Moving Building Supplies for Pole Barn

March 17, 2018

Moving building supplies in to a remote cabin site is not so easy. In fact, it is an adventure.

The building supplies for the original log cabins were moved onto site during the winter. Over the snow, through narrow trails lined with brush and trees, over lakes frozen thick with ice, crossing a portage with open, running water right beside the trail and eventually to its final destination on “our” lake front property.

This process worked well 30+ years ago and it is the only way to move supplies in during the winter. No road access in the winter. Even in summer accessing the cabin is by boat or via an ATV trail. Getting supplies in at any time of the year is a bit of a challenge.

Poles (15) for the pole barn loaded on a trailer behind our Toyota truck, 2 snow machines loaded on a trailer behind our Subaru Outback, winter clothes packed, food and other supplies for a couple days in the wilderness are stashed in the vehicles and we are ready to head out.

An hour or so later we arrive at the end of the road, or where the snow plow stopped. Must go the rest of the way by snow machine towing sleighs behind.

We still have the old double track snow machine that was used to haul the original logs onto site 30+ years ago. Dan’s mechanical skills have kept it in top notch shape over the years and we will put it to work for us again. A few poles/beams are loaded on a sleigh (Dan built) behind the double track snow machine, other supplies are loaded on the sleigh behind the snow machine I will drive.

During the first trip we quickly realized a few things.

    1.  The double track snow machine did not have enough power to get the heavy load up the hills without some help.

    1. The trail on the portage did not have enough snow for the machines to travel on and

  1. The weather was not cooperating, it was getting too warm and the snow was getting too soft.

We unloaded some of the poles from the sleigh to make a lighter load, so with some pushing on the hills the double track was able to haul the remainder of the load to the building site.

Dan made another trip for poles while I stayed on the portage to “fix” up the trail. Using a snow machine with a sleigh, I made numerous trips to the lake to load snow into the sleigh and move it to the trail, dumping the snow where the rocks were bare.  Hoping the snow will help provide an easier passage for the snow machine and all the remaining trips to get the supplies in.

There are three hills along our route which the double track does not have enough power to move the load of poles up and over. So, how are we going to get these poles moved? First, we make sure the load is not to heavy, then we attached the Bravo snow machine by a tow rope to the front of the double track snow machine. With the machines working in tandem, the load is up and over and we are on our way once again. We used this technique on each of the hills.

Early afternoon, the sun was out and the temperature was rising, making the snow softer and our work harder. But we were determined to move the supplies in, so work hard we did. As the hours passed the cooling air of evening moved in, the temperatures slowly dropped, snow became firmer and our work a little easier.

We only had one small mechanical issue along the way. The double track snow machine blew a belt. But, Dan (a very talented mechanic) had a new belt and all the tools necessary to replace the belt and have us up and on our way in no time at all.

So, with one day of hard work (and some small adventures along the way) we had all the poles on site to begin the building phase of the pole barn when the snow has melted and the ground is thawed enough to begin work.

What adventure is next?