Before I make a lot of amendments to my Jet Sled, and make it a little less ice fishing friendly, we took it on an overnight up a relatively flat valley. Most of the trails in our area are now swarming with snow machines, so we went up this vly on the border of NY/Vt. that has lots of spring seeps and has a prohibition against motorized vehicles. I placed our heavy winter tent (Sierra Design Stretch Dome) and our heavy old synthetic -15 bags in the sled with some pads to sit on. Altogether, about a 23 lb. load. We carried packs with maybe 15 lbs. per pack. Even without the stiff pulk trace harness; just pulling the rope, it was a breeze on the snowshoe packed trail from 2 people. It was light enough to manuever over and around blowdowns, and pulled up the few hills fairly easily. It got down to 0 degrees F, but we were comftorable. I didn't use a cannister stove, but broke out the old reliable Whisperlite to melt snow. We did make a chicken and rice dish that had to simmer for 10 minutes. I used 8 layers of folded heavy duty aluminum wrap as a heat diverter and it worked well! No burning and it simmered perfectly. The harness for the sled is now going in the works. I like the splitting of the weight between pack and sled. Both are very little burden. It was a wonderful time. A large pack of coyotes serenaded us in the middle of the night. They seemed to be heavy on sopranos. We also had the nearby company of both a barn and a screech owl. A few deer crunched by in the swamp below us; something that is sometimes unnerving, until you figure out what it is. We hope to get out a number more times this winter.


Edited by bluefish (02/09/14 01:10 PM)
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Charlie