Snow Trip, Day 1 - 1.5 machines out of 4 make it in...

We left for our snow trip at 5:30am and arrived in Prather, CA around 9:30am. We met up with Papa (Shannon's father) and followed him up to the snow.



This is Dinky Creek.



Once we got to the snow and the road was no longer plowed, we unloaded the snow machines and got the kids dressed in their snow gear.





We had four machines. Matt started out first with Brandon on the V-max or "Stickers". Shannon followed on the Mountain Max with Emily and was towing the sled with our food and stuff. Ben then followed on his own machine called the Jag. (1st machine down) Papa tried to get it going and it ran into a snow bank and then was covered in snow. He left it behind and Papa had Ben and Sarah on his machine.


The trail.


Here is Shannon and Emily and a thumbs up that all is going good.



Then more problems. Matt took the left at Short Hair to start to break trail towards the dam. Shannon followed for a bit and then got stuck... The snow that had fallen 5 days ago was still pretty soft and the machine and sled were a little too heavy to keep going. Papa caught up with Shannon and dropped Ben and Sarah off and continued after Matt. Shannon was stuck in the bright sun with Sarah, Ben, and Emily. Papa returned and dropped off Brandon so that he and Matt could continue to the cabin to break the trail. Shannon and the kids made the best of it where they were. They had the food and so they had some snacks. Ben built a snow chair. They were there for quite a long time.






While Matt trekked into the cabin and got the fire going in the stove, Papa came back and rode in with Brandon and Ben. Shannon had Emily and Sarah on the other working machine. We made it safely to the cabin. Somewhere the Exciter (2nd machine down) blew up the clutch and was not repairable. We ended it up leaving it at the cabin.


Ben really liked collecting the icicles that were growing from the cabin roof.



The cabin.

Outside the cabin was this antler thermometer.. 42 degrees when we arrived at the cabin.

Papa and Matt went back to the sled to grad some food for the night since we could not bring in the sled. When they returned, we were down to 1.5 machines. Stickers (V-max) was the only working machine. The Mountain Max was half running. It would do fine on flat and downhill runs, but needed help up the hills. For dinner, we had lasagne, garlic bread, and string beans... We all went to bed about 8:30pm. We were all very tired and sunburned.