BRUTAL, BRUTAL!!!!! Trail. Bryan's Story

Marten comes out and goes 20' then backtracks.

Bryan's story.... I left at noon on "Poncho", the Tundra 550 LT.  The trail had been just grated but it had snowed 2' which wasn't too bad but also the snow had slipped out of the trees.  So to go the 14 km there were 50 really big tree wells that had to be shoveled.  I would jump off the skidoo crotch deep in the snow and wallow up to the tree well and shovel.  I couldn't keep putting on and taking off the snowshoes.  Almost every hill I had to take several runs at.  Back up then try again.   

 Reaching the Inklin River, I was astounded at the amount of new snow down there.  It's 335 m (1100') lower in elevation.  Clouds must have hung around there longer than the 12 hours we had.  
The  snow on the 45% talus slope had slide filling the trail.  The 350 meter or more took me 4 hours to shovel. 
I reached the Inklin cabin at 6:30 and called Vikki on the SBX.  "I just got here, the whole pass was full.  I'm leaving now, be back there in an hour."

The snow is so high it is almost reaching the wire I attach the trap too.  Amazing.
TRIP HOME
I had no trouble until reaching the Knoll at Two Bridges.   There was another fresh snow slide 10' deep on the trail.  The Big 550 drove down into it and tipped.  By that time I was getting pretty tired and lost control of the machine.  Took 15 min. of hard labour.  My arms were so sore I could hardly steer the skidoo anymore.  
The steep drop.... I only made it halfway up (trail was not set up yet).  But I just had to back up 150' and took another run at it.  "Miss Piggy" the Scandic 800 SWT would have had to back down the whole drop which would have been impossible in the dark.  
I got to the bottom of the Long Drop.  At the dip at the bottom, I gunned it , gaining speed and Yee Hay.... the hi beam burnt out.  Ten minutes before, I'd seen a blue arcing in the headlight.  Now I realized it was the 1st hi beam filament burning out.  I was in the pitch dark.  I had to stop 50' up.  I fiddled around with the switches and got the low beam on.  I backed up twice and finally got it out of the dip at the bottom.
After reaching the top of the long drop, I had no further trouble.  That 28 km round trip checking traps usually takes 2 hours.  This time 8 plus hours.  
The whole rest of the way I was thinking.... "I sure hope the other headlight doesn't burn out".

The Steep Drop Topples Vikki and her Tundra 300

The lack of snow plus the 6% out of level for the last 25 feet did it.  Vikki had waited at the bottom until she saw Bryan's headlights hit the top of the hill and then she headed up fast.
The Steep Drop is a NASTY 3 part climb with 2 switch backs covering 500 feet with a rise of a hundred feet.  The first is a really steep 75' climb...then a flat, than a really steep 70' with a bench then the last 150' is at 30%.  One side is a cut bank and the other is a 300 feet steep slope into a creek ravine.  The terrain dictates that it is the only access.
It happened so fast Vikki can't recall anything other than knowing she was over the bank and her skidoo was upside down tottering on her.  She hit the kill switch and started yelling HELP!!!  She then called BRYAN!! over and over again as loud as she could.  It seemed like minutes and minutes went by.  She then started to worry about hyperventilating and so stopped panicking. Bryan would come.
Then there he was.  He got the skidoo off Vikki and she dragged herself back up onto the trail.  Now the job was to get the skidoo upright fast as the carburetors would be flooding.  Getting the 10 feet skidoo turned around on a 5 foot wide trail is not easy.  There was snowshoes, first aid kit, lunchbox thrown up the trail.  With all the pushing, shoving and Vikki yelling "It's going to go over!!!" Bryan got the front end onto the trail pointing downwards.  Vikki's head at this time was on a level with the track.  She was over the bank again trying to keep the skidoo from tipping over.
After she calmed down and crawled back onto the trail she kicked snow with her feet trying to level the trail as she climbed up to the top.
After Bryan dragged it down the hill to the first landing he turned it around so that the gas tank was lower than the engine.  The engine would keep flooding and he had to get rid of the gas.  Dusk was settling fast and the light was dimming.  Bryan took out the spark plug and turned the machine over a bunch of times.  Well over 1 minute with the pull cord.  He was trying to get rid of the gas.  Then he used his lighter to dry the end of the spark plug with the flame.  Then he depressed the throttle all the way and tried to start it.  It didn't and so he did the whole process of drying the spark plug again.  Playing with the throttle it finally started.  Don't reve it up.... just baby it.
Vikki was at the top looking down, saying "Please start.... please start"  It was a great relief when it did.  Bryan rode it up with no further trouble.
At coffee this morning, Bryan said the new plan is for Vikki to wait for 2 minutes when she sees the lights at the top... that will give him time to shut off his machine and walk back to the top and watch her climb up.  Also he said he will level the trail with snow from the high cut bank.