Today your faithful ski trail mower was out letting some daylight on to trail at the far northwest corner of the Mud Lake Loop when a miracle occurred. 

I knew there was a large semi-rotten windfall birch tree blocking the trail at the top of the hill.  As the new Kodiak as of yet doesn't have a good situation for securing a chain saw I packed along a Pulaski and figured that I would just chop through the tree as it was too big for my Sven saw.  What looked like a doable chopping job on a dog hike turned to be more of a challenge for this sixty something guy in humid, 90+ degree heat in mid-afternoon.  I was getting pretty tired and over-heated and was taking a break before setting up the saw to finish the first cut (two other large portions above a fork were waiting for me when I finished the first cut).

Not too much left to go on this cut.



Then I heard a noise.  Angels and Ministers of Grace Defend Us, an ATV with a man, his son and their dog pulled up from the other side. They were also blocked by the down tree.  It was a gentleman I had spoken to on the trail last spring and he remembered me.  So I invited him to share the fun and offered him the Pulaski to go at the two smaller stems while I finished my saw cut.  And somewhat to my surprise he did.   But necessity being the mother of invention he stopped before long and said, "Say my ATV has a winch on it if you think we have this tree ready to break up"  Yeah!

So after using some old choker skills we made short work of the remainder of the tree. Without breaking any more sweat.  This was the only person I encountered in five hours on the trail this afternoon.  My trail angel arrived at just the right place and just the right time.  Sometimes things just work out.

Skidding the log off the trail

Mowing setup waiting for deliverance