everyone give me some good trail stories that you've had on your sp.

 

Me, the Dog and the Quad (2000 SP500)

Got up early one Saturday morning (11 am is early for a Saturday!) and loaded up the quad and the dog and headed out to a power line trail I had attempted once and got stuck bad. This time my plan was to avoid the bad spots. I had my ****** block and lots of extra rope, just in case.

I rode in the trail to the point where I spent 3 hours pulling, pushing and tugging the big SP out of a bad hole earlier in the summer. This time I was not falling for its innocent 'I am just a little hole, try me out' tricks! So I went around and continued down the more solid part of the trail. The trail was actually a field of muskeg, but the SP500 just motored along. There were a couple of soft spots I had to pin the throttle to cross but nothing major. When I finally got across the field there was a small ridge to climb that was about 30 feet wide then dropped back to the muskeg. Behind this ridge and what I couldn't see from the other side was a huge patch of cattails. If you have ever ridden into a patch of cattails you know what I mean when I say 'Avoid it!' Of course prior to enter this particular Cattail Patch no one had shared that information with me!

Just across the cattail patch was an Entrance/exit ramp for the highway so it was lined by telephone poles. So I lined on a direct path to the closest telephone pole and pinned the throttle! Well progress was going really well for about 3 minutes. The front end did the jump up the far embankment, but stopped there due to high centering. I just reversed and tried another line. I repeated this over and over sometimes even attacking 90 degrees from the original path. I couldn't back out and I could exit to the road. I was at this quite sometime and worked up quite a sweat muscling the big SP through the cattails, mud and water. So I stopped for a breather.

So there I was sitting up to the fenders having a Mars bar when I looked up at the road in front of me. There were 2 trucks and a car stopped with people outside watching the entertainment. Young fella says to me 'Think you'll get her out?' I say 'Oh ya!'.

So after the break I continued to thrash around for awhile until I finally find the line that lets me crawl out of the hole. I get up to the side of the road and the 'spectators' compliment my effort, ask about the quad, and jump in their cars and move on. I decide to continue you on as well.

So I start to descend the other side of the road and find a another HUGE cattail patch. Thinking I had enough cattails for one day. So I proceeded back into the first cattail patch and continued across till the SP stopped. I never even tried to reverse and run again. I just got off and hooked to a tree and winched her out!

Then while I was considering which side trail to take off the muskeg trail I hit a soft spot. It looked the same as the rest of the muskeg, but it wasn't at all like it, the quad started to slow and I opened the throttle, but it was too late. She immediately sunk to the racks and started throwing water! I got off to go hook the winch and the muskeg wouldn't hold my weight! Muskeg is like moss on a very watery, muddy base. This patch was particularly bad. My acceleration had put me about 30 feet from the place I entered and I was 50 feet from the other side. Walking on the muskeg was difficult due to in not holding my weight. The muskeg would shake and ripple as I moved across it. When I started pulling with the winch the moss and mud just started piling up on the rack making the nose of the quad dive deeper into the mess. So to make a long story short I spent the rest of my riding time winching and digging and sweating and getting really muddy. So the trip totally about 20 minutes riding, then 45 minutes in the cattails another 10 minutes riding, then 3.5 hours of SP500 rescue! I had some fun though! So I went home when I when I got to the truck! When I got the quad home I spent Sunday, Monday evening, Thursday evening and part of Saturday clean the cattail out of the undercarriage of the quad!

SP500 in NS (Now quadless in NS)
2000 Polaris Sportsman 500 - Sold!

 

Whoa! Talk about the curveball at the end! What a story! But why did you sell the quad?

 

Well, it wasn't cause I didn't like the machine! That is for sure. I miss it everyday. I sold it cause my woman and I broke up and we needed to pay off as much stuff as possible. So the quad was one of the things to go!

I'll get a new one soon enough. I was close to buying a yellow HO on the weekend, but I have to wait for the new Kawi 650.

SP500 in NS