On January 30th, 2010, the boys from Canada enjoyed a day out in the bush in Val Des Bois. Here are some details of that event.
………..Hauling supplies in for the run………………….. Two fellows admiring the sleek lines of a Diablo
………………………And we’re off! ……………………………………Last minute adjustments
The Saturday ride begins! Snow conditions were wet and heavy
Oops! Trail Carb Cleaning 101 JLO Recoil 101
Good Group Great Machines
All good things must end The trail out. Diablos bringing up the rear
because…well you know…
Barrie writes:
We drove and we returned….but not without adventure. Many thanks to Roy Teske for providing the setting for a great HUS-SKI & Diablo weekend. Val des Bois is located in rugged Quebec wilderness. This was an area of mountains cut with many steams and deep valleys, moose and deer are plenty but for some odd reason we were not able to sneak up on them. Our living accommodations was a hunting cabin located in the center of 450 acres of land. The cabin was only accessible by HUS-SKI and was 2 mile from the road. There was good snow coverage everywhere but there had just been a new covering of 6″ of wet sticky snow. Our numbers were only four on the first day but climbed by 25% to 5 on the second day of riding. After unpacking our supplies and a great spaghetti supper, we decided that a night ride to the local bar to catch the hockey game would be the first official ride and certainly the longest night ride in history. Twenty miles round trip. On this ride there was a 444, 400 and two Diablo 502’s. Thanks to a full moon, one of those red machines continued on the trip without headlights. We were able to drive on provincially maintained trails because of no snowmobile traffic and extreme isolation of the trail. The trail was still very challenging with many steep climbs and equally exciting downhills without brakes. The hill trails always snaked up the mountain since going straight up was much too steep. Besides the loss of headlights, the 444 thew one cleat and the 400 lost one ice cleat. I had included some spare cleats , bolts and a small battery powered drill in my tool box just for this possibility, but I had forgotten the all important washers. Doug quickly gave me his 4 cents worth for this repair as he handed over four pennies. Promptly, holes were drilled and presto, we had washers. The fifth rider met us on the road at 8am and fired up a 200-A for the ride. Compared to the other machines this 200-A would be slow but slow and steady was its motto. Little did we know, disaster was about to strike on the trail….yes the dreaded trail rebuild of the JLO recoil!!!!!!….and complete dismantle of the carb….Along with these problems , my 400 started to spit cleats faster than a longshoreman spits teeth after a brawl. After nine years of driving and possibly 500 miles , the wood sliders were worn thin enough to allow the short metal sliders located on either side of the front sprocket to contact the heads of the bolts holding the ice cleats in place. This was the ride where they finally let go. I had to stop riding the 400 but fortunately this decision only had to be made when Doug was ready to go home and I could continue the ride on his machine. We capped the day off with a hearty chicken casserole and the garlic bread Mike forgot to cook last night. Sunday morning was clean up the camp and head home partly because there was a rather important hockey game to watch. On the ride out from camp, a Diablo dropped its muffler and scared away the last wildlife in the area. I think even the fish in the lake swam for cover.
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A big Thank You out to Roy Teske for the pictures and narration and also to Barrie Graham for writing the article for us. This should be on everyone’s bucket list. It surely is on mine.