Joy Riding with MTBucket by Don Lincoln

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Joy Riding with MTBucket

~ Don Lincoln (12/2/2008 @ 10:10 PM)

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big black hole

Took an old friend out in the Wilcraft Nov 30 on some treacherous ice.
He told me it was the most fun he'd ever had on the ice without actually fishing.
He wrote this about it on his blog.
If you would like to spend a day in the WILCRAFT, call me 651-334-6069.

I was invited to go out on the ice with an old friend Don, sunday afternoon.
We were going to try prior but it was only half frozen, so we headed to Spring lake in the south metro. we got there and found it completely froze over.
Don opens the trailer and pulls down his ATV? Car? Boat? called a Wilcraft.
I know that there are a few vehicles made that can go in the water, but this one had my interest because he said you can go through and drive back up on the ice. I had to see it to believe it. We drove out on the ice and it was thicker in the bay, 4 inches, once we got out a ways from the landing it thinned down to just over 2 inches! It seemed to do just fine, making some crack noises and all.
I gave it a try and it was easy to get the hang of. I drove around a bit, til I saw a big crack up ahead! I decided to let him take the stick for that. We drove over it near shore and crossed it fine, I doubt someone could cross by foot though! water came up through when we did it.
We turned around and I egged him on to go back across in the same spot, i wanted it to break some ice, i figured since we were close to shore, if it didn't work I could at least jump in and wade safely to shore.
We got almost across and down we went! I dont think I am scared of water or thin ice, but the suddenness of it almost took my breath away!
it took a little work but we were able to get back on the ice! whoo hooo it works!
I was satisfied that it does what they say it does so I said lets stay away from those cracks!
We decided to go arounfd the lake near shore over to the winter access and take a few pics and mabye even try fishing.
We were almost there when without any warning down we went! This time I was a bit more concerned, we were in about 20 feet of water surrounded by thin probably unwalkable ice, plus in full few of a dozen houses on the shore. I was also worried one of them would call 911 thinking we were gonna sink!
But Don did a good job of getting us out of that one. the Wilcraft floats well and is sturdy, but doesnt go too fast in the water, you would have to put an electric trolling motor on it if you wanted to go anywere far on open water.
We got up halfway about four times only to break through again, finally we were out all the way, I took a pic of the big black hole we left, but I did not enough battery power in my camera to take a video of that part of the adventure!
Thanks for the fun outing Don! Mabye next time we might even wet a line!

YOU CAN VIEW THE VIDEOS AT
http://mtbucket.blogspot.com/

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Comments

Adam Wood

Member Since: 7/21/2008

RE: Joy Riding with MTBucket
Posted On: 1/2/2009 7:48 AM

I feel a little ill just thinking about all the cold water around you. The Wilcraft sounds like a great machine for ice fishing on the river. You never know what the ice is like under the current of the mighty Mississippi.

Mike Lauenstein

Member Since: 7/12/2008

RE: Joy Riding with MTBucket
Posted On: 1/6/2009 3:53 PM

We're heading out in the Wilcraft this week! I can't wait!

Cheers!

"Lauey"
Mike Lauenstein
CrazyOutdoorsmen Managing Partner
http://www.crazyoutdoorsmen.com

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