin had driven up for lunch, and Rainville had gotten the Dator loaded up and driven up with the trailer as well. His plan was to ride Cari's Sprint back, if one of the Ambers would drive his truck.

We ate and headed back out to fuel. Troy wanted 3 gallons in the 340/S, and it appeared my X8 was only going to take a gallon or so. It appears replacing the muffler may have improved my fuel burn.

to be continued, I fell asleep.

[HoosierDeereMan]

I fell asleep.

If anybody has a picture from the SHOF induction ceremony that was sitting at our table this would be the appropriate time to post it!


Come on Rainville this is your chance!!!!!

Troy

[JoeRainville]

Troy,

I am too good of friends with Lindner to make fun of him on a public forum. All I have is a picture or 10 of him concentrating really hard on how to make a 340/s actually run...

[WinnipegStPaul9]

That's precious!!!

[HoosierDeereMan]

All I have is a picture or 10 of him concentrating really hard on how to make a 340/s actually run...

Looks like he threw in the towel on how to make the 340/s run! On second thought maybe he is dreaming of snow bunnies!

OK, in all reality this is a guy who has finished every vintage challenge since the start on the same JDX8 sled. I think he's earned the rest!

Troy

[400brian]

As we left Fishtails, we ran up the west shoreline for a ways, there was about 10 yards of snow tight against the bank. We got back in the ditch and headed north towards the trail. It appeared that one of the late models had jumped a driveway and when they landed on the ice on the opposite side, broke through. I avoided the open water by steering hard right and running down the narrow berm of snow right next to the road edge, it was a little like walking a tight rope. Once past the water, I swung to the other side of the ditch and was soon tuning into the woods. As I was turning onto the trail, I looked back and saw that no one was following. My gut feeling was that someone had gotten into the water. Being as my old mid-mount is at a disadvantage in the twisting trails through the woods, I continued on at my own pace, confident the rest would catch up shortly.

I passed three sleds stopped to do some trailside repair, but the group never caught up to me. I arrived at the same clearing that we had stopped at on the way in, where the entire group was waiting. Bob Anderson asked if I was the last one, and I told him that there were at least a half dozen behind me. He was asking a few questions about the X8 when the rest of gang came riding in. I found out later that my feeling was correct, Tod's cousin Tabitha, had rode right into the open water, and it had taken a few minutes to extract her.

As we tuned west to follow Highway 28 back towards Wakefield, I noticed the Amber's white pickup, and Rainville's truck and trailer sitting on the road watching the proceedings. We had gone only a short distance down the trail when Joe stopped in front of me. I pulled along side as he flipped up the hood. I could see that the fuel line was full of fuel, and he agreed that he suspected an ignition problem, as the sled had just died. After a few pulls on the rope the Kawi sputtered to life, and Joe took off down the trail...for about 100 yards. He lifted the hood again, dumped snow on the ignition to col things off, the engine fired after about 50 pulls, and down the trail he went...for about 50 yards. This was starting to look like a pattern, and at that point Joe waved for the tow sled, and the short pull out to the road where his trailer was waiting. I think Joe now holds the distinction of being the only participant to crap out two sleds on one ride!

We had become stragglers, the group was long gone. I was on point, the trail was fairly straight, and we were on the downhill part of the ride, it was time to open the X8 up a bit! I won't hold it to the bar for miles on end, but I am perfectly willing to wind it out to its "happy" speed, which is just a bit less. The skis were coming off the ground, the gas door was banging, and I was really happy I had put new carbides on the sled.

After the twisting ride through the woods, the straight run along the road really felt good. On a mid-mount it requires a lot less effort. Watch for and avoid hazards, adjust the speed and direction to maintain control of the sled, and enjoy the ride!

Most of the route had us running along the north side of the highway, as we approached town, we crossed and ran the remainder of the trip on the south side. We had just crossed to the south side, when we came up on two sleds. Nick Freatman was hooking a tow rope onto one of our support sleds as we approached.
I pulled along side and inquired what the problem was? Nick replied that he had blown the belt...and the spare was in Joe's trailer. We all offered our spares ( we ALL had one ) but none would work. So we settled in behind them and got moving again. As we approached town, we came out of the woods, and were on top of a open ridge. Our support driver stopped and got off the sled. When I pulled along side, he told me the sled was over heating, and they had to let it cool off.

I was once more on point. Town was in sight, and so we rode triumphantly into the parking lot, leaving Nick to be the last rider in.

[400brian]

By the time we got our sleds loaded, the late model guys were starting to pull out. I overheard Joe asking Bob Anderson how to get back to St Germain? Bob rattled off the numbers and letters of the roads, I'm not good at remembering numbers, but I did my best to get them in the vault.

Troy and I pulled out behind several rigs, but got separated at the only traffic light in town, so we were on our own.
Between Bob's instructions and road signs, I think I exactly retraced the mornings route. When we pulled in the motel parking lot, there was no other activity going on. Tom White was chatting with our host at the front desk when we walked in, and they both wanted to hear how the ride had went. After recapping the days events, we headed for the room to change for the banquet.

We got over to the restaurant fairly early, got a beer, then found Jon to report that the "hard core sledders" had completed the ride. Once that was done, we got a table, and were soon joined by Cari Rainville, who proceeded to tell us all about the tour the women's group had taken that day. Troy's wife Amy, has been giving him hints that she intends to come along one of these years, so he was paying close attention.

The meal was excellent, and soon the evenings program was underway. For the second time in as many days, Rainville is awarded the hard luck trophy. This time the trophy actually has a chunk of the dead sled mounted to it!
Joe had made the error of showing the piece of track to Bob Anderson, who relieved him of it.

It was announced that Loren would be retiring from the HOF in the next year, and the inductions were made. I will admit I did rest my eyes a few times during the banquet. When the program was wrapped up, we socialized in the bar for a bit before heading back to the room and crashed.

When we were driving back from Wakefield, I was listening to a Rhinelander radio station, they were calling for 6 to 10 inches of snow for the Northwoods area, starting on Sunday. When I woke Sunday morning, I asked Troy how much snow was on the ground? He laughed and said "not a flake!"

We got our gear loaded up, then went back in to settle up the bill, and sample the Continental Breakfast. Troy was looking at a 12 hour trip, so he was anxious to get started. We said our goodbyes and headed out around 8:00 I think.

The trip was uneventful until we were South of Stevens Point ( around an hour from home ). I had been listening to a Wausau radio station as we had passed through, and they were now saying that the heavy snow band was between Green Bay and LaCrosse, but we didn't start seeing snow until we passed through Plainfield. By the time we got to Westfield it was getting nasty, and we were soon in four wheel drive and going 45 mph. When we reached Portage ( my exit ) I was ready to get off! There was several inches of snow on the ground, and the snow was falling in huge globs, making visibility a problem. We pulled into a Mc Donalds, and assessed the situation.
Troy had a wiper blade that wasn't cutting it, so I took him down the street to an Auto Zone for a replacement.
I suggested he come hang out at the farm for a bit, but he knows if he does that, I will put him to work. He decided to keep going, so we said our goodbyes.

In a half hour or so I was home, and the snow had pretty much stopped. Troy later reported that it got better the further south he drove. By the time he was to the state line he was seeing sleet, and by Rockford, rain.
From later reports I learned that the guys who went over the bridge and came down through Michigan had it worse.
As soon as they were in lower MI they got into snow, and in the central part of the state they got the 12". It took Kevin and hour longer than normal to get home, and I hear that Roger Jordan and Dan Cunningham got behind a 60 car pile up in the western part of the state, and waited hours for that to be cleared. Rainville reported he spent 15 hours in four wheel drive, and said it was the worst trip he has ever had since he's been doing this.
Kevin reported that the power went out in the Kalamazoo area around 11:30 that night, and they didn't get it back until Wednesday afternoon. This was due to 1.5" of ice.

[400brian]

I've been editing the story, if there is still anything incorrect, let me know. I've added some photos since it was initially posted as well. I'll have Matt move it over to the RWTC section soon.

[400brian]

Some last thoughts:

We'll never know how big this event might have been if the snow hadn't melted. Our host at the motel told Cari that the week before they had been over booked by several rooms. When the snow melted they cancelled in droves.
We saw "Vacancy" signs at all the motels in town, which is not the norm. Surely some of those cancellations were coming up to RWTCs. I think they said we had 125 for breakfast Saturday morning. We had the normal or bigger than normal group photo, but apparently many chose not to ride. They said 48 sleds left Wakefield Saturday morning, of which 18 were Vintage. Rainville was the only one to ride on the "trailer of shame", though Nick did finish the last couple of miles on the "rope of shame".

The ride was about 60 miles long, although it seemed longer to many of us. The over 60 min drive each way perhaps contributed to that. The weather was great. The distance we rode was about 1/3 of what we have been riding on the Vintage Challenge in the last 2 years, and while it was great to see Troy finish on his 340/S, and Tod on his Dator, each had actually rode farther the year before, so that envelope hasn't been expanded yet.

Kevin and Ross had done a good job of prepping their custom sleds, as they ran without issues.
The X8 ran great! The only time I opened the hood was to show off the new muffler and the new insulation on the heat shield. The new carbides worked great, and it was nice to have the e-start working again. The only issue I had was when the engine cover rattled off on our way back. I heard the engine note change, looked down to see the cover leaving, grabbed and missed. I stopped and looked back to see Tod picking it up and bringing it up to me, Thanks Tod!

We'll be back next year, I know plans are already being made. Get your sled prepped, this is a good excuse to get it in shape.