Monday, February 17, 2014

Family Day

So in Ontario it was a holiday today.  Family Day.  There are a few other provinces that recognize this day - so what the heck, might as well spend it with the family.  (Or just part of it.)

It was a beautiful bluebird day.  Sunny blue skies.  Cool at ten below.  Warm sun.    So I grabbed Andrew's sled and hit a few trails on ye trusty Yamaha.


All the trails are open to the public this weekend.  Andrew doesn't have a trail permit, so I was lawful to go all about if I so wished.  But not knowing my way around Kinlough Township, I decided to stick to the fields of the in-laws and the land they own.  I knew I wouldn't get lost.  I knew that if I got stuck I could leave the machine and retrieve it another time.  I just felt a bit safer.  I have next to none/zero skills on tracked winter vehicles.  I also knew there was a lot of  snow in the fields so it would be fun blasting through fresh powder.

And it really was a fun day out on the sled.  I did get stuck towards the end.  I was going down a trail and was 500 m or so from the main road.  I was heading back through Pearson's.  Anyway there were felled trees across the trail and the sled was just too heavy, and the trail to narrow to meander/weave my way past.  I put it in reverse, but just dug myself deeper in trouble.  It would be time to hand-bomb this 500 plus pound monster 180 degrees.  I wasn't too disappointed actually.  It was a nice day.  I inched it bit by bit, and wouldn't you know it but in 20 minutes or so I was turned right around.

Sitting on a few feet of snow.  The snowmobile only dug down about 6 to 8 inches I'd say.


The felled trees got worse past the first two ones you see here:


The rest of my family - they hung out in Goderich and had a few visitors.  I was only away for a few hours.  Molly and I took off for a wagon ride and found our way over to a buddy's house for an hour or so.  Shelly was just out picking away at some errands and actually got a few herbs planted indoors, to be put outdoors later in the spring.  I could really use another day off, but I shouldn't complain.  I have had a number of snow days off, and a few days of not feeling well last week.  So ya, got to get back to the grind and finis the pull till March Break.

Drove past Shelly's first car on my journey today - I took a picture mostly because you can see the layers of snow in the roof.  This is what back-country adventurist dig and look for before descending a line.  I am not sure how well it will show up in the photo, but live, you can really see the various layers of snowfall and how it compacts and presses on top of itself.



The best family members somebody could have: