Quiet in here

We have a long weekend planned at the end of September around Finland/Isabella.

dbright wrote:

Cloetrain have you been to thistledew before? I stopped by last year on my way home and rode the southern half of the trails. It was a tight fit but nice trails .

Yep been there many times. My family has a cabin not far away and we can ride right to the trails from the cabin

dbright wrote:

We have a long weekend planned at the end of September around Finland/Isabella.

Check out the prospector trails. You can ride from Finland all the way to tower. I’ve never been all the way to Finland from ely but want to some time

Excellent riding conditions this past weekend (Sept. 16,17). Got some much needed rain on Friday and another pop up shower on Saturday afternoon. Temps in the 60’s both Saturday and Sunday made the riding even more pleasant.
Rode 102 miles Saturday and 68 miles on Sunday. Have just over 1300 on for the year now which isn’t bad considering how many weekends we didn’t ride because the temps were too hot and it was just so dusty.
Hope everyone is having a great start to the Fall! Best time to ride!

Any of you know trail accessible campgrounds on the prospector trails? We have spot booked at wildhurst wed-sun but with the rain over the weekend alot of the trails in the area are closed for now.

Ran up to nemadji today for a short ride. Put 65 miles on by 1230 and never saw another person. Along with no wildlife. Saw 2 sets of grouse tracks and no deer tracks.

Spent 3 of the last 4 days riding in London (two harbors).
Only others I saw were riding with me.
Saw several grouse and some turkey scratchings.

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I swear my next new post will be asking for advice on a good syphon to remove last years gas from my unused sleds before storing them again….

suzuki wrote:

I swear my next new post will be asking for advice on a good syphon to remove last years gas from my unused sleds before storing them again….

Ya, Its been a tough year for snowmobilers to say the least. This is just after a Great year for them last year. Also been tough on Snowblower sales people. I have not even used mine once this year ( Love it ) Every few years a short, warmer, and low snow year is nice.

No snowblower use for me either. I was just thinking how bad it was for plow drivers. All in all really weird.

Of course I bought a pair of sleds this year

I am getting close to tapping out for the year, and pumping the existing gas out of the snowmobiles putting in new with more stabil and letting them run for a while to get the new gas through them. This is the first time in my 48 years of snowmobiling I haven’t been able to ride.

I moved my blower to it’s normal winter position in the garage but haven’t used it. Makes a good cord wrap, though.

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mojogunter wrote:

I am getting close to tapping out for the year, and pumping the existing gas out of the snowmobiles putting in new with more stabil and letting them run for a while to get the new gas through them. This is the first time in my 48 years of snowmobiling I haven’t been able to ride.

Its likely to happen in Feb/Mar. Might not be nearby or last long though.
Finely groomed trails with a hardened base aren’t happening this year. Or if they do only a short time.
Ill tow a little ways if I have to just to run the old gas out. Worst case is what you said. I hope it doesn’t come to that.

Long range forecast I just saw showed a very snowy April. Great!

suzuki wrote:

I swear my next new post will be asking for advice on a good syphon to remove last years gas from my unused sleds before storing them again….

I was thinking exactly the same thing just yesterday.

I have to confess, this whole winter (or lack thereof) is my fault.

1. Bought a new snowblower. But wait, I made it worse. I just HAD to get the Ariens Platinum Limited Edition Turbo. According to the specs, my snow should land somewhere in Wisconsin. If, of course, we ever get snow again.

2. Spent a lot of time this fall going through and replacing every track and bearing on the snow machine. The struggle was real, too. Frozen axle sleeves, rusted-in bearings, etc. So yeah, she’s got all new, zero miles bearings in the whole damn machine. Awesome.

So yeah, there I was yesterday evening and I thought damnit the machine hasn’t run since I started it back in December, I’d better run it. So I did, but that got me thinking that now the gas in that machine was put in back in March of last year. Yikes!

What’s everybody using for a siphon?

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

1. Bought a new snowblower. But wait, I made it worse. I just HAD to get the Ariens Platinum Limited Edition Turbo. According to the specs, my snow should land somewhere in Wisconsin. If, of course, we ever get snow again.

2. Spent a lot of time this fall going through and replacing every track and bearing on the snow machine. The struggle was real, too. Frozen axle sleeves, rusted-in bearings, etc. So yeah, she’s got all new, zero miles bearings in the whole damn machine. Awesome.

OMG It IS your fault!!!!!!! You played the two trump cards!

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

What’s everybody using for a siphon?

I use a shaker siphon. If there’s not enough gas depth to get the siphon going, then a turkey baster.

suzuki wrote:

I swear my next new post will be asking for advice on a good syphon to remove last years gas from my unused sleds before storing them again….

I literally just put together my new gas drainer 2.0
Attwood marine fuel primer bulb
fuel line

Let’s hope it lasts longer than the $8 one I bought on amazon 2 years ago.

KPE wrote:

Attwood marine fuel primer bulb
fuel line

I’ve used that set up also.

Please, please, please SNOW!!!

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I feel so bad for snowmobilers! I have 2 but they are purely for ice fishing but this year is just flat out terrible. There is a vintage sled show and fun run scheduled in St Stephen tomorrow. Obviously the fun run wont be happening.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Please, please, please SNOW!!!

son has a brand new one in his garage too… 0 miles

I was up at my farm in the Hinckley area today. Absolutely no snow anywhere. Not even on the north side of buildings.

I can’t recall ever having seen this little snow in January. I saw two snowmobile trailers headed north when I was coming back to the cities. No idea where those guys are going. I don’t believe there is rideable snow even on the upper peninsula.

At this point, I’m just hoping for enough snow to get my sleds out of the shed and onto the trailer for summer storage. Sad state of affairs for sure. Spooner, WI had 94″ of snow last year. 7.5″ so far this year. 100 year average is 53″. I guess this must be our year to even things out.

1901-1902 Madison Wi winter 4″ of total snowfall. Might not be this year but we will get snow again.

Im not saying its over yet but I am really close to assembling a syphon!!
Crossin eyes and I had our wheelers out this past weekend. Like a time machine it was so nice out!
Cant wait to wash my machine though. Wow was it sloppy.

We rode gravel roads to grab lunch yesterday. It was very windy but at least it was a warm wind. A sweatshirt was enough. Round trip was about 2 hours of riding time. Felt good to get them out.

We have an early June trip planned for the Mille Lacs area.

DT

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Well, just to wrap up the totally awesome snowmobile season (!) let’s all shamelessly brag about our mileage totals. This should be fun.

Not counting the couple of miles that I put on my machine running it on the stand, I got–wait for it–16.5 miles in this year. The boys and I went to check on the farm last Thursday and there was just enough snow to take the machine out.
That was the one and only time I had it on the trailer.

So the good news is I got to run a little gas through her and burned through most of the 1-2 gallons that was left in the tank from last season. So now I can fill her up and not worry about leaving stale fuel in the tank.

There was no chance of riding trails because the swamps and lakes are not forzen, so all my riding was on private land. What a disappointing season. I had done a whole skid bearing overhaul back in November to get ready, replaced every bearing front to back. She really runs smooth and quiet now, but I was hoping for a few more miles after all that work.

Man, I’m seeing some nice used deals out there, but after a whole season of having a snowmobile sitting on her patio and never moving, I’m thinking my chances aren’t awesome of securing the necessary approval from the Central Budgeting Committee for the Procurement of Sporting Toys.

There’s always next year…

Grouse the good news is all that hard work you put into this year will hopefully pay off with snow next year.