Bear hunt! Part 3

As I said at the end of the last Bear hunt entry, heading back to the cabin on One Fish lake ended up being just as difficult as the trip out.

Our troubles began almost immediately. Our first obstacle was the river bank that was on the other side of the Sushana river. Coming down the bank wasn't a problem but going back up was another story. The river bank leading up to the trail was very narrow so getting a run at it with the snomachine was pretty much impossible. We piled as much snow on the bank as we could, similar to the snow bridge on one of the creeks on the way out, but it wasn't enough. When Travis made an attempt at the hill he literally ran into the hill side and broke one of the skis on the snowmachine. The ski didn't break in half but it got seriously bent and will require a replacement. We determined driving up the slope wasn't going to happen so we pulled out the rope-a-long, same thing as a cable come-a-long and winched the machine and sled up the hill. In winching the machine up the slope we ended up bending the wrecked ski back a little so the snowmachine actually went down the trail alright.

Not to far down the trail, somewhere in "Pinball Alley," we clipped a tree just at the right angle and broke part of the steering mechanism that connects the handle bars to the skis. Travis said, "Yep, that's the weak link to these machines and nope I don't have a spare." The part that broke only controlled one ski , which happened to be the already really bent one. What we ended up doing was lashing the two skis together with a stick. The machine really steered like a pig after that so the already hard task of keeping the machine on the trail just got more difficult.

Most of the trail after that that point on was more of the same, bouncing off and cutting trees, and getting tossed off the machine. Until we came to one creek crossing. It didn't look to bad on our approach but when we were going up the other side we hit a stump, hidden in the snow, which completely flipped the machine! In the process both Travis and I were able to kick ourselves free of the rolling machine which ended up on it's seat. After we surveyed the situation, both of us un-injured, we looked at each other and thought how do we flip a 700 pound machine? We eventually worked out a lever system with a big log, stuck it through the suspension and were able to turn the machine upright.

To our surprise the ski repair didn't break when the machine was flipped! But we did end up hitting a few more trees after that point and had to replace the stick that held the skis together one or two times.

Overall the trip back to One Fish Lake still took us about 6 hours. And our plan to go back to the Toklat springs area didn't look to good.

Before we left the Toklat springs area Travis had set a couple traps, hoping to get a wolf. Since we had planned on going back this was not really an issue, but now...

Travis decided that he would just walk back to the Springs, pulling a sled with minimum gear to spring the traps and stash them to be picked up later this winter. It would still be an overnight trip and luckily he had cut a pile of firewood expecting that we were going back with the snowmachine.

We set a time when Travis should be back by and if he didn't get back I'd go looking for him. While he was gone I spent the time doing some work on the cabin and cutting a bunch of wood, so when someone else came to the cabin it would be a good shape for them. That and a good book kept me plenty occupied until Travis returned. He returned well before our "worry time," and said the trip went without difficulty.

With the snowmachine in quite a state of disrepair we determined that heading back to Travis' property was the best choice. After a good night sleep we packed up our gear and began our limp back to civilization.

Each leg of the trip came with it's own difficulty and the return journey was no different. Now it wasn't the trail but the snowmachine itself that was the issue. Something in one of the two caurberators was stuck open causing the machine to foul out the spark plugs and also emptying the gas tank really fast. We could get the machine to start, go for 50 feet, then it would die. The only thing we could do was take the plugs out, dry them out, cycle the engine to pump out the excess gas, reinsert the plugs, start the engine and go another 50 feet. This went on for a couple hours until all of a sudden whatever was stuck fixed itself and the machine ran great all the way back.

I can't say this trip went all that well but at least Travis, Buster and I came away without an major injuries. I know Travis and I learned a lot from this trip and I can for surely say if I were to do this hunt in the future I would go about it in a different way. Most importantly taking a MINIMUM of two snowmachines, with no passengers.

To wrap up this trip I have a couple pics, during sunset, of Denali and Mt. Foraker from One Fish Lake. And the video is a look at the inside of the cabin at One Fish lake when Travis was on his way to/from the Toklat Springs area.