January 31, 2009 Southern Harbor: (19 Photos)

 

19.   With a decent amount of snow on the ground and more in the forecast, Joe Hepditch and I loaded up the sleds Friday evening and headed out the highway to Southern Harbor to meet up with the crew. In the future, Joe will remember to untie the sled before trying to back it off the trailer!

 

18.   Captain H., Joe and I got up early Saturday morning and left Southern Harbor around 8:30am heading west to Clarenville on the Un-Groomed Trailway where we gassed up the sleds and grabbed a coffee. We departed Clarenville taking a trail through town meeting up with the Trailway in Shoal Harbor which was groomed from here - West. The ride was amazing on this well maintained portion of the trail, and we met a lot of other sleds also enjoying the day.

 

17.   We stopped for a minute at a friends Summer Home in Port Blandford to look at his new custom fireplace (sorry for the foggy camera lense!) then headed West again to Terra Nova Lake.

 

16.   We stopped there and cooked up a good old fashioned skoff over an open fire just off the lake. On the menu was Salmon & Onions wrapped in tin foil, Beans, Bologna, Fresh Bread, and Tea, a meal fit a King.

 

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14.   Once we finished lunch we headed East for home, stopping for gas at Port Blandford and for a coffee in Clarenville.

 

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10.   Somewhere between the Warm up shelter at Thorburn Lake and Clarenville Captain H. lost his snow flap. A quick phone call to one of the crew in Clarenville and we had a new one picked up and installed at Tyson's house before we continued home. Riding from Tim Horton's to Tyson's house holding a coffee in one hand wasn't easy!!! We managed the ride back to Southern Harbor without any further troubles, logging over 240 km for the day.

 

9.   The following day we expected to wake up to the same storm that was hitting St. John's, but somehow the weather evaded us. Deprived of fresh powder to play in we suited up for a ride anyway.

 

8.   Old Joe, Young Joe, Captain H., and I left Southern Harbor around noon for an afternoon of backcountry riding. We left the Trailway in the vicinity of Jacks Pond Park and headed North across country on a myriad of trails and ponds heading for the hills overlooking the Bull Arm Fabrication Facility.

 

7.   The country on the isthmus is absolutely beautiful. There are so many ponds to trout in, hills to climb and natural jumps to play on its simply amazing.

 

6.   One hill in particular proved quite a challenge, Old Joe went first standing completely on one side of the machine lifting one ski all the way up to break the trail. Captain H. followed taking a similar line on the very steep icy hill. By now the track was worn down to bare ice so I tried another route and got stuck on trees and stumps leaving the pond.

 

5.   Once free of the under brush I pinned the throttle digging quite the trench right to the top of the hill! Young Joe decided to try the icy line of Old Joe and Captain H. and with a quick tug of the skis we were all on top of the hill.

 

4.   We circled back through the country coming out on the Trailway at Arnolds Cove Station. We did another loop South of the Trail Way near Come by Chance Oil Refinery, crossed the Salt Water Pond in Arnolds Cove and eventually met up with a side trail back to Southern Harbor.

 

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1.   All in all it was an excellent weekend of riding, we logged just under 300km for the weekend and with another snowfall, the back country will be even better!

 

Cheers, MIKE

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