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River Experience
page 1

February 22, 2003

The ride today was one of the few planned rides we take,
It started out as a fire hall ice fishing outing, and sort of evolved into a snowmachine ride before the day had arrived.
We had several new riders today which made for some entertainment!

We left the road house with 10 sleds. It was about 0 degrees but clear and beautiful.
The destination was Jarvis Glacier.

Here is Greg looking good taking this section of water......
at about 60mph...

Making it across the water in good time, he then proceeded to launch off the far bank of the water he just crossed, doing a very impressive shuttle maneuver about 10 feet in the air,
He nearly cleared the island I am on and sped out onto the very slick overflow ice you see here. Breaking without studs, he did not begin to slowdown until he roled the sled into the river in a sideways style. The sled roled over him and I saw him completely underwater with nothing but one hand breaking the surface. He had the presence of mind to stop the sled from roling downriver in the current, but the sled ended up pointing in the direction from whence he came.
Not having told me of his intentions I failed to get a good photo of this, but I can say it was very impressive!

Greg really did have a great attitude about it all, and almost appeared to enjoy standing around in sub-freezing degree water. Having just swum with my own sled only a few weeks earlier, I can tell you I'm sure he was cold!

Now the dilema was how to get his sled out of the river. We were going to try to pull it out the way it went in, but the river was already running over the ice and we were concerned about breaking through. So we had him tie on some rope and we pulled it onto the bank oposit from his entry. That is one very uncomfortable way to cross a river!

As several guys were working to get his sled running before it froze, others where helping him wring out his boots. you cannot see from the photo but he was entirely encased in a healthy layer of ice.

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Here is Greg looking good taking this section of water...... at about 60mph...
	Making it across the water in good time, he then proceeded to launch off the far bank of the water he just crossed, doing a very impressive shuttle maneuver about 10 feet in the air, He nearly cleared the island I am on and sped out onto the very slick overflow ice you see here. Breaking without studs, he did not begin to slowdown until he roled the sled into the river in a sideways style. The sled roled over him and I saw him completely underwater with nothing but one hand breaking the surface. He had the presence of mind to stop the sled from roling downriver in the current, but the sled ended up pointing in the direction from whence he came. Not having told me of his intentions I failed to get a good photo of this, but I can say it was very impressive!
Greg really did have a great attitude about it all, and almost appeared to enjoy standing around in sub-freezing degree water. Having just swum with my own sled only a few weeks earlier, I can tell you I'm sure he was cold!
	Now the dilema was how to get his sled out of the river. We were going to try to pull it out the way it went in, but the river was already running over the ice and we were concerned about breaking through. So we had him tie on some rope and we pulled it onto the bank oposit from his entry. That is one very uncomfortable way to cross a river!
As several guys were working to get his sled running before it froze, others where helping him wring out his boots. you cannot see from the photo but he was entirely encased in a healthy layer of ice.