Four of us left Beaver Island, Michigan on three sleds at 10:20 this morning bound for Mackinaw City. Part of the reason for the trip was to pick up a '98 Skidoo Formula 500 a friend of mine had purchased up there. The only way to get it to our island of 50-some miles away in the wintertime is to drive it across the ice, as the ferry shuts down in December.
I rode John two-up on a '95 Panther 440 Deluxe and the other guys broke/guided trail...this turns into from one uninhabited island to the next with ice in between! It was a beautiful day for the ride and the temps went from high teens in the morning to mid-30's by afternoon. We had good ice all the way because one guy had flown the route with his plane before we went to see where any open water was.
Snow-buried rocks on the beaches were our biggest foe and we clocked more than a few!
There were 'pressure cracks', too, that you could easily splash through, even on the two-up. Eeriest was the clear ice, even if it was a minimum of 2 feet thick.
Drove under the Mackinaw Bridge, first time I'd seen the mainland since Labor Day! Picked up the sled right next to Audie's Restuarant, had a nice lunch there, but got some disbelieving looks from the mainland sledders when we tried to tell them where we rode in from! Next headed for fuel and all filled up with premium (our single grade of gas at home is like tractor gas
). Then the return 2 hour ride back, including a couple stops, just like on the way there. Guys new sled had a overall rebuild, so ran great.
Quite an experience to make this voyage. The only marked and groomed trails were at Mackinaw, including where we live.
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Sled fleet:
'04 AC T660 Turbo Trail
'04 AC Sabercat 600 EXT
'98 AC ZRT 600 (still in rehab process..)
'74 Mercury S/R 440, 'the rat'
'73 Suzuki Nomad 292 one-lunger
'71 Ski-Doo Olympique 399E (needs a piston)
'70 Allouette with a Sachs 290 single (it was free!)
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