Major ice action
On Friday morning I had several plumbing projects to tackle. Some friends stayed in the house over Christmas and sent me an email with a list of pipes and faucets that leaked. In addition, the sink in the basement where the washer drains was also plugged. First though, I had to deal with a 300 lb chunk of ice hanging over the back stairs. Carolyn was afraid to go out the back door. This chunk of ice was huge. It looks like one tap would bring it down, but it took a half hour of chipping. I need to install heat tape in that roof valley. Then I worked on the basement sink. The old cast iron drain trap had a bolt underneath that I could remove and use a snake to clear the blockage. That worked. Then I tried to fix the drain in the new bathroom sink. New plastic parts mount to old cast iron parts. The drain leaked at that juncture. I walked to the hardware store for a solution. I think I walked to the hardware store everyday at 8am but Sunday to get parts. I tried various solutions and none of them worked until I installed the old iron coupling nut with a new gasket.
At 9am when the DMV opened, I pulled the snowmobiles to the sheriff's office to get the VINs verified and checked. The woman sheriff first ran a VIN check to see if they were stolen and then came outside and checked the actual numbers on the sleds. Without me saying anything, she said, "My husband and I did the same thing. We didn't know if we'd be into snowmobiling so we bought a couple of used snowmobiles. We rode them for a few years, sold them, and then bought new ones. Hey, my snowmobile club is having a ride tomorrow in Mullan. You guys should come." She gave me directions. With the pink slips she gave me, I walked across the street to the DMV and registered the snowmobiles, got stickers and a license plate, and applied for titles. I also had to pay a grooming fee.
Looking up Copper Gulch
I was home from the DMV by 10am and we loaded our ski gear and headed up to Lookout Pass, 15 minutes away. The ski resort wasn't very crowded and we didn't have to wait in a single line. Even though it hadn't snowed in a few days, the snow was in great shape because it was so cold - no thawing/freezing cycles. The ski area straddles the Idaho/Montana border and this view is of the Montana side. That's Carolyn way down the slope.
The Idaho side
I snapped this photo before we skied down a run on the Idaho side of the resort. Little did I know that in a couple of days we would be snowmobiling across that big white mountain in the top left. I rode to the peak of the dark knoll pointed to by the branch on the left. We skied all day and headed home late in the afternoon.
Carolyn on the Northern Pacific trail
On Saturday morning we got ready and trailered the snowmobiles to Mullan for the organized ride. We passed the staging area and only saw a couple of vehicles there so we decided to go explore on our own and ride something we were familiar with: the old railroad trail up over Lookout Pass. We drove this trail in the jeep last Thanksgiving, but the trail is now covered with four feet of snow. Carolyn does not like to be cold so she wore four layers of clothing. The snowmobile's grips and thumb throttle are heated so she never got cold. In this picture she's on part of the trail that used to be a trestle. When the railroad was first built, most of the gulches and draws were trestled over. Once the railroad was moving freight and making money, they went back and dumped rocks and dirt through the trestle to make a solid railbed, letting the trestle rot in place.
North Side of Lookout Pass
After a few miles the trail passed the bottom of Lookout Pass' North Side lift. We skied this yesterday.
Lookout Pass
Soon we hit the crowded lower lot of the ski resort (not visible here). We tried to ride low-profile through the lot with all the skiers, but the way the constant-velocity belt driven transmission in the machines work, the engine is always running at 5-6k rpms. We couldn't idle the machines through the parking area. Even though we were going slow, the engines were screaming at 5,000 rpms. From Lookout Pass we headed down through Montana. We rode through one short tunnel and the groomer had pushed snow all the way through the tunnel. I wondered what would happen when we reached the next tunnel which is about a quarter mile long. Right before we hit that tunnel, the groomed trail cut steeply down the mountain to the trail below, skipping the tunnel and a whole loop of the rail line.
St. Paul tunnel
We followed the trail all the way to Taft, MT. There's nothing at Taft now except a freeway exit. It used to be a booming construction town when the 1.5 mile long St. Paul tunnel was blasted through the mountain in 1906. The materials for building the Milwaukee railroad were brought in on the Northern Pacific railroad that went through Taft. In other words, one railroad was used to help build a competitor. I thought it'd be interesting to see what the tunnel looked like in the winter. We rode a couple miles from Taft to the start of the Hiawatha Trail. No one else had sledded to the tunnel and we had to walk the last few hundred feet.
Inside the snow shed
The first couple hundred feet of the tunnel is really a snow shed. I was a little scared we'd run into a hibernating bear or some other animal because the tunnel was relatively warm compared to the frigid air outside.
Closed!
At the end of the snow shed is the actual beginning of the tunnel, it was closed off with two massive doors, castle style.
On the Hiawatha Trail
Instead of retracing our route back up to Lookout Pass, we rode up the groomed trail to St. Paul Pass. This route was the old construction trail that was used by wagons to haul materials to the other side of tunnel so both ends of the tunnel could be blasted at the same time. At the summit the trees were covered with snow and it was very beautiful. We headed down the other side. At this point I began thinking, "Maybe we could make this ride a big loop and head back to Wallace from here." Carolyn began thinking the same thing. The trail over St. Paul Pass dropped us down to Roland, a long-gone town built on the edge of the railbed at the west entrance to the St. Paul tunnel. From there we were sledding on the Hiawatha Trail.
Our stomping ground
From the Hiawatha Trail we had views of the North Fork St. Joe River area, our comfortable and familiar stomping ground. From here I knew the way back to Wallace.
Capturing a photo
Another tunnel
Soon we came to another tunnel. I could see the tunnel's floor was just rocks and dirt. At the same time, all the snowmobile tracks headed directly into the tunnel. Can you ride these things over dirt? Might as well try.
Here comes Carolyn
Riding through the tunnel was uncomfortable. The plastic skis were scraping and grinding across all the rocks. It was painful thinking what it was doing to the machine. Light from the distant portal is visible above Carolyn. It was a long traverse on the bare ground.
Mile marker
On the Hiawatha Trail there are mile markers that indicate the number of rail miles from Chicago. Originally, these signs were mounted on 8' posts so they'd be easily visible to the locomotive engineers. Now they've been moved down to bike level.
Shefoot Mountain
Looking far across Loop Creek below, we could see Shefoot Mountain in the distance. We rode our ATV's to the top on the first ride of ATV week last summer.
One of the trestles of the Hiawatha Trail above Loop Creek
Still having fun
It's impressive that the trail groomer from Avery (many miles away) makes it this far in such remote territory. From the Hiawatha Trail we dropped down a cut-off trail to the bottom of Loop Creek. From there we followed the trail until it met with the main trail coming over Moon Pass.
Burned out cedars from the 1910 fire
The trail back to Moon Pass goes by an area that used to be covered with ancient cedars. The trees were all burned in the fire of 1910 (the same one that burned through Wallace) and only dead snags remain. At this point, Carolyn and I swapped sleds. The two snowmobiles are somewhat similar, except one is fuel-injected and the other has dual carbs. Both have 560cc dual cylinder two-stroke Suzuki engines. If you hit the throttle, they'll leap forward with tremendous power and acceleration. Carolyn had been complaining how hard the throttle was to work with her small hands. After we switched machines, I could see what she was talking about.
Moon Pass
We stopped at the top of Moon Pass to eat lunch. It was a beautiful day. Carolyn declared the fuel injected sled was now hers because the throttle was much more suited to her thumb.
North Fork St. Joe valley
From Moon Pass we could see all of the area we had traversed after riding over St. Paul Pass. See the snow covered peak in the upper left corner of the picture? That's Steven's Peak in Idaho. We started in Mullan on the other side of that mountain and rode away from this location, around that peak, and all the way here.
GoPro view descending to Wallace
I forgot that I had installed a GoPro mount on the sled I planned to ride, which was now Carolyn's. I turned on the camera and she captured a video of our ride down to Wallace. Here's a still from the video. We headed down Placer Creek into Wallace. The streets are covered with snow and ice and it's legal to ride snowmobiles on the roads. We parked the machines right in front of our house and then drove John's car a few miles to Mullan to pick up the truck. Today we rode 54 miles. The snowmobiles only had about a thousand miles on them. Given that they're about 20 years old, that equates to an average of 50 miles per year. Today we rode a year's worth of miles. The whole trip took about four hours door-to-door.
That afternoon we went to the new location of our favorite sandwich shop. The owner Angie moved to a new shop on the main street and added a new twist: U-bake-em pizzas. We ordered a pizza and browsed a used book store while the pizza was being made. On Sunday we went to church and hung out at home all day, besides taking Gypsy on a long walk through town.
GPS track of sledding above Burke
On Monday we pulled the snowmobiles up Burke Canyon to the end of the plowed road at an electrical substation. There were several parked trucks and their empty snowmobile trailers. As soon as I got out of the truck, I realized I left the snowmobile keys at home. We drove back home, got the keys, and drove back up the canyon. The carburetor snowmobile started right up, but I couldn't get the fuel injected machine to start. Both machines have pull starters. The rope is fairly easy to pull and the throw is long so the machines usually start on the first pull, even when they've been sitting in zero degree weather for weeks. Kicking over a motorcycle engine only forces the engine through a single cycle, whereas pulling the snowmobile starter goes through many cycle revolutions. That's why snowmobiles are easier to start than motorcycles. The carb snowmobile doesn't have a battery, but the fuel injected machine does have one in order to power the fuel pump and injectors and run the machine's computer. The battery light was lit on the snowmobile's dashboard. When I turned on the ignition, I didn't hear the usual noise of the fuel pump starting up. I unhooked the trailer, backed the truck next to the trailer, and connected jumper cables between the snowmobile and the truck. When I turned on the ignition I heard the familiar noise of the fuel pump. The engine started after a few pulls. A few minutes after the engine had been running, I shut it off and it started fine without a battery boost. However, the rest of the day we never turned that snowmobile off. We let it idle during lunch and through all other rest periods.
Up Canyon Creek to Cooper Pass
We rode up various trails and groomed roads toward Cooper Pass. The grooming ended at the Idaho/Montana border. We looped around and then headed up a trail to Lower Glidden Lake.
Frozen Lower Glidden Lake
We found the lake and it looks like others had found it, too.
Carolyn
We ate lunch on the lake. It was another beautiful day.
Trail around the lake
We rode a singletrack around the perimeter of the lake.
View from the other end of the lake
At the end of the lake was a large bowl up the side of the mountain. We did a couple of hill climbs before looping back down. In this picture we're considering riding back across the lake.
Riding across the lake
Another GoPro view
Heading down from one of the Grouse peaks
From the lake we rode back to the truck and headed up a trail to Grouse Peak. At a saddle there were many tracks of snowmobiles heading up to the top of the mountain. Carolyn watched as I floored it and shot up the mountain. On top I had a 360 degree view of the world. The experience coming back down made it onto my top ten scary list. The snowmobile has a disc brake that slows the track. Unfortunately, even with the brake applied (and the track totally locked up), the machine gained speed heading downhill. I had to feather the brake in order to have steering control. The mountain slope steepened and I was accelerating and just trying to keep the machine pointed in the right direction. When I got to the bottom I rode to the top again, but this time with my camera so I could take picts from up there. Coming back down the second time was just as scary and out of control as the first time.
Knoll on top of one of the Grouse Peaks
I was at an elevation over 6k' and had a great view of everything below.
View of Lookout Pass ski resort
From that knoll I could look down on the Lookout Pass on the Idaho/Montana border. We skied all those runs on Friday.
Mullan is at the bottom of the canyon
All down this gulch are the old workings of the Morning mine, opened in 1889 and finally closed in 1982. It produced lead, silver, and zinc ore that was processed in Kellogg at the Bunker Hill smelter.
Snowmobile tracks on East Grouse Peak
Our old snowmobiles aren't the kind that can just head up the mountain through the deep snow, but it was fun to watch some folks ride this.
The trail beneath East Grouse Peak
Eventually the trail started heading down the other side of the mountain towards Mullan. We turned around, rode back over the pass and down to the truck in Burke Canyon. We loaded the snowmobiles on the trailer and headed home. At home I tested the battery with a voltmeter. It was fully charged. With the engine running, the voltage was definitely high enough to charge the battery. I don't yet have a theory why the machine wouldn't start without a boost.
Lunch!
We cleaned the house and packed up Tuesday morning and headed home, stopping in Coeur d'Alene for lunch at Cafe Rio. We got carry-out for dinner, too. We stopped at Lake Wenatchee on the way home to drop off the snowmobiles. The fiber optic cable had been restrung to the cabin and the internet was working. The snow had melted off the cabin's roof and the damage from the falling trees was visible. A number of panels will have to be replaced. We stuck around for a few hours and headed for home at 6pm, finding all was well at home. It was a fun and adventurous weekend in Wallace.
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