Turbo Days - Kenai Crazys Ultrarider epic adventure

[bgreen776]

I'm really bad with names, so please forgive me.

Its 0430. I'm lying in bed, debating whether to hit snooze one more time, or just turn the alarm clock off and sleep in. It’s been a long week at work, its 3* outside, I’ve only had 5 hours sleep, and I'm half way into pulling the engine back out of my M1000 so I can repair a broken motor mount. The weather forecast isn't good, but I could benefit from a nice ride. A chance to blow off some steam and get some much needed exercise.

I turn the alarm clock off, kiss the wife, gear up, and jump in my truck. I'm telling myself while on the way to Johnny Wicks house that it’s going to be a good day, the M1000 can wait, and that maybe the forecast will be wrong. Johns got the tow rig and trailer all warmed up, but as I'm unloading my sled from the back of my truck I notice that the adjustable handle bars are stuck in the down position. Weird. I monkey around with the adjuster and decide that they must have frozen last night, and that I should beat on them with a hammer to see if I can get them broke loose. No hammer in my back pocket, okay, pull harder. Bam. The lock broke loose and chopped the end of my thumb off, jamming a nice long sliver of thumbnail deep into the meat. Nice. What a way to start a ride.

I go into the shop and show John, asking if he has anything I can pull the thumbnail out with and how I should proceed from this point forward. (He is a paramedic after all) He opens a drawer in his shop that’s got some tools in it and points to some old, dirty pocket knife and says, "you can dig it out with that, here are a couple band-aids."


theUltrarider, Spike, Rlcofmn, Dash, LiveAlaska, AKSNOWRIDER, dougdangerak, Johnny Wick, Chad, Larid, I, and 3 other people (CJ, Mike?, and... Terry?... someone help me out here) headed up to the mountains on Saturday March 13th at 1023 hrs. The light was terrible and it was snowing with winds around 5-10 mph. We got to the mountains, dropped our gas, and started playing. Spike jumped things, Ultrarider blew a belt, and people got stuck.

It was awesome.

[bgreen776]

We played in the trees, making our way east, looking for a way down the mountain to a lake below. I had people confused as I would look at my GPS, stow it away, then try to find one specific way down the mountain that I knew was safe, turning left, then right, back tracking here and there. The snow was deep and fresh, Boondocking at its finest. Spike jumped things. The weather was pretty poor and I didn't want to lead anyone off a cliff. Finally we found our way out of the trees and down a nice wide chute. Our first place to wring out the turbo sleds. We all stopped at the bottom of the hill and took turns making runs back up the way we came. Johnny Wick was the first over the top, and on the steepest part of the hill (weird eh?). Then it was Dougdangers turn, his first real go with the turbo dragon running like a champ.

As the rest of us took runs at the hill, we finally were able to make it back up the way we came down, but not without great effort. Vertical boondocking describes it pretty well. Larid followed my path up through the spruce, but when he turned out a 3" diameter, broken off, hard as an iron fence post, branch caught him right in the face. It snapped his head back and ripped him right off his sled. As I watched the sled slip over the last little hill on its way down the mountain I saw Larid spit out a bunch of blood and at least one tooth.

Oh man, this can't be good.

Theultrarider was right there to help, and the three of us watched Larids sled ghost ride down the hill, turn slightly to the right, and smash right into the side of Johnny Wicks brand new, ultra trick, carbon fiber, turbo sled. 12 sleds down there, and it picks the one parked way off the side, which just happens to cost twice as much as the next most expensive sled on the mountain.

The guys at the bottom of the hill untangled the two sleds while Spike jumped things, I went back to look for my backpack (I still can’t figure out how I lost it), and we eventually met up to decide what to do next. Somewhere between Larids “mugging”, and my backpack recovery, another sled went down the hill without its rider, and crashed into… You guessed it, Wichmans sled! No damage or injuries this time though, I’m told.

[bgreen776]

Hey, the sun came out! This might turn out to be an okay ride! Larid was tearing up the hills and cliffs that surround the lake, so he must be feeling okay. Let’s go ride!

We split up again, one group heading south and the other heading east. I went east with John, Doug, Chad, and ____. There is one nasty little climb that we all wanted to attempt, one that had given me fits in the past. We made our way across the lake, through the trees, up one of the fingers, and to the base of the chute. Before I could pick the easiest line John had blasted up the steepest one and shot out the top. Again. We played here for quite some time, enjoying the beautiful weather, and absolutely perfect snow conditions. Somewhere off in the distance we could hear Spike jumping things.

[bgreen776]

The other group showed up and we headed north along the east side of the lake, boondocking through the trees, jumping cornices, cliffs, and having an absolute blast. Doug, John, and I got out in front and made our way up one of the fingers to the base of what was a shear cliff not two weeks ago, but the wind had blown enough snow in that the cliff was now covered in snow and only about 75*. I was following John, who shot right up the cliff and out of sight. I pulled hard to the right and side hilled over a band of trees and turned around. As I got back to the bottom of the hill I could hear Doug and Chad coming out of the trees to make a run at the cliff. I stopped to take pictures!

Doug was flat smoking up the hill, but right as he got to he transition up the cliff he slammed on the brakes and his sled rolled down the hill. It stopped after a couple rolls, LUCKY!, but I couldn’t see Doug. Crap. Chad flies up the hill to see if he is okay and spuds his M7 in, so he can lend a hand. A couple minutes go by and Dougs head pops up. He’s okay.

They get his sled back on its skis and Doug rides it down the hill, but when he gets to the bottom I can’t hear the engine running. Oh!!! He didn’t hit the brakes, his engine seized!

[bgreen776]

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Everyone catches up now and gathers around to see the carnage. We rest, spike jumped things, Wichmans by him self playing up somewhere on the mountain where nobody can get to. Its now 1700 hours. Dougs sled is only idling on one cylinder and dies every time you touch the throttle. AKSNOWRIDER is having trouble as well, a similar symptom as Doug, but a different cause. Not sure what’s going on there, but we have two sleds that won’t run, the light is fixing to go away, and we are clear across the lake, up the side of a mountain.

Chad hooks a rope to Doug and I start scouting the best way off the mountain, down to the lake. We make it down without issue, across the lake, and stop to discuss how exactly we are going to get Dougs sled back up the other side. There is not a snowballs chance in Hades we are going back up the way we came, and there are only two other ways that are even remotely possible. The light is starting to go bad again now, and the three of us are way out ahead of the rest of the group. We meet up with LiveAlaskas buddy who agrees to help us get off the lake, make a plan, and start towing the dead dragon up the hill. Its easy going at first, but a couple dips and bumps keep them from getting a good shot at the hill. At about the half way point a couple more guys show up and we pull the Turbo D8 up to a “flat” spot on the hill buy hand, a couple inches at a time.

Looking up the hill doesn’t look promising. There is a sharp corner, and another really steep (but short) climb through the trees to make it to the top. There’s just no way. Crap! Back down the hill we go.

LiveAlaska has made it to the west side of the lake now and we all gather up, decide on which way to go from here and divide into groups again. One with LA, and one with Dougdanger. Spike jumped things, and we headed back up the hill with Doug in tow. I don’t know how we did it, but with lots of tugging, pulling, cussing, and sweat, we got the dragon up the first big hill, across a meadow, and half way up the next hill. By this time the light was really bad, we were all dead tired, and there was still a couple steep hills, and ravine to navigate. And that was all before the easy 14 mile long ride out that consisted of, huge boulders, glaciers, crevasses, canyons, alder patches, and river crossings.

As we sat on the hill, thinking about leaving Dougs sled, and concentrating on getting everyone out alive, AKSNOWRIDER came flying up the hill like a man on fire. He blew by us without so much as waving. Huh. I guess he got his sled running. The rest of the group caught up a few minutes later, we unhooked Dougs rope, got the tow rig unstuck, and headed out. Watching two big boys like Doug and Chad ride an M7 through the mountains proved quite entertaining! We picked our way through the hazards, and back toward the truck. The water crossings started out fine, but the closer we got to the truck, the deeper they got. Apparently we had broken off enough ice on the way in that the river dammed up a bit. The last big water crossing was in near complete darkness, and was about 30 yards long. You had to jump off the bank, skip down river, slide across some pans of ice while maintaining enough speed to keep from sinking, yet not hit the other bank too hard and cause a wreck. It was sketchy to say the least.

We pulled into the parking lot at 1958 hrs, and there was AKSNOWRIDER. Huh, I had kind of forgotten about him. Turns out he had been there a while as his sled wouldn’t run under about 5-6000 RPM, so he rode all the way from the lake to the truck without being able to let off the throttle! I can’t imagine how brutal that was! Good job Mike! Those new tunnel braces have proven their worth for sure, I cant imagine a stock sled could have blasted into the far banks of all those water crossings like that and lived through it.

We waited in the parking lot, thinking the rest of the group was right behind us, but a half hour went by and no riders. Just as we were getting ready to go back in; headlights shone through the trees. Fantastic!

We loaded everyones ice balls on the trailers and headed for the lodge. Pizza, beer, and stories rounded out the night. Doug was smiling, but you could tell he wasn’t looking forward to tomorrow.

To be continued…


BTW: I left some details out on purpose, so please, if you were there, chime in if you like.

Dash, did you get any pictures of the last couple miles before the trail head?

[Rlcofmn]

Thanks for taking the time to make this thread. It's great to be able to re live the ride and hold us all over till we do it again next weekend. Don't listen to any false reports, There were no Nytro's harmed in the making of this ride!

[bgreen776]

It was good to meet you Rick, glad you guys made it. Who was your crazy buddy with the red and white rev?

[mtnsld]

This is what makes reading the forums fun.