February 1998 Annual Winter Trip: (43 Photos)

 

43.   February 1998 was our very first Annual Winter trip to the Sooley cabin. The previous February Sooley was still in high school and I was in winter semester of University. The weekend prior to the trip Sooley, Rodger, Maffer, Jennifer and I jumped in my 1994 GMC Jimmy and hit the highway for a one day trip to make sure the cabin was ready.

 

 

 

42.   This winter we had a lot of cold weather but what snow we had earlier in the season was now long gone leaving only a frozen remnant of a snow drift on the front deck.

 

 

 

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40.   The first thing on our to do list was to check the ice on the pond, we were surprised to find nearly 2 feet of solid ice on the pond!

 

 

 

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37.   It was a quick trip to the cabin but the generator was working well, there was lots of ice on the pond, and we had the wood boxes all filled up and ready to go.

 

 

 

36.   The following Friday Sooley, Maffer, Brad Learning and I loaded up my Jimmy and by loaded I mean to the roof!

 

 

35.   Even the Argo was filled up completely with grub, bags, beer and everything else we though we needed. In hindsight with so many people going in one rig, it would have made more sense to pick up groceries & beer in Whitbourne. LoL

 

 

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33.   Unfortunately we had no more snow over since last weekend's adventure and even worse, rain was in the forecast.

 

 

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30.   By 3pm the skies opened up and melted what little snow was left and dropped quite a build-up of water on the pond.

 

 

29.   The wet weather pretty much eliminated outdoor activities in the Argo but we did manage to pass away the afternoon.

 

 

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23.   Later that afternoon we spied a damn big beaver walking across the front lawn of the cabin! We were hoping to watch him cut down and drag a big ass tree but were left disappointed. We did discover that he had every single birch tree surrounding the cabin cut down and dragged away!

 

 

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20.   That evening we retreated to the shed and fired up the BBQ to cook some hamburgers for supper. While we cooked Sooley set about converting an old set of water skies into Ice Water Skies. He removed the fins and added a leather strap so he could fit the skis onto his winter boots. 

 

 

19.   With the rain & warm weather we lost our ability to keep beer cold. The fridge was full of food and it was too warm outside to just keep them by the door.

 

 

18.   Our solution was to head to the pond with the Argo, chainsaw and a couple axes to make some man style coolers.

 

 

17.   Ice on the pond was almost 2 feet thick so we cut out a couple blocks and carried them up to the cabin in the box trailer and set them on the front deck.

 

 

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14.   On the deck we drilled holes in the blocks with the ice auger which would fit all kinds of beer, the shavings kept them perfectly chilled all weekend.

 

 

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10.   Saturday the rain slacked but temperatures remained warm. Sooley grabbed his ice water skis and a rope while i warmed up the Argo and we headed to the pond.

 

 

9.   It was tangly water/ice skiing on the water logged lake as the skis slid easily over the ice but waaay slower on water. Also Sooley's weight totally changed how the Argo steered so there were quite a few crashes before we got the hang of it.

 

 

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7.   By the end we had it pretty well down pat!

 

 

6.   Saturday evening Learning, Clayton, Cook, & Terri dropped up for a few beer and stayed the evening.

 

 

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4.   Around 1am we got bored and headed back to the pond to pull more ice chunks out of the pond. This time we went way bigger and had to drag them out of the ice with the Argo and a rope.

 

 

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2.   By the end of the night Maffer fell in the hole and lost a mag-light flashlight to the bottom of the pond, but we got our ice chunks out and made it back to the cabin safe and sound.

 

 

1.  All in all our very first winter trip was a huge success. Who would have known that 20 years later we would still be making the same annual adventure!

 

Cheers, MIKE

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