Author Topic: Winter Fun  (Read 58 times)

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Offline Goddess

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Winter Fun
« on: January 15, 2018, 11:47:35 am »
After three weeks of -40 degree weather, it was finally nice enough this weekend to venture out.

We took the quad out on the river behind our property, as we do many times each year.  Rode for about 45 mins, the only open water was on the "bottom" side of the beaver dams - that's normal.  We stopped for a break, my man walked around, tested the ice, all was good.  Got back on the quad.

2 mins later, came around a corner on the river and "Crack!  CRACK!"

Boyfriend pinned it, but no.....in we went.  :o

He was yelling, "Jump off, babe!  Jump off!"  But I had a vision of Leonardo De Caprio in Titanic, telling Rose to ride the ship down and jump off just before you get sucked down with it.  We landed on a sandbar, thank the Goddess, so there was enough of the quad sticking out fo the water for us to stand on and re-group.  But we were about 40 feet from either shore and not knowing how deep the water was in any direction.  We were already wet up to our thighs.  Well I was - boyfreind went in to the top of his Sorel's.

Called a couple of freinds - one was not at home and couldn't help.  The other one came out to find us.  But we were in a valley sort of thing - couldn't see over the hills and no one could see us from up top.

Called 911.   :-[

We were rescued after 2 hours on Quad Island.

This morning beofre work, I took Tim Horton muffins to our local small-town Fire Dept to say Thank You. 

There's always a certain amount of second-guessing and What If's but they said we did the right thing - they would rather rescue us than to have to search fields for 2 unresponsive, hypothermic people and try to revive them.

It's funny, just that week we had watched a YouTube on what to do if your sled goes into the water and how to get out and it really helped.   It was really only scary for a moment when we were going in - once we settled, we had time to think.

We are going to add a whistle to the gear.  And some kind of floatation device.   

Have I mentioned how much I hate winter? 



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"A religion without a Goddess is half-way to atheism."

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Offline Squidward von Squidderson

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Re: Winter Fun
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2018, 02:36:37 pm »
Glad you were OK and no one was injured.

Are you the type of person who thinks people should pay for their own rescues when they get in trouble in the backcountry?  Did you leave a travel plan with someone?  Check the ice before traveling on it?  You were very lucky to be in cell range.  I really hope you’ll do more to prevent this than just a whistle and a flotation device.

How did they rescue you from the sandbar?

Offline Goddess

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Re: Winter Fun
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2018, 03:16:34 pm »
Glad you were OK and no one was injured.

Are you the type of person who thinks people should pay for their own rescues when they get in trouble in the backcountry?  Did you leave a travel plan with someone?  Check the ice before traveling on it?  You were very lucky to be in cell range.  I really hope you’ll do more to prevent this than just a whistle and a flotation device.

How did they rescue you from the sandbar?

I would have no problem paying for this rescue.  No one said anything about a bill, so I guess we'll wait and see.

Yes, we never go out on the sleds or quads without letting others know.  We never go out without fully charged phones.  We have safety equipment with us - tow ropes, small shovel, water, a first aid kit that includes sterno and blanket etc.  We will be adding the whistle (we had to yell for about 1/2 hour because we were down in the river valley and couldn't be seen from any roads.  They had their windows open to hear us.)  I found some kind of device called a SPOT that we will purchase that runs on satellite - although 911 zeroed in on my phone's GPS to find the area we were in.

They attached their winch to our's on the quad and pulled us to shore.  One guy was in the water with us, in case we fell off the sandbar but boyfriend was able to steer it a bit in neutral to keep it on the sandbar.

The only scary part was when we were first going in. 
"A religion without a Goddess is half-way to atheism."

Offline Omni

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Re: Winter Fun
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2018, 04:55:17 pm »
I had a little winter fun many years ago when I and a couple of Newfie buddy's spent a January night out on the Labrador coast. We were trying to get to Hopedale but the weather was worsening by the minute, we weren't a hundred percent sure of our exact position and darkness was falling. I decided it was time to give it up for the day. We came across a spot that looked about right in that it was on the lea side of a high enough hill to protect us a little from the strong wind blowing in off the Lab Sea, and it had a few scrub black spruce rising above the snow. I got out my spiral wire camp saws and those spruce ended up becoming a lean to, a wood pile and a lovely camp fire. A little deeper in my survival bag and the packages of freeze dried food came next. Shrimp Creole it was for dinner. And of course the coffee pot. A potful of melted snow and things soon began to simmer and the aroma of that creole mixed with perking coffee was almost as good as the flavor. Dinner over and the mess kits cleaned, the fire stoked again, and I dug down to the bottom of the bag and the next on the menu was a few sips out of that 40 pounder of single malt that one should always have in a survival kit. There were a few stories told as we sipped, threw the odd stick on the fire, and curled up in our Arctic 5 stars for a sleep. Next morning the weather was better so I said boys get the fire on and a fresh pot of coffee while I climb up the hill and see what I can see to get us oriented. Hitting the top of the hill, I had a giggle, turned around and headed right back down. I said "boys to hell with the fire, let's go to Hopedale for coffee, it's just on the other side of this hill."   
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