This one was COLD!!!! This is the report from Dan, who stayed on with several others to camp that night:
God help me, but I love it.
When we returned to the camp site after the final trail, about 4:30 5:ish the shelter we had left up was nearly destroyed. After we sorted that out, I think I made the statement "we are going to get out a$$es kicked to night." We did.
Don't miss-understand, no one died, but any short coming in vehicle maintenance, site decision, or equipment selection announced itself quite loudly.
All my personal equipment worked as it should, but I will return to using natural fibers in the future. Ten more degrees temperature loss and my insulating layer would have failed. I am convinced of that. I was nearly as chilled as I have been in the past after six or seven days at -30. As I am not hiking, back to natural fiber.
My radiator froze up. Despite antifreeze, it still froze, which tells me that there is gunk some where inside of it. On the long drive home, I remembered that even with antifreeze, water molecules will freeze to the gunk. I have the radiator flushed about every two years. It is time again. It took about 3 hours of letting the engine build up to operating temperature and shutting it off before the stoppage cleared. This means that 90% of my trip down the hill was wit the engine off, coasting. It was very interesting to be in a 3900 lb toboggan.
I use 20-50 for my engine as it is older, the oil got so thick that Steven had to pull start me for nearly 100 yards, in gear the whole way, to get the beast started. The yellow top, and a jump attempt from both Kirk, and Steven could not provide the juice to turn the engine. I could barely turn the engine by hand, one cylinder at a time and using considerable energy, standing on it with my foot for example. This weekend I will change the oil to a 10w 30 or 40. I am going to have to check with some of the pros to see which one I will use.
The gear oil was so thick, that I had to use both hands to select a gear. I am going to have to check into some other options. The next time, I am going to get up every four hours and start the beast. This means that I will be doing much less visiting at the campfire. After the 8:00 pm start, it will be to bed for me so that I can do another at midnight and one at 4:00 am. This is what will affect the next item
My tent cot is a great choice for all but the worst conditions. The only problem is it is so difficult to change clothing, or get dressed inside of it. So a two-man winter season tent will join my equipment pile. This will make it easier to get up and do the engine starts. All of the plastic tent stakes shattered in the cold, even though they were supposed to be strong enough, so it is back to wood and metal for me.
The next time I am expecting such high winds, I am just going to move to a more sheltered spot. Building a wind break for two people is much easier than trying to put one together for a group. While it was fun to brave the elements, with a group I will go to a more sheltered spot. As Steve reminded us, when storm hits, the wind will shift, as it did, and in doing so destroyed our wind break, literally.
Yuppie logs are great for getting wet wood to burn and are easy to use, but when a 40 mph wind blows a gust of that smoke in to your face, it hurts.
Team work was excellent. With so many people, of differing sensibilities and skill sets, it can some times be difficult to work when you are working through problems. Steve was my angel in front, and I knew that Joe was behind me should I need it. And Kirk and Scott took care of each other, with Joe again ready to take up the slack in the middle.
