Ride With the Champs Boulder Junction run

[Matt]

I'm going to try and write a summary about the Boulder Junction run at the Ride With the Champs. I am not the storyteller Brian is thought.

I did not have a solid plan on what group I was going to run with when I showed up for breakfast. I was considering the Swamp Challenge, but by the time we got there the run was completely full. I've done the Vintage Challenge and don't feel the need to do it again, so the shorter mixed vintage/modern group it was. This run is about 80 miles and is mixed, but I believe the group was either mostly vintage, or maybe 50/50. One of our champs was Arch Simonson, who was riding what I believe is a replica of his early 70s Polaris TXL. I think I overheard someone say his original sled is on display in the HOF. He was the group's tailgunner. It was an honor to be riding with him.

JDsleds.com members in the group included nick80lf/Nick Wertz and his brother on his pair of Liquifires, buckeyetrailfire/Mark Elliot and his friend on a Trailfire and a Sportfire, and Liquifried/Joe Sweeney and his two sons on a Liquifire, Trailfire, and a modern Polaris. Joe had arrived to the Whitetail Inn just in time to get on the ride (he blamed the kids for sleeping in ).

Our group left directly from the Whitetail Inn, and I believe we were last group to roll out.

[Matt]

Early on in the trip, the trails were pretty rough. I was hoping for smoother trails, and thankfully they came quickly. We got on an unplowed road through a very scenic forest that was fast and smooth. It was mostly straight with some sweeping corners. I have no idea how long this road was but it felt like we were on it a while. Shortly after, we ended up at Stillwater's bar. It was only 10am and they weren't open for another hour, so we just took a short break here in the parking lot.

While we were waiting there, the Vintage Challenge group went by. I was surprised we had beat them there since they had left well before us.

[Jd sled rider]

The reason you beat us there, was my sled. The secondary bushing popped out, and made the sled want to take off in high gear. It took a few minutes to find, we originally thought it was the ignition taking a crap, because it would not rev. We got it to sayner, and we farmer fixed it with a screwdriver and a hammer to beat the crap out of the helix to hold it in place. It made it all the way back to sayner until it came out again. I still made the whole ride, and will be back to do it next year. Never overlook anything when getting ready for this trip. It WILL bite you in the butt! Later Lincoln

[400brian]

It made it all the way back to Sayner until it came out again.

Perhaps I don't know the whole story here, but I have pics of Lincoln beating on the secondary at Bents Camp!

I had no idea you guys were at Stillwater's when we came through. I do remember seeing a bunch of sleds there, but I didn't notice any vintage ones. At any rate, we were trying to make up for lost time at that point.

It wasn't just Lincoln. We sat on Plum Lake for a time because a Polaris went down ( and was towed back to Sayner ) and then when we went to take off, our friend on the Blizzard couldn't get it to start. He pulled his guts out on it to no avail. Eventually someone pointed out that the ignition switch was in the "off" posistion, and it started right up when that was rectified! Hey, at least it was an easy fix.

I have an Archie Simonson story as well.

Good start Matt, enjoying it!

In the photo below, Lincoln and Rich Acre are doing the "farmer fix" on his secondary at Bents Camp on the return leg.

[JoeRainville]

Good start to your story Matt.

And there was nothing wrong with Lincoln's sled a BFH could fix :>)

-Joe

[Jd sled rider]

Can't wait to hear the rest of the story. I hope others post there accounts as well. Later Lincoln

[Matt]

After leaving Stillwater, the trails continued to be a mix of decent and rough trails. Some in this section were real rough. When we stopped briefly for everyone to catch up I pointed out to Joe Sweeney that his spare recoil rope/handle from the Deere took kit was sitting on his running board after it had jumped out of of the glove box.

The next stop was the Shell Gas station in Boulder Junction. I had no idea where we were at the time - I just went back to my fuel receipts to see where the station was located. Not long before the station, we passed a groomer barn, and there was a John Deere Ag tractor with tracks and a large groomer pained JD green to match. In hindsight it would have been cool to line the sleds up in front of it and take a photo.

The gas station was pretty busy between our group and other sledders and it took a while to get everyone fueled up. We finally got going again, crossed the road, and then stopped to get everyone lined up. We sat there for what seemed like a few minutes waiting, and I thought everyone was there so I'm not sure why we were waiting. We finally got moving, then stopped again just a little farther down. Then finally got moving on down the trail. The next section was pretty nice riding, with some surprise bumps here and there. A few miles up we stopped and discovered we were missing the last 8 or so sleds. We took a break there for a while while the trail leader went back to see what happened. He came back and told us there was a problem with one of the JDs. We were all there together except for Nick and his brother. He said they were going to take the JDs back to the gas station and call for a trailer, so we went on.

The next stop, *I think* was called Pope's Gresham Lodge. I'm not 100% sure on this. The open ceiling joists were packed full of taxidermy and unusual antiques. I mean a LOT of taxidermy. Pick an animal and it's probably up there. Mark texted Nick to find out that his brother's sled overheated with all the starting and stopping we did back by the gas station. It turned over, but they didn't want to risk it. They were waiting for a support trailer. We later found out that eventually Nick decided to try and start the Liquifire, and it did, so they rode back to the hotel.

We stopped here for about 20 minutes, and we had some Pepsi. There was a bar dog walking around politely seeing who would share food with him - and just now when I was Googling to find the name of the place, I discovered on Facebook that the dog (who's name was Bear) passed away only two weeks later.

Back on the trail - Joe and the kids decided to hang back while the rest of us went on. We didn't see Joe again the rest of the ride - it turns out he decided to head to Minocqua to check out the drag races.

[Matt]

The trails on the next part of the run were all pretty good. We ended up stopping a couple times because of mechanical issues. Someone farther up in the group had to change a set of plugs, and not long after that, a newer sled up front died, and they could not get it to restart. This sled was being ridden by John Bauer's 20-something year old daughter, which lead to about 10 guys surrounding the sled to asses it. A few of us toward the back of the group were watching this and having a laugh about it.

There was only a few miles to go to the lunch stop, so the sled got hooked up to a strap and we went on the way to Heart II. We were a little behind schedule, but they had tables reserved for us, and fresh Pizza out in 10 minutes or so.

[Matt]

If I remember correctly, the trip from Heart II back to the Whitetail was smooth. We hit a couple lakes, the last one being the smoothest lake I had been on while out there. The rest were all rough. Overall it was a great day riding finishing up 3 fantastic days in Wisconsin.

[WinnipegStPaul9]

Great report Matt!! Thank you.

DA

[buckeyetrailfire]

Great story Matt it was fun riding with you and the group. I'm still working on my buddy Brent getting a sled for next year. If not I guess he will be riding one of mine .

Thanks,

Mark