Roughwoods had his track rig (Thiokol IMP) break an axle last winter when he was breaking a trail out to his homestead on the Upper Kantishna river district. It was about seventy miles from town, when it broke on the river bank area. He was able to get to it during this last summer on the river and repair it.
This last few days, we rode out to it with gas and new battery to bring it back about half way, where he has a cabin out by mine on the lake that he will use for a halfway point to get to his homestead.
When people hear of "Winter roads", they envision a place where you can drive your truck out into the woods... what they are is very small trails that have been used for years as miner and trapper trails that started out on foot, then dog-sled and now days, snowmachines and other related equipment... not much good for trucks...
Anyway, we went out to our respected cabins the first day (forty miles one way), then the next day we broke trail out to where his track rig was waiting on the Kantishna River bank (another sixty miles round trip). Got it running, I towed his snowmachine and sled while he drove it back to the cabins. Then today headed back to town (another forty miles). I might note that these aren't the groomed type of trails that one might find around some of the more populated areas, these are areas where doing over twenty miles an hour can mean crashing into a tree or going over a bluff, not to mention the critters standing there in the middle of the trail and not wanting to move...
You get to see a lot of wildlife such as moose, wolf, lynx and a host of smaller critters too. We run across wolf killed moose too, sometimes in the middle of the trail. Each trip is different.
While on the way back to town, his snowmachine lost a cylinder. But it appeared to be a coil since if it had been a carb issue and was running lean it would have burnt a hole in the cylinder, it was just dead with compression still. So he was able to drive all the way back, so I didn't have to tow his machine, two sleds and him back to town.
It was a long couple of days, but still a lot of fun regardless. Will be taking a lot of Advil I will assume tomorrow morning... and a long hot bath tonight.
Sunset across the lake to Mt. McKinley
View of the cabin from the outhouse...
Spruce Chicken checking out the snow machine
Spruce Chicken in the tree
Getting ready to get the "IMP" started for the trip home.
Crossing the Toklat River
Towing the snowmachine back to the cabin for thirty miles.