I had one more quarter in my pocket. Decided to return to Moose River Plains for my last game.
On my way in from Brown’s Farm I met up with Edgar Brown by chance, who was heading out with a chainsaw.
Won’t go over blow-by-blow in trail conditions heading out to Big-T late morning because they don’t exist anymore. Went from winter to spring in the blink of an eye!
You can relive yesterday’s ride here.
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Picking it up past Big-T
Thinning with carbide clank. Edgar carved a path through the large-diameter fallen tree a couple miles past Big-T that turned me back yesterday.
Was treated to great “tracked only by us” riding to Red River-T, aside from side-skirting a few small fallen trees.
After Red River-T, Edgar hacked through or under at least 3 more fallen trees. Began to encounter occasional carbide clank that become frequent. By the time we approached Limekiln Gate, there wasn’t more than 2-3 inches of slushy cover to get us by, with continual carbide clank. Looked quite threadbare and sad at Inlet’s end. No wonder there wasn’t a single snowmobile track coming into Moose River Plains from Inlet.
The way back
We hit Red River-T deadender. Very thin with bald spots by the river. Once we climbed the hill, it was a nice ride (beside a few fallen trees) for miles, before getting thin by the dead end gate.
Also ran Big-T deadender. That had begun to fall apart under 45-50 degree temperature and March sun. Hung out at Otter Brook bridge for a while.
Big-T back to Cedar River Road was beginning to fall apart in places. Still gorgeous riding conditions over the hump between Silver Run and Headquarters with a few long wave rollers to add to the fun.
While we stopped at Cedar River Headquarters, I snapped this picture of peaceful Cedar River Flow.
Almost ended up as a mistake, because the starter on Edgar’s sled stopped engaging. Was briefly stranded at Headquarters whilst attempting some trouble shooting. No way to easily access the starter. No recoil rope on his 850 Renegade either. In the end, Edgar was able to wrap a rope around the primary clutch and give it a yank to get the engine spinning after a couple of tries. Crisis averted!
Cedar River Road to Brown’s Farm parking lot was BALD. Only way to grab snow was to hump the snowbank.
Ended up with 69 miles for the ride on this gorgeous sun-drenched day. Even got back to the ilsnow mobile command center with a clean skid frame. Carbides hated me. But slides and heat exchangers were more than happy with spring slops.
Bottom line
Returning to the well one more time worked out. But I’m not going back tomorrow to see what it’ll look like by afternoon. Unless we get another dump of snow, I’m done. Said that two weeks ago too, so ya never know!
Had a lot of fun today. Edgar told me stories of his family’s generational history with hunting, fishing, camping and logging in Moose River Plains. He pointed out things I hadn’t seen or noticed while riding the Plains.
Next time you stop at Silver Run groomer turnaround, look down the bank behind a picnic table for ruins of a walkinshaw, with a tree growing through it. Logging companies would pitch away broken-down equipment in the wilderness: outta-sight, outta-mind.
Edgar spotted fresh moose hoof prints in the snow. Looks like we barely missed a moose sighting!
Even in a dogshit winter such as this, I’m so fortunate and blessed to live where I can snowmobile from the compound or reach good enough snow nearby. Even though I’ve been snowmobiling for a long time, I learn and discover new (to me) things each winter. It keeps me young at heart.
My near term goal is to make it to next winter. My long term goal is to keep ilsnow.com rolling and get even better at it. Eventually time will run out on me, but I’ll keep having fun until the wheels fall off!
It’s been my honor and privilege to help you squeeze the most out of little this winter offered.
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
