My last snowmobile trip of the season took me back to Southern Harbor this past Easter long weekend. This time the weather cooperated and we had decent late season snow conditions. The snow was fairly hard and drifted but fresh falling flurries kept the sleds cool and the trails decent. The plan was to leave Southern Harbor taking "Groomed" Trail-Way west to Clarenville where we would stop for a coffee and fuel. Then we would head back East and travel across country via map & GPS to the Black Hills area where excellent riding conditions had been reported.

Saturday morning Captain H, Old Joe & I left Southern Harbor and made decent time to Clarenville on the Groomed Trail, but when we arrived at the Warm up shack just east of Clarenville we noticed one the left side trailing arm on Captain H’s sled had come off where it attaches to the body! On further inspection we found the washer on the trailing arm bolt failed and the arm pulled off over the bolt. Some trail side ingenuity using the tool kit wrench as a washer got us back on the trail and into Clarenville. With some help from the guys at OMB Supply in Clarenville we made a proper repair with new washers. After a quick Coffee and a stop for fuel, we headed out of town East on the Trailway. Unfortunately we didn’t get far before Joe’s sled ran poorly and shut down. After an hour of trouble shooting, we determined that the engine ran lean and burned down. Luckily we were only about a mile outside of Clarenville so we towed the sled back to town, and with the help of a friend with a trailer we got Joe a ride back to Southern Harbor. With the map and compass member of the crew out of service, we aborted our cross country adventure to Black River and stuck to the trails we were more familiar with. Young Joe met up with us later on ATV and we had a great afternoon running trails and had a boil up for lunch.
 

Cheers, MIKE