New Years at Rabbit Ears

[Mule]

Hey, that rhymes!

Weather was calling for highs in the single-digits this weekend. Storm moved through the area thursday making the roads icy and snow-packed from the metro area up to the mountains.

So... Let's go camping and take the snowmobiles!

Out shopping thursday, had to restock my supply of gatorade and beef jerky. Watched a Prius spin out a little ways in front of me () and another car hit a light pole when they locked up the brakes.

Load up the sled, the dog, the gear, some clothes, extra fuel, and off to XC's place. Loaded up his trailer thursday night to head out friday morning.

Up to the parking lot around 10AM friday... get geared up and XC left his helmet at home... whoops. Unhook the trailer and he's headed back to town. Meanwhile, Dogmeat and I are ready to roll.... so off we go. It had to be below zero when we left, and didn't get much above that.


Out for a while, back to the trailer to warm up. Dogmeat was adjusting his shocks, I was fighting ice buildup on my air intake that kept the sled from getting up to RPM.



Back to the trailer to warm up... Usually I'm comfortable with a jersey, vest, and jacket... today I had a thermal top, jersey, sweatshirt, vest, jacket, then stuffed handwarmers in my gloves to keep warm. It was cold.

Wandered to the south side of the highway to play over there for a while.


Back to the trucks as night fell... Dogmeat headed out, and not long after that XC finally got back to the parking lot with his helmet.

[Mule]

A good night's sleep was interrupted by a low-battery alarm in the trailer - furnace doesn't run when batteries are dead. It was running all day and all night doing its best to keep the trailer above 45°F. Fired up the F-150 generator for a while shortly after 3AM. With the sun up, PJ knocks on the door... "You guys ready to ride?" as we peek out from the sleeping bags. Late start on the day, hoping it'd warm up a little. It was better than yesterday, but still cold.

XC had grabbed his torch and some spray to keep ice from building up on my intakes. Knocked the ice loose and pulled the intakes off, took them into the trailer to clean them up and dry them out. Got my sled put back together, geared up and headed out.

XC




Pulled into a meadow and my sled was making weird noises... the four allen bolts that hold the exhaust valve in place had backed out. Fortunately that was an easy fix. Not long after that, XC's sled wouldn't start... With a fresh motor after a rod bearing failure last month, he didn't want to take chances... not sure what's wrong now... wiggled some wires and it ran fine the rest of the day.

PJ


An hour or two later I hit a rock.... hard. Bucks me off the sled, the handlebars to the chest knocked the wind out of me. That's what the tekvest's for. Once more I'm surprised (and relieved) that I didn't bust an A-arm.


Without a rider, sleds usually beeline for the nearest tree... mine was no exception. Camera came out after I had caught my breath and dug the sled out with the help of another large group of riders that had passed by.


Back out to tear up some more meadows.


PJ in the distance


Deciding to call it a day, we headed back to the parking lot. PJ loaded up and headed home, XC and I fire up the grill and get some steak and beans cooking.

Duke does a real good job cleaning up afterwards


Pour two jack and cokes, then fire up the truck and hope the batteries take enough of a charge to last the night. Unfortunately that didn't happen.

[Mule]

Sunday morning, warmest so far. Bluebird skies, light breeze. Sweatshirt stayed in the gearbag, and about an hour after we left the thermal top came off. Back down to my regular layers, don't feel like Randy in The Christmas Story anymore.


Leftover steak cooks real well on the exhaust pipe


A wild aspen tree jumps in front of XC as he's climbing a hill




I ... uhh, well, I suck as a snowmobiler... what can I say
XC's up on top of the Continental Divide, I am not.






Got the pig back down the hill and found a different way up. From that point on, it was kind of a stuckfest... not 500 ft from where those pics were taken, I got stuck again in the soft spot of a snow drift... XC gets stuck further up the hill... a few more stucks and we decide to head back. Getting hungry again, and both of us could use a shower. Load up, stopped at Old Chicago for dinner on the way home.

Hopefully next weekend will be a little warmer.

[mmaxcarver]

-18 on Friday afternoon when we were out and about, coldest I have ever been while at Rabbit Ears, when there is no sun out it feels twice as cold, chased us out of the lot by 1:30..... My face tells me where I had exposed skin, nice racing stripes down both cheeks...............

[coyote9090]

great picts as always.

[Tablerock]

You always make me laugh and lift my spirits since im sitting back here in the flatlands with icy snow and freezing cold temps GREAT PICS Mule !

[Rprecision]

Looked like a fun trip, Camping out is something I have yet to do............

I think a boosted D7 may explain his ease of climbing.....just saying

[colorado_matt]

Nice pics and write-up mule! All in all it sounds like you guys had a pretty good weekend.