camp

Otterpated

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

IMG_1864A few weeks ago while I was up at camp I saw some Otters.  As far as I can remember I’ve only ever seen an Otter one other time in the wild.  That time they were playing and sliding down the hill into Moldy Pond.  This time, they were doing something a little more… special.

They were so twitterpated they didn’t even notice me chasing them down through the woods and then standing about 20 feet from them.  They played and fished and ran and I’m fairly confident they were mating.  It was nothing short of awesome.  It all happened so fast I barely got any pictures fired off, but a few came out.

I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it before or since.

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Mountains Snow and Four strokes

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

When we got to camp last night conditions were better than we could have hoped. Easily two feet of snow on the level and trails freshly groomed. Unfortunately it was midnight and -10 outside so we promptly hit the hay to prepare for the ride ahead.

This morning one of the other diamond sportsman club members (Chuck Ferrel) stopped by on their way to the Backwoods Inn (previously known as Hams).  After some chat about where they were headed we decided to join them.

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We were going right by Little Blue Mountain so we went on up the trail. I say this every time but it was the clearest I’ve ever seen it on top. Usually, if it’s clear, White Face Mountain is just visible through some haze. Today, there was no haze and White Face looked clear as could be.

There wasn’t as many people there as usual but on the way down we met a guy who was having problems getting his sled started. It was an Arctic Cat T660 four stroke with a dead battery and no pull start. No pull start!? Yep, seems since it’s a four stroke there’s too much compression to pull it over so they don’t even bother including one. I’m pretty sure there won’t be any of these sorts of sleds in my future. I wouldn’t want to be stuck out in the woods with a dead battery or a blown starter like that guy.  To make it worse he wasn’t even smart enough to bring jumper cables!

NOTE: this post is pre-dated, as it was written but not posted in the mountains since there is no data connection.

Cheney Takes Visa

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

North Branch of The Grass RiverWe got an earlier start today and were on the trails by 10am. After hearing that Easter dinner would be ready when we got back we had to make sure we put on the miles early and were back in time for the feast. We put on roughly 100 miles again and made it back by 6pm.

First stop today was Camp. Along the way we crossed the North branch of the Grasse River as well as a branch of the Oswegatchie. The scenery was beautiful as were the trails. We certainly hit this trip perfect. In most sections there was several feet of hard packed snow and ice. Step off the hard packed groomed trail though and you were likely to sink up to your waist.

Cheney’s CampIf you need a place to stay out on the trail just stop by Cheney’s Camp. Apparently they take visa or MasterCard so you should be good to go. Fortunately no friends were shot in the face while filming this cabin.

The sleds were running great today and yesterday with the cold weather and hard packed trails. If you punched it you’d lift the skis right off the ground which makes for tricky cornering. We hit 75mph on a few of the straightaways without even pushing it.

Cranberry LakeThe last stop of the day was The Pinecone at the southern end of Cranberry Lake in Wanakena. Once we got on the Setback Trail to Wanakena the trail got pretty rough. You can definitely tell the difference between groomed trails and not. The setback trail was miles of moguls and switchbacks. Eventually it let you out in Wanakena and we were able to take a quick rest at The Pinecone before heading home.

It’s amazing the amount of scenery you can see up here while riding the snowmobiles. It would take you months on skis to see what we’ve seen in two days. That’s easily the best part of riding. You are in remote locations that are often inaccessible any other time of the year. 4-wheelers are not always allowed on the same trails which makes it difficult to cover a lot of the ground. I would love to take a snowmobile trip into remote sections of Canada. Maybe next year we’ll take a week and head up to the big country.

Does morality come from morons?

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been wanting to find out who uses my site and how. Ryan alerted me to Ultimate GA. It’s a plug-in for WordPress (the Blog engine I’m using) that allows me to track all incoming and outgoing traffic using Google Analytics . I’ve implemented it and now The Man (aka me) is watching you!

We’ve added a new ‘Page’ to our site for trips we’d like to take so we can keep them on our radar. If you are interested take a look: Trips

Our sleds somewhere near south colton

In other news I took a snowmobiling trip up north with my Father last weekend to visit some family and go Snowmobiling. I ended up putting around 200 miles on my sled. The scenery and the trails were absolutely amazing. We hit some rough riding the first day but on Sunday it seemed like every trail we rode on was freshly groomed. It was also good to see my family. I learned that my Uncle Jerry has been snowmobiling with a friend of his quit often. To me this is awesome. Selling his farm has to be the best thing he’s ever done. I just wish he had done it 10 years ago.

There’s been a lot of discussion at work lately about alternative automobiles. We’ve discussed hybrids, pure electric, hydrogen fuel cell and today the discussion went to air-powered. Before you’re too skeptical you should watch the video. It’s pretty interesting. If I were looking for a strictly commuting vehicle I would definitely be interested. The hybrid they talk about in the video is even more interesting. I’d be willing to use it as my primary means of transportation certainly. Across the country in a single tank of gas? Simply Amazing! Makes me wonder how fast the people Who Killed the electric car will kill this?