Had a bit of excitement a while back!

Deloris and I took the quad (Honda 350) and trailer ( for our dog, Grizzly, of course) up to the Horseshoe Bend snowmobile warm-up shelter about 5 miles away to drop off some River Trail Country Vacations brochures. We made a few stops on the way looking for Blueberries in some places I knew where they used to grow. We found a few but nothing worthwhile so we continued onward. We soon got to the shelter and did what we set out to do and then started for home. I figured if we could head east down the snowmobile trail we could get home quicker. So we started off with Grizzly running alongside checking out all this new country. We were soon stopped by a large mudhole so I turned around and headed back for the shelter. Even though Deloris was against it because it was about 6:30 PM and it gets dark by 8:30 I decided I wanted to try another trail I knew about. I had talked to a friend about it at one time and he said it was (just barely) passable so I figured we should try it. It was an old bush road that I and most other males in the community had driven down for many years to go fishing in the Torch River so how bad could it be? My recollection of the trail was that it was sand all the way to the snowmobile trail and we probably wouldn’t have any trouble. As we started off down the trail I saw an old quad track ahead of us and numerous fallen trees that had been cut off to clear the trail so it appeared that my friend had known what he was talking about. We made good time at the start but I soon slowed down for fear of hitting a tree lying in the tall grass on the trail. We had no axe or saw and the first obstacle was a fallen tree that was just too low to let the quad pass. I unhitched the trailer, drove around the tree stump, dragged the trailer through under the tree and hitched it back up again. We got to a place where there was a bit of water on the road but there were also some large willow bushes there so I put 2 wheels into the puddle and drove around the willows (I didn’t realize until too late that the puddle was quite deep and that is where Deloris started to lose it!). The next obstacle was another water puddle and it was about 30 feet long. Deloris assured me that if we tried to go through that we would get stuck, have to spend the night in the bush and we would probably be eaten by bears or wolves.

Aw, it doesn’t look very deep so off we go in about 1 foot of water. See, I told you it wasn’t deep! As we were driving through it Deloris pointed beside us and said "Look, Grizzly is swimming". Just about then the quad dropped into a hole and the water came to just under the headlights.

Deloris was in a PANIC! "Turn around" she said "It's gonna get dark pretty soon and we might be stuck out here all night". Of course, being the man who knew where he was going I refused. We went through a couple more serious mudholes and skirted one or two more but soon it DID start getting dark. All of a sudden we saw another water puddle (beaver pond was more like it) about 100 yards long. Deloris PANICKED for real this time.

"Turn around! Go back!" she shrieked. I responded with "We can't. We probably won't make it back down the trail we just came on!" So away we went. Almost through. The headlights disappeared in the water! Shrieks from the back of the quad. The quad engine STOPPED.

Now what? Walk home 5 miles in the dark? Stay with the quad all night and hope for the best? Not if I can help it! We got off the quad in almost 3 feet of water. To my surprise the quad floated up (the trailer is virtually watertight so it helped lift the quad). Deloris was calling me a fool in some very descriptive and innovative language. She was already thinking about what we would have to do to spend the night in the trailer (it’s only about 3 ½ X 5 feet with 2 ½ ft. sides).

Well, let’s just stop and think for a minute.

 I figured as long as it is floating I could drag it out backwards to shallower water so I did, trailer and all. Then I reached into the water up to my elbow to unhitch the trailer and dragged it out of the way. It was actually only about an 8 foot pull to shallow water, about a foot or so deep.

  First things first, check the oil for water. Looked just like used oil. That was good! Give the engine a quick turn to see if there was water in the cylinder, sounded good! (If there was water in the cylinder, ½ cup or less would do it, the piston would have forced the water to the top of the engine and stopped!)  Seemed like the engine was good to go. Pull the choke and turn it over. Nothing! Try without the choke. Nothing! I wonder how long the battery will last!

Time to start worrying!                                                                                                    

Open the throttle and turn it over. We have ignition!!! It didn’t run well for the first minute or so because the air filter was saturated with water but it soon smoothed out. Now to get us across this (quite deep) water hole!

I had seen (after the fact, of course) were other quads had driven along the bank right next to us and I soon found a spot to get the quad up there. Once on top I hitched up the trailer and was able to drive it past the water to solid ground and I only had to lift the trailer around one (dead) tree! It never crossed my mind until later that I could have pulled the floating quad on through the water hole to the far side where I wanted to be anyway!

We made it back home about 9:00PM, 3 ½  hours after we left for what was supposed to be a 1 hour trip. Deloris promised all sorts of mayhem if I EVER did that to her again. I just thought "All's well that ends well". And next time? Did I learn my lesson? We'll see! (Probably NOT, I’m a slow learner!)