Day out to the cabin: Snowmobiling in mid-April

It was a mild, sunny mid-April day today - a high of 1 degrees Celsius; a perfect day for spending time outdoors. Even though it is already mid-April, I was surprised to learn that it is still possible to go out on snowmobile (I am accustomed to spring blossom and above zero to 12 degrees temperature of southern Ontario and Quebec). Now the question should be, is this normal temperature and condition for central Newfoundland at this time of the year? Maybe. It is not unlikely for us to get sporadic snow fall all through out April, but snow fall in April this year did not happen to be limited to just Newfoundland. Just Thursday, I was informed by my social media that even places like Toronto, Montreal and other parts of southern Ontario and Quebec got dumped with snow.  

It is difficult for me to judge the weather conditions here. In town, despite fighting to protect my mascara from a snow storm on the way to work yesterday, the centimeter of snow was gone from the roads by supper time. Yet, just 10 km out of town, the woods are still covered in snow. 

Clara and Loyd working together as a perfect team - cultivated through 50 years of union.

Here we are putting in the ramps on the truck to unload the snowmobile. In the winter, people in town can drive their snow machines out of their shed and all the way to their cabins via the snowmobile network trails running at the back of town. We had to drive the snowmobile out to the resource road*, because the snow on the trails have all melted leaving behind puddles of mud. * Resource roads are dirt roads which people use to go into the woods for hunting, wood cutting, or to various ponds for fishing. Cabins can be found a little way off the resource roads.

Moose burger, cod tongue and wine at the cabin - fancy!

My first wood cutting experience. They will eventually make a Newfie out of me, and maybe then, I can proudly wear the red and black checkered "wood-cutting" jackets. 

Even though chainsaws have been invented, cutting wood is still a very labourious chore! After cutting the tree down, you have to saw it into stove size logs and to cut off all the twigs so the logs will stack well. I only had a small spruce to cut (widest diameter around 3cm and 10 feet high), yet my arm muscles were so fatigued near the end of completing my first tree that I had to concentrate on steadying my arm. They tell me this is only a baby chainsaw!  I forgot to take a photo of my pile of wood, but basically, it was only and armful (one trip to bring it in), and judging by the size of the pile, it would probably only last 30-40 mins of burning time.

Wood, sleigh, snowmobile. Note the neatly stacked modest size wood pile by Loyd. Now, when ever I pass the cords of log in the woods, I'll be able to appreciate the work that has gone into it.  

My first snowmobiling driving experience. 

I am always surprised when people offer to let me drive various motorized vehicles. I mean, I can drive a car, but there was a lot of preparation work and a learning period that went into it before I was actually trusted with operating it. It turns out, most parents start teaching their children to drive ATV and snowmobiles around the age of 10...  I guess that makes me seem sufficiently "responsible" for the task. Anyway, I found it quite challenging: I'm use to power steering of small size sedans or the responsive steering of my race bike, and I'm use to traveling across paved surfaces. I was very tense while driving, because I am still not habituated to the air-borne and tipping feeling whenever going across bumps, along the side-banks of the trail, across dried up patches of trail (ie no more snow), and across small brooks.