Friday, January 27 Grooming Schedule

Meet at the warming hut at 9:00.  So far, Paul and John and probably Mark will be there.  Ray is in Kalispell.  Dave Susanj has the gas cans and hopefully will take them up tonight.

Friday, Jan 20 grooming schedule

I just returned from Haggin at 4:00.  We really had a dump and it was still coming down.  I checked the depth against my leg in front of the big container, and it is nearly 18" above last Friday's pack!  The gauge indicates just under 3 feet.  I put the quad back together and re-lit the pilot.  There was an obvious difference: you could hear the flame. As a matter of fact I turned the pilot valve down a bit.  I don't know what magic Jim Lott did, but I hope our problem is behind us.  I also checked the squeal on #4.  I  took the cover off the drive belt and I could see where the end of the crank shaft was rubbing the inside of the cover.  I put the cover back on and everything was fine.  Apparently somebody had the cover off and didn't put the rear pin back correctly, putting a twist in the cover and causing the bind.  Anyway it's fixed.

We lucked out and met the plow at Ralston, just about to head back north.  We stayed ahead of him and didn't have too much trouble following his old tracks in the wrong lane.  He had really cleaned up the parking lot and it looked like they may have used a front end loader to move the banks back.  We are going to have some fun making a passage for skiers to the trailhead.

Dave and crew are bringing the old Skandic out tonight.  They will have fun getting it over the hump. Dave will post when he gets home tonight to let us know how they did.

Friday the 13th Grooming Schedule

Who is on board for tomorrow?  We shouldn't have much new snow, but we still have work to do between Sleepy Hollow and Death Dip.  Also, Chris Axelson wants us to prepare the bottom area northwest of the big hill as part of the race staging "stadium."  We will only have 4 machines as the old Skandic is still at Staacks.

Friday January 6th Grooming Schedule

Paul took both Skandics to Staacks on Wednesday.  The new Skandic was due for its post break-in service and the old Skandic broke down on Saturday.  Paul will bring the new machine back on Friday, but the old one is awaiting new rubber couplings between the carbs and intake manifolds. The breakdown was caused by a broken throttle cable.

AlpineII #4 also died on Saturday with no spark.  I scavenged a CDI unit and spark coil from one of the derelict AlpineII's at John's Snowmobile Salvage and put them in #4 today. It would run fine when cold, but die after heating up, so we will find out on Friday if the problem is fixed.  I also put a new belt in #3 as it has been making noises getting unstuck.  I also lubed the clutches on both machines.

Finally, I brought the quad home and replaced the thermocouple and blew out the burner, so hopefully it will behave.  I won't get it back in the Warming Hut until Friday.

Dave and Thursday night crew:  you will  be without heat and light and have only one machine with headlights, so you may want to take a night off.