So, we headed north mid day Friday 2/20 for a full day of snowboarding Saturday. This trip we were boarding, okay more like just sleeping, at my parent’s house for the weekend and would be driving further north to Boyne Mountain Saturday. This would mean an early rise Saturday in order to be on the hill for first tracks, and a late night drive home if we decided to close the runs @ 9 as well, but it was free.
As planned we were up, dressed, fed thanks to Dad making us home made waffles, and out the door at about quarter to 8 Saturday morning. Unfortunately, we were in such a rush to get on the road for the hour and fifteen minute trip up to Boyne that we forgot part of our lunch. We remembered the cooler, the really important part, but we forgot the second bag containing the snacks and bread for lunch. By the time Mom saw it and called my cell we were too far north to turn around and go back for it. Onward to Boyne without it!
At just before 9AM I pulled up to the drop off circle in front of the ticket office and half the crew was left behind with almost all of the gear. Chris and Tristan went in to claim a table in the lodge before there were none left, and Jen climbed back into the car with me for a trip to Petosky before we hit the slopes for the rest of the day. Onward to Boyne Country Sports we went in hopes of resolving our new Yakima Fat Cat 6 ski rack issues. Unfortunately, the ski rack outsmarts both Jen and I, as well as the tech from Boyne Country Sports, and since it was Saturday, no help from the manufacturer could be found. We left with his sincere apologies and a promise that he would contact Yakima first thing Monday and get in touch with me with an answer to why one wouldn't always lock when it was on the car but worked every time when it was off the car.
Jen and I headed back to Boyne Mountain after a quick stop at Glens to replace the lunch items we left on the kitchen chair at Mom and Dad’s. After a quick bite to eat with Chris and Tristan, we were on the slopes for our first runs by noon. Being a Saturday, and a nice one at that, the hills were a bit busy and both Jen and I spent more time waiting for a clear path down the hill than we did actually riding for much of the afternoon. Sometime around 5PM we headed to the Grand Lodge for dinner, surprisingly their prices were reasonable, and watched all the day skiers packing up their cars and heading out for the evening.
Tummies filled, we made our way back to the lodge for the rest of our gear and head back to the hills for as many runs as we could get in before the lifts went silent for the night. To our surprise, the lodge was virtually empty, most tables cleared out completely, and the hills were too. Jen and I spent the next three hours perfecting the linking of our turns on the bunny hill while Chris and Tristan rode wherever they could from the top of the Boyneland lift. I was mentally ready to give the bigger hill a shot, but after 10 hours of snowboarding in one day, my legs just weren’t up to it. I made one last run with Jen before calling it a night and staggering into the lodge to change out of my snow gear and back into my jeans.
Thanks to the storm front that gave us 4” of fresh powder all day at Boyne, Mom and Dad had gotten more like 10” during the time we were gone and the roads were snow covered and a little slick in spots. The hour and fifteen minute trip back to their house was closer to an hour and 45 minutes, but we made it back safe and sound by 10:30PM and were crashed for the night shortly after 11:15PM. Our snowboarding adventure was over for the weekend, or so we thought.
Sunday morning we opted to head for home a little early, leaving by 10AM due to the continuing snow accumulations and high winds. Packed and out the door we began the routine task of driving into Lake City, across M-55 to Houghton Lake, south on US-127, East on US-10, and finally, south on I-75 to the greater Flint area. Somewhere south of Harrison and north of Clare our trip became a whole lot less than routine when a thump-THUMP-WHOOSH was heard coming from the roof of the car. After the first thump, I immediately hit the brakes and looked up in my rearview mirror to see Tristan’s snowboard flipping end for end off the top of the car. By the time the second THUMP and subsequent WHOOSH was heard, the other three boards and pieces of the brand new Yakima Fat Cat 6 snowboard rack were flying in every direction. I stopped on the shoulder of the expressway as quickly as I could while Chris hopped out even before I had the car in park to go rescue the boards from traffic.
Picking up all the pieces we could find, we thanked the two gentlemen who stopped their truck in the lane of traffic within inches of running over two of the boards and then helped us retrieve the other two. With no roof rack left to clamp the boards to, we shoved them in the car the only way they would fit, right between Chris and Tristan’s heads. Water dripping from the melting snow and ice onto everything in the car, Chris included, we climbed back in the car and headed south again while I dialed the cell phone to talk to the tech at Boyne Country Sports who told me it was okay to use the rack though we were having trouble locking it.
As of right now, two boards came through the ordeal relatively unscathed. Both mine and Jen’s boards were in padded snowboard bags and came through the incident with a few small nicks to the edges that can be easily removed with a good tuning, and a little bit of minor road rash to the heel cups of the bindings from sliding across the pavement. Chris’s board was not so lucky and suffered serious damage to the edges and base that might be repairable with a trip to the repair shop for a good tuning. The last board, the one that came off the car first and had the most spectacular finale, Tristan’s snowboard died when it hit the pavement tip first. I have not yet taken pictures of his board but will surely post them when I do. It went out in style but that poor snowboard split wide open when it landed and there is no repair in the world that will make it ride-able again.
The snowboarding was GREAT, the trip north was decent, the loss of the rack and damage to the boards, just down right irritating! We’ll see if Yakima is going to make this right …
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