Hello All,
Its the FNG here reporting to you live from a long eventful day on the trail... Our day started out an hour earlier as we had a 200 mile run to make from La Tuque to Chicoutimi our stop tonight.
Our run began with -18 temps (Not including the wind chill) but at least it was sunny and not a cloud in the sky. We meandered through tight winding wooded trails for about 40 miles before stopping off at an outfitter to refuel and take a much needed warm up break in front of their fire.
That's just about when the trip started picking up, it started with Bob getting sucked off the trail into deep powder and having to be yanked out. A short while later while caught in a day dream it happened to me, luckily team rodbob was there to pull me out, while my wingman Vinny the driver was 9 miles ahead on the trail before he realized I was not behind him. After some "positive" reinforcement we were settling down for lunch.
We had lunch overlooking Lac Saint Jean which is a enormous lake here in the bush. I half thought pulling up we had got to the ocean (duh salt water can't freeze). We had a quick lunch and fuel stop and were back on the trail..
In the middle of our 97 mile leg from lunch to hotel we had several mishaps.... the first was rob falling off the side of the trail and pinning the ski of his sled on a tree (rule of thumb if its smaller than 3 inches its traction, if its bigger than 3 its a tree!). This was all tree! So after getting out his hand saw and sawing it down we had him free and back on the trail. About 30 miles from town my heated shield stopped working, mix that with dark, snowdust and frigid temps..it will make 30 miles feel like 60. So after toughing it out and staring through a quarter sized hole in my mask we finally got into town..... Thank God! Turns out it just couldn't be that easy, our leader Ole's sled quit. As luck would have it we were right in front of the gas station! We jumped his sled got it to the pumps while we all fueled and warmed up inside. OK now we can make it to the hotel and shed all this gear, Nope! His sled quit again that was one time to many, we left him there to get a taxi while we worked our way to the motel. As we arrived and got checked in he was there to meet us. After unpacking and hot shower we are all sitting down to a well deserved dinner. All in all it was a long day with cold temps and fast trails!
If you have any topics you would like discussed mention them in the comments!
-Alex