The Road Less Traveled

[SkunkedAgain]

The plan was for Shawn, Shawn, Randy and I to meet at Twin yesterday for a little get together fish day. Well I needed to drop my daughter off to work on the way so ended up coming in from the east side instead of the west. Well not being completely familiar with the turn off, I missed it and with my trailer on behind I couldn’t turn around so I figured I’d just catch the next road and Google showed it would take me right to the west side where we were going to meet. Well the road soon took a jog south and the snowplow went the other direction. And the snow was only a couple inches deep so I figured it would be fine to just keep going, plus I couldn’t turn the trailer around there so I took Robert Frosts advice and took the road less traveled. Soon the road headed up over a hill and I thought to myself if the road gets bad I won’t make it up over here to get out. Should have listened and backed out. But I pressed on through the 6-8” of crusted snow. Was going really well when I noticed the wind had drifted the road way full of snow and I was starting to make drag tracks on the snow where my differential was dragging.  But I was committed at the point so I kept going and it was getting really hard to keep making progress but I knew if I stopped it would all be over. So I pressed on until there was a tree and an old foundation on the north side of the road, we’ll that made it deep enough to stop me. Seeing no way to get going I unloaded my snowmobile and scouted out my options. The road I was on was very drifted in and on the west end had a great big snow berm I’d never make it through so there was another road that went north to another road that was actually plowed. So I decided I’d unhook the trailer and take my truck to break trail. This worked well for about half a mile to where I really high centered well. About this point I realized my shovel wasn’t in my bed of my truck. So I went back and got my sled, road to the farm, borrowed some shovels and went back and started shoveling. Talked to Shawn about now and said I’d be a little late. Well a couple hours later I got the truck dugout and tried it again, the farmer said I could go in the field where there wasn’t as much snow, so I tried that until I hit a dip with deep snow and no frost in the wet ground underneath, at this point I really buried it in and realized I wasn’t going to get out on my own, so went and bummed help from the farmer, who came and saved the day. I got to Twin about noon and met up with the crew on the far side of the lake. We tried the mega 360 of Shawn’s and didn’t see any fish so we went back to the north side and tried a little more before I had to go pick up my daughter at 1:30. No hooks were set for me today. The other guys got a few but sounds like a really slow day. The ice was crazy slick and I left my cleats in the truck in my rush to get there so it was a learning experience. Guys thanks so much for meeting up. Sorry I didn’t get to share more of the day. Later J

PS. Little video of the fun. 















https://youtu.be/YKK--Lj3xSQ

[Kent]

Sounds like one of those days. Fortunate that you had the worst problems next to a farmer's house. Your video must be so small that it is nonexistent.

[SkunkedAgain]

Kent, I think I got the link there now. I was lucky to have the farmer close, but he was still over a mile away. My snowmobile saved the day for getting help glad I didn’t have to walk back and forth too many times it was tough snow and not quite hard enough to keep you on top so it would have been a rough slog. Anyway I should have been smarter, but hopefully this is a good wake up call so I don’t do it again. Later J

[Kent]

As long as you were having fun, that is the important thing.

[SkunkedAgain]

Kind of crazy but it was sort of fun. Catching fish would have been better; but fun to test your skills once in awhile.

[meancuznalfy]

Well, that sounds like quite the adventure, glad you were able to get out ok, good thing for having your snowmobile to get around easier.

[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks and yes that sled really saved my bacon. But I also take more chances when I have it as a safety mode. The trailer probably didn’t help me for turning around either, but I’m pretty lucky that could have been a bad situation real easy. Glad someone was watching out for me. Thanks Jeff

[2knots]

Oh so this is the rest of the story, quite a day and glad you got out safely.

[SkunkedAgain]

Yup that is the story, sorry I didn’t pass on where to find it. Glad you got out yesterday, that looked like a nice catch. Congrats Jeff