“ That ditch was at least six feet deep and | |||
there was about four feet of snow in the bottom,” | |||
Trueman recalled afterward,“ and the big old | |||
Thundercat, it doesn’ t like that much snow until | |||
you turn the power on. So as soon as I hit the | |||
bottom of the ditch I had’ er wide open to give it | |||
a shot to get up the other side. She didn’ t go up | |||
the first time so I had to drop her back down into | |||
the ditch in the heavy snow and gave it a second | |||
shot and made it out the second time. It gets the | |||
adrenaline going.” | |||
Little did he know that Trevor never left his tail | |||
through the whole folly. | |||
“ Afterward he said,‘ Did you see that?’ and I | |||
said,‘ Yeah, I was right behind you, I was following | |||
you all through there!” Trevor said. |
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In the rugged Ontario outback on a gas-line
cut – which included huge whoops – Trevor also
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Crossing the St. Lawrence to Sorel-Tracey |
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Fresh snow in Quebec
corn on the cob boiling, sausages … My dad says,
‘ Geez, you really know where you’ re going – they
did this all for us?!’ And I said [ sarcastically ],‘ Yes,
Dad, it’ s all for us!’”
The riders hung out with the club members for
a while on an above-freezing day, sharing their
love of the sport, but then plodded on together –
now a foursome moving across Ontario. They put
in 185 miles that day – taking a different route
than was originally planned to stay away from
some incoming freezing rain before bedding
down in Carleton Place, Ontario.
BIG SNOW, BIG ADVENTURES Other than being rather chilly, the group so far
had perfect weather to pile on miles, but that
was about to change. Thanks to Lorne’ s crafty
adaptations to their route that took them up to
North Bay, they had avoided the rain, but when
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the weather front finally caught them it started dumping snow.
Being avid riders, these guys aren’ t the sort to complain about fresh snow, but breaking trail and pushing powder can definitely slow a group’ s progress and that’ s exactly what they rode in for the next two days. They put on 135 miles pushing 12 inches of powder en route to the Sudbury area for an overnight in Azilda, Ontario, and then another snow-filled day largely on ungroomed trails and powerline routes, traveling 175 miles to Blind River outside of Elliot Lake, Ontario.
These days brought the ride’ s only real misadventures.
First, while pushing powder on a forest road and riding one-handed as he was adjusting his GPS unit, Trueman missed a turn and drove into a deep ditch; his son Trevor was hot on his tail and followed him in.
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had a tail landing after busting through a drift
that bent the tunnel on his Riot, Lorne said. It
wasn’ t enough to seriously affect the sled or
damage the heat exchangers, though, so the
group soldiered on.
They wrapped up the 10th day with a 178-mile
run on logging roads and trails to the border
town of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where they’ d
cross into Michigan the next day.
SAVED BY FAME? The only time the sleds were on a trailer would be
when crossing the international border at Sault
Ste. Marie. Help had been pre-arranged with Rivercity
Motorsports – the Arctic Cat dealership on
the Ontario side of the split border town – which
was to haul the sleds across the border while
Lorne and the crew turned in a stack of pre-filledout
paperwork that would allow their sleds to be
shipped back into Canada separate from them
after the ride.
The problem was the distance riders arrived
in town earlier than expected – and on the same
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day that Arctic Cat was hosting demo rides for its 2021 Blast snowmobiles, which tied up the dealerships’ primary trailer. So, as Lorne tells the story, the dealership arranged for two separate trucks and trailers to haul the sleds across, while Lorne, Bob, Trevor and Trueman rode in a cab that was to lead all three vehicles through the customs process.
The cab driver claimed he knew the way, Lorne said, but instead he led the other two vehicles the wrong way into the border station, taking them between barricades where busses were supposed to be exiting customs into Canada, and up to the back door of the customs building.
“ I was sitting beside Trevor and said,‘ How long until somebody’ s going to come out that back door, because you know we’ re on camera and in the wrong place.’ It wasn’ t three seconds before two customs officers came out and were yelling at the taxi driver!” Through the chaos, Lorne said when he and his co-riders started getting out of the van, one customs agent figured out who they
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