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It was a Tres Amigos ride, Steve M., Nick S., and I were the only ones to show up, the rest for you all missed a good ride to Gold King, yup, we made it all the way. Arrived at Clear Sky Lodge at 9:00 and was wondering if the ride was going to be a stuck fest with the warmer temps, at least the wife said it was going to be, oh she was so wrong.
Hit the Rex Trail and was pleasantly surprised to see someone had run a drag on the trail, at least what I thought was a drag on the trail, turns out one of the Gold King locals ran a CAT down the trail. We were fortunate that this was about 3 to 4 weeks ago and there was new snow on it, so no one over heated, not even a little bit.
So last August I retired, it was to say the least a hard decision but a good one now that I’ve had time adjust 🙂
With all my free time I was asked and agreed to re-join the Fairbanks Snow Travelers, Snowmachine club and have been enjoying it so far. Lots of work to do to get the club back up to par, to many things were laid to the waste side as it were. Membership down to an all time low, rides not being scheduled or done, events that we always did not being done and numerous other things that it takes to run a local club. But it’s getting back up again and will continue to do so, it just takes some energy and a little work.
My big thing is getting rides in, of course this is a benefit to me, now that I’m retired I get to ride all I want We had a slow snow year, but when the snows did come it fell in feet. Earlier rides were OK, but last weekend was the Best ride of the season, 7 of us (Shawn and Dawn Murphy, Nick S, Alvin, Davey, Mike C and Me) started out from Chena Pump Landing at 9:30 AM and not a one of us had been to Clear Creek Butt in a couple of years, so we left with hearty souls and faith in our communal memories.
So here it is May already and an early breakup and the temp are warming up. All the snow is gone, at least locally and nothing left for riding even in the mountains.
I did get two late season trips into the cabin, one with Jake and one with Tyler. Hauled in two of the three base cabinets for the kitchen and the counter. Just need to get the third one in so I can cut out the hole for the sink and place it. Sure would be nice to have a kitchen counter and sink instead of the bowls I’ve been using for doing dishes.
Tyler and I finished up the tongue and grove on the main walls and on the nest trip I plan to finish the back wall and if I’m lucky or motivated enough I’ll start on the ceiling. Really need to use up the material I have hauled in so I can get a good list going for next winter. I do have all the materials for an outhouse and that will be a priority, just as soon as I get a hole dig for it.
For work I’ve been working on my CCNA and HAM radio license. Got my HAM license,KL4GO, And can get on the air just as soon as my radio is installed in the truck this week.
Of course now that it is Spring. it’s time to get the ATV’s ready and rolling.
The FST Sweetheart run was another great trip down the Tanana to Nenana and a lunch at the Monderosa. The river conditions were pretty good, but lacking in snow cover and lots of sheet ice and I was glad to have the Bearcat’s track studded up. However, those same wonderful studs also caused me some issues. I threw a couple of the studs and one of them went through my cooling unit. Same as getting a hole in your radiator, loss of radiator fluid and overheating 🙁 I ended up having to remove the track and lots of front end part to get the heat exchanger off, welded and then back on again.
So the weather is nice and we all have Caribou tags to fill. Normally I’d go up to Rosebud in the Chena Rec area, but that is in zone 1 and was closed while Trish and I were at the cabin in Dec. So Dean, Dave, Jake and I decided to go into the White Mtn’s and up to Windy Gap to find some Bou. Well, our tags are still unfilled and my freezer is getting low.
We spent Christmas Eve with the kids at home and Christmas day packing for our trip to the cabin near Hurricane. This was the wife’s first trip to the cabin since the walls went up. She’d been there once before after we got the foundation and platform built, but it’s a big change from platform to walls, roof, insulation and such.
So the first ride of this summer. Met Stoney Robertson at True North camped the night. The next day we were joined by John Johnston and Dave Oliver. We took off explored the mine and then headed down some dusty trails crossing the Steese and Circle Fairbanks Trail…ended up at Chatanika Lodge had a nice lunch. We also went to the Davidson Ditch and took a close look at an old cabin and Mining tunnel. Made it back to camp Dave and John went home…Stoney and I sat up til midnight talking war stories etc. This morning we went on a long ride made it to Hilltop drank coffee and came back by 1pm….I said goodbye and came home…waiting for the next adventure soon!!
Took a few days off of work and went down to the cabin. I left around 5:30 in the morning figuring I’d get to the parking area by 9:00 so I could ride in to the cabin before the snow started to get to soft to haul any loads. It went pretty good, the temps were in the mid 40’s when I arrived so I only took one light load in the first day, most of my freighting was firewood, so I wasn’t worried about it “disappearing” overnight from my truck.
As I said it was a nice day when I arrived on Wed, cloudy but warm. After spending the day opening up the cabin and moving things around so I could get to the front wall it was dinner time, so I called it a night and relaxed for the evening. Moving a few things included taking down 4 sets of scaffolding and hauling it out to the deck and moving the firewood I was storing inside to keep dry out to the deck as well. So it took a few hours to complete.
What I figured was my last local ride was the Snow Travelers Two River run lead by Stoney.
It turned out to be a good ride of about 48 miles on the trails north and south of Chena Hot Springs Road and through a couple of trails I hadn’t been on before. We started out with 11 riders and nice temps above zero, of course the above zero became above freezing before the day was out.
Stoney did a great job on leading the group and we all had a good day. Even found a few fields of snow that no had ridden on this season, so some of us got to play a little.
Anyway it was just a nice day to be out on the trails. We did end the day early, around 3:30 as the snow was getting to be a bit soft.
