Wow, what a great trip. We are totally exhausted. We had a ton of fun. Incredible snowmobiling, lots of work, problems, stucks, etc. It felt like we were gone from Vail and from work for a week. 1st of all, they have more snow up on Grand Mesa than they do around Vail. That's for sure. We were able to go off trail essentially anywhere. We had about 4-6 inches of new snow. (Vail got only 1 inch while we were gone) It was snowing the whole day as we drove up there and then rode a bit the first day, got stuck but big. But, my back wheel on the skid came flying off after we dropped our bags at the Electric mountain lodge. Can't believe we were able to fix it. We removed the other wheel (on the right) to put on the left, as we had a wheel in the center that was towards the right. We were able to ride it all weekend. No problems. Great place to stay at the electric mountain lodge. All brand new lodging, cabins, etc. Fantastic food. Both lunch and dinner were great. They had all brand new appliances, TVs, furniture, etc. We'll be back. 78 miles of riding over the two days. Saw some elk on the way out. Dropped off the arctic cat down in Eagle on the way back for a bit of repair.
4 minute movie down on the bottom
Having a smoke with the deer Having lunch when we arrived Making repairs in the snow outside the barn. Improvising tools. Their groomer, outside the barn Blown bearing on the rear big idler wheel. Nice new accommodations Sarah gets stuck trying to follow Chris. Electric mountain lodge area. Some Swedish guys were here for the past two weeks practicing for the Aspen Winter X games. You can see jumps to the right of the big lodge. The next day with clear skies Stuck on top of a hill going down This one has a long story. We took a short cut and at the top of a hill ended up in a field of aspen trees. We did a little chain sawing with the sleds, then lost momentum as we hit too many trees. To get out, Chris had to cut around 25-30 small aspen trees. Don't worry, they grow like weeds. This was when we finished getting unstuck. This was the trail after cutting down about 25-30 aspens One tired snowmobilier
Stuck in a creek Powder Carving!
Here's the video, wait for the music at 55 seconds, and then Break it down! It can take a while to load, so be patient.
We'll try to get more info on this blog post soon, but many of the people pictured on this post are of Slovenian origin. We found this when we were in the museum in Crested Butte Colorado. Sarah's grandmother was "Sedmak". Crested Butte had many Slovenian and Croatian immigrants.
Lots of Sovenians and Croatians settled in Crested Butte
Sedmak is the last name of Sarah's Grandmother and the maiden name of her mother Ancka Part of the town of Mount Crested Butte pictured from the ski mountain
They had more snow than Vail, but they too need some fresh snow This was back in the day I guess. "Teachers taught classes in English. The students were forced to learn a second language very quickly to complete their classwork." The horror. We can't do that anymore, it might hurt someone's feelings.
We had to get out of town and away from the vail lodging business to get a bit of a break. We headed out to Crested Butte for a short weekend. It felt like we were gone for a week.
I'm busy deleting photos off my hard drive on my computer. Found these old "global warming" related photos of Al Gore. Gotta make space, so before they go in the recycle bin (I'm so green you know)....enjoy
4 computer monitors ? Wow, I guess I can leave my desk lamp on during the day too
I don't think it matters if his Jet ski is a 4 stroke or 2 stroke, it means I can buy a toy with a throttle just like this. this too ! Yipee !
Sludge's sled now WORKS ! No problems, it is using oil, everything seems to be running well at the moment. A lot of work on Sludge's part and plenty of money. Bummer that this whole thing happened because the oil pump fell out. It had practically a new top end in it at the middle of last season. And guess what....... the Tsunamy is back on her sled. We've been so busy, a little sick now and then and plus the snow hasn't been the best. Still need a bit more to really go off trail. Mainly stuck to the trails today. Up to Piney lake and back and then a bit off trail here and there.
We started the holiday with a little hike out in East Vail, then I went to pick-up the snowmobile trailer and test out Sarah's sled for her (it works great) and then we saw some fire works over at Golden Peak. Then we had a little party over at our house for New Year's Eve. Todd and Mariela Moyer stopped on by, Nate and Iva, Patrick and Cindy. Great time. Chinese food, then Steel Moyer made Chocolate chip cookies for us. Next we listened to 80s music and somehow, somewhere the subject of video games came up. So Chris pulled out the ATARI GAME. We weren't sure if it would work after all these years and after some wire splicing by Todd, we were off to playing space invaders and frogger on the new flatscreen technology TV.
Having a smoke with the deer
Having lunch when we arrived
Making repairs in the snow outside the barn. Improvising tools.
Their groomer, outside the barn
Blown bearing on the rear big idler wheel.
Nice new accommodations
Sarah gets stuck trying to follow Chris.
Electric mountain lodge area. Some Swedish guys were here for the past two weeks practicing for the Aspen Winter X games. You can see jumps to the right of the big lodge.
The next day with clear skies
Stuck on top of a hill going down
This one has a long story. We took a short cut and at the top of a hill ended up in a field of aspen trees. We did a little chain sawing with the sleds, then lost momentum as we hit too many trees. To get out, Chris had to cut around 25-30 small aspen trees. Don't worry, they grow like weeds. This was when we finished getting unstuck.
This was the trail after cutting down about 25-30 aspens
One tired snowmobilier
Stuck in a creek
Powder
Carving!
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