Well.. so much has been going on here on the waning weekends of winter that keeping up with updates has been hindered. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I have material to update the website for the rest of the year.
What a winter – so far.
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Lining up for the ride – as many as 150 sleds.
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That brings me to the one weekend I’ve yet to have time to comment on – “Live on Skis” 2008. This was the second year of the event and it was bigger and better the the year before. We didn’t get an official sled count, but best estimates was between 125 and 150 sleds that went on the ride with our special guest from Make A Wish – Forrest Hess. There were so many great stories from the weekend that I couldn’t do them all justice, but here’s a few highlights.
Last fall, Forrest gave us a list of some vintage sleds he would like to ride. After seeing the list, a group of guys on the Bull Sessions got together with a couple of donor sleds to build a Ski-Whiz for Forrest to ride. It was en route to International Falls when the truck it was traveling in broke down, several hours away. Bull Session members again rose to the occasion, and drove several hours in each direction to make sure the sled was there on time for Forrest.
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The gathering on the trail – the local snowmobile club provided refreshments for riders.
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The ride was as perfect as it could get. Even though Friday was bitterly cold, it warmed up to the mid 30’s for the big ride on Saturday. The local snowmobile club made sure all the trails were groomed just for our vintage ride – and what magnificent trails they have around International Falls. They were amazing. Half way through, the local club had hot dogs, hot coffee and cocoa, chips, cookies and a bonfire waiting for us. It was so much fun, we really didn’t want to leave there. We ran a total of just under 40 miles. Lots of sleds broke down, but every time one did, 10-15 riders would stop and help out.
One such sled was a stunningly beautiful John Deere, recently restored by someone who wished to remain anonymous, just for Forrest to ride. It was the sled Forrest really took a liking to. It ran perfect, until about 1/3 of the way through, when a head gasket gave out. Forrest took it in stride, and we found him another sled in minutes. The Deere was towed back by a twin track raider which we have now named “Mater” as in Tomator without the “tuh”.
At the informal banquet at the Thunderbird lodge, we auctioned off the Ski-Whiz to raise money for the Make-A-Wish foundation, raising $1,300 for the machine. The winner was Doc Jim. Doc turned around and gave Forrest the sled. Everyone pitched in a little money to Doc, and at Forrest’s request, we all signed the hood of the machine for him.
I’m pretty sure Forrest and his family had a good time.
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Jim Strandlund not only brought his vintage sled, he dressed in vintage clothes for the ride.
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Next year, we’ve decided that “Live on Skis” 2009 will be a little different. Since this was en event born of the Internet and Vintagesleds.com, we figured there has to be a way to let all the people who can’t travel to International Falls, Minnesota to join in on how much fun we are having with this. So next year, International Falls will remain the home of the “Mothership” for the event on February 14th – 15th, 2009.
However, we will be having “satellite” events all over the world. That’s right – we’re going global. So far, we have a Western and two Eastern U.S. locations scoped out, and we are talking to people in Canada, Sweden, Finland and other place who will have a vintage ride on the same date. Each location will posts pictures and stories here on Vintagesleds.com as the event happens. We’ll have all the locations available soon.
Could it be more fun then we had this year? Let’s find out.