The Toy Shed

shed-6Rachel and I were gone on an awesome vacation for 3 weeks this summer.  By the time we got back, my father was full-swing into building his new shed for camp.  The rest of my summer was spent at camp (oh no), helping him put it up.  It felt like every weekend but was probably only every other.  Some days we made progress, other days we just relaxed in the mountains.  Either way you look at it though, we were within the blue line so did it really matter?

We call it the shed, but It should probably be called a barn.  It’s not built like the typical plywood thrown-together mess you can buy almost anywhere.  It’s built to last, Adirondack style.  Amish raw cut real 2×4’s and all.  In a lot of ways, it might be over-engineered and over-thought, but it’s good to do things that way sometimes.  My dad did most of the work himself. I helped a bit with the roof, siding and hanging the doors.  My Uncle and my cousin helped a bit with the roof and the siding, and a friend at camp dug out the hillside and leveled out some of our lot with his equipment.  All that’s left is some tin in a few places and some paint!

My dad likes to call it the “Toy Shed” or the “Toy Barn” or the “Toy House,” whichever name fits his fancy at the moment.  We even had a sign made for it.  That’s because it’s intended to house our snowmobiles, 4-wheelers and whatever else we come up with.  Oh, it’s also intended to house the tools and equipment we’ll need for next years project, the camp addition.

We’re gonna need help though.  So if you’re up for some hard work next spring/summer at a beautiful location, let me know.  Remember, the more you help out the more likely we’ll be to invite you up to relax!

A bit of the construction process:

Mountains Snow and Four strokes

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.

Then There Was Four (Snowmobiles)

Bever PondWe’ve managed to make it up north for three absolutely gorgeous weekends. This weekend was no exception. We went riding on Saturday and the sky was an incredibly clear blue without a cloud in sight. We took a ride up Littl Blue Mountain and again the view was better than the last time. White Face Mountain was perfectly visible as well as some other mountains in the same range and beyond.

Broken Down SledAfter a quick snack we headed off to Sevey’s Corner and beyond. Once we crossed route 3 the trails were even better. Freshly groomed with few sleds having been down them. Everything was going great until we were waiting for my uncle Wes and a few other sleds came by and told us we had a broken down sled. We went back a few miles and it wasn’t good. The supports holding his suspension up broke and his snowmobile was literally sitting on the ground. We towed it back to route 3 and my cousin Donald headed back to the truck while Uncle Jerry, Dad and I headed out to finish the days ride. Only four of the five sleds we ran with this season made it out alive.

Looking Back On 2007-08 Snowmobiling Season

Looking back this year we’ve had a fantastic season. We put on over 520 miles in three weekends. All the riding we did was on perfect trails. I’ve never seen better snow conditions than the past two weekends and the days we went out the sky was so blue it was amazing.

Snowmobile Tickets and Skylines

White Face MountainToday was bright and sunny too. They sky was so clear we had to go up Littl Blue Mountain(edit: the previous link was wrong and linked to little blue not littl blue) again. We did and there were actually other people at the top! Some guys were fiddling with a broken down 2007 Yamaha and I had to snicker. Give me a Polaris any day. Mine is a 2006 but my parents have a 1979, 1995 and 1997 which are all still running solid and they’ve never had to do much to any of them.

From the top of Littl Blue we could see White Face Mountain crystal clear almost 70 miles away. The picture doesn’t come close to doing it justice but it’s the best I could do. Just the shear vastness of the space you can see up in the mountains like this is always impressive. I created the panorama to demonstrate.

View From Little Blue Mountain - Panorama

We had our snacks on Littl Blue and then headed down for some scenic riding. Along one of the main trails we hit a snowmobile traffic stop. Yes, on easter sunday the cops have nothing better to do than look for snowmobilers riding without insurance and with expired registrations. We were all valid and were just about to go when the cop noticed my insurance paper had expired a few weeks earlier. Great. I explained to him that it definately is still covered I just had forgotton to grab the new paperwork. “We have no way to tell” he said as he issued me a ticket. Awesome, now I have to deal with getting that dropped when I get home. This crap irritates me for lots of reasons but I’m not going to complain about it here.

Ice Formation on North Side of the HillAfter getting delayed by the traffic cops we headed on to horseshoe lake. The trail had been cleaned up since we were there a few days ago and it was a much better ride. It’s a good thing because I was tired of bouncing up and down on moguls.

The sun was a lot warmer today. It was just warm enough to melt some of the snow on the south side of the hills. The air was still cold however; that when the water ran down and started to drip it would freeze instantly creating some very neat ice formations.

Cheney Takes Visa

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.

Littl Blue and Horseshoe

View From Little Blue MountainAfter the battle of the skags and a great hearty breakfast by my aunt Pauline we headed out for the day at about 11am. We got lucky lucky with fresh groomed trails and absolutely beautiful snowmobiling conditions. First stop for the day was Littl Blue Mountain which is a short mile or so jaunt up a steep non groomed trail filled with switchbacks. The Scenery was stunningly beautiful from the top. It was such a clear day we could see all the way to White Face Mountain and Big Tupper’s Ski trails.

Horseshoe LakeFor our next stop we headed on to the most southern point in the St Lawrence County Snowmobile trail system, Horseshoe Lake. The last 5-10 miles of the trail to Horseshoe is on state land and the 4 big storms from this year have put their toll on the trail. Unfortunately because it’s on the ‘forever wild’ state land the trees criss crossing the trail can’t be cut until approval is given from the state. This made for a rough few miles getting to Horseshoe but the view is always worth it. The Lake is still frozen and a few people have ventured out on it. We were not among them. We had a quick snack in the blistering cold wind and then headed for home.

Overall we had a great ride today. We covered approximately 100 miles and met about 15 sleds. That’s what its always like up here. Beautiful and practically void of people.

I can resist everything except temptation

Snowmobile Club Ride

Sunday Rachel and I participated in a club ride with Canaltown Snowmobilers Inc and a total of 33 sleds. We hit snow in Williamson which made the trails good but the visibility poor. It eventually stopped once We reached the Steger Haus Restaurant. The Steger Haus was our final destination in Sodus for some rest and some drinks. We then proceeded back to the Hosbach’s house in Marion for some Hot dogs and Hamburgers where we met Haley. She’s a very playful and energetic 5 year old retriever. At the end of the day Rachel and I had rode about 60 miles which isn’t bad for riding around home.

Does morality come from morons?

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?

Been Busy

Rachel and I are definitely winter people. That being said with the recent onset of winter in Rochester, you’ll understand why we haven’t been posting. We’ve been snowmobiling quite a bit, we tried out snowshoeing a few days ago (and loved it). We’ll also be skiing / snowboarding next weekend.

On top of that, the wedding plans and the remodeling effort… lots of fun but no time.