 What is up guys, Joe Holland here. Welcome back to the channel. I am on another journey, little bit different one this time around. I am with some friends. I have Donnie Johnston, 81 years old, 80 years old, maybe 83, I don't know, we'll have to find out. And his grandson are on this trip along with one of my very best friends in the world my college roommate, Pat Lassad. And we're all meeting up right here in one of my favorite towns on the whole planet, Millinocket, Maine. And we're gonna go to Lobster Lake. Lobster Lake is named for the giant lobsters that inhabit this freshwater lake in the middle of the North Maine woods. No, I'm just kidding. Lobster Lake is named for the shape of the lake. It's actually in the shape of a lobster claw. Oh, this guy's gonna try it right in front of me. All right, give it to him. Don't worry about that trailer I'm hauling. Oh man. Lobster Lake shaped like a lobster claw and there's a big part of the claw and a little part of the claw, just like a lobster. Northeast of Moose Head Lake, little bit east of Moose Head Lake and this trip's gonna be weird cause I actually don't know if this trip's gonna happen because there's so much snow up here. And we knew that coming in. Donnie said give it to her anyway, so we're gonna try it. But there's a chance this trip doesn't even happen at all because there's well over three foot of snow. It looks like maybe even over four foot of snow. And if it's too powdery, we won't be able to get these snowmobiles in and out of there. Now, I brought my old snowmobile from Pat. He's a little bit bigger than I am. And Donnie's got his old snowmobile for him and also for his grandson. His grandson, Elliot, will probably ride with me. And I have my new snowmobile. It's pretty heavy machines, got the 20 inch wide track and some pretty decent paddles on it. So the only way this trip's gonna happen is if I can get in there first, break trail with that, pack a trail down so they can bring in the older sleds. Otherwise the snowmobiles won't be able to go. They'll just plow through the powder and spin out underneath the tracks. Hoping that doesn't happen with the new snowmobile or we're gonna have some trouble. We are staying at Donnie's son's camp up in the North Main Woods on a small pond. The small pond is, I think it's closed to ice fishing. I better check before we get in there just in case we need it as a backup plan. And then we're about seven to 10 miles away from Lobster Lake. So if we can't get in there, I don't know what we're gonna do. We might just turn around and head her home. Whoa, that's quite a snow fort. But I think I'm gonna be packing a lot of trails with my snowmobile. And then hopefully when we get to Lobster Lake, it's not slushed out with all this snow on top of it. So this whole trip is a coin flip. It's one of the deals when you don't, when you're heading into the North Main Woods and it's wilderness and you don't know anybody that lives up here and nobody really lives on that lake anyway. So it's all a coin flip. Alrighty, we are on the golden road heading west, just left Melanocket a little while back and cross the Abel Bridge. Got a good look at Katahdin, which was surprising because it was mostly foggy coming up. And there she is, popping right out of the ground. Standing tall, almost a mile high. Little bit taller right now with all that snow on it. But it just depends if you measure from the base or not. We are heading in. The guys, I don't think they realize how this trip is really a coin flip right now. If that, it might be even less than a coin flip because all the pressures on my sled getting in and out of there. Cause there's no way in heck their sled could get even over the snow bank. 10 feet past the edge of the snow bank in this fluff. It's probably four foot deep powder. Tire trip's gonna really base on whether my snowmobile can get it even into the camp or not. It's a little bit over a mile to get in there. So I got a set of snow shoes. I don't know if they brought snow shoes or not in case we can't get the snowmobiles in so we can at least stay there tonight or the next couple of nights. But this trip just went from a fishing trip to a struggle trip I think in a hurry with all this snow. Now it's more of an adventure of trying to get in the camp. From there we'll see how it is getting from the camp to the lake, you know, another seven to 10 miles of unplowed and unpacked roads. And then if we get to the lake, then you gotta worry about the slush that's accumulated on top of the ice which can be an absolute killer for snowmobiles. As you well know, if you watch my channel and I brought the slush magnet with us for Pat to drive. So not being negative at all, just really thinking all the factors ahead of us that are gonna make things really tough. Trying to be the best prepared I can and get myself mentally ready for the challenge ahead of us. I am not a seasoned snowmobile driver. I did not grow up with snowmobiles. You've pretty much seen all of my snowmobile experience. If you've watched my channel for the last couple of years you know with a little 370 then to the new one. So it's not like I'm experienced and I know what that snowmobile can do. I'm gonna have to learn what it can do either positive or negatively. You know, find out what its limitations are or hopefully go beyond what I think its limitations are. You know, I'm not, I'm gonna try to throw my weight around and keep it upright, flat on top of the snow rather than burrowing underneath it. I'm gonna be the first to tell you I'm not an experienced driver that knows what he's doing. A lot of it's just, I'm gonna have to learn. What do you guys think? A lot of snow. Look, so they lose their antlers in the winter. So the only way you could tell if it was a male or female is you gotta look at that drag mark and see if there's another footprint. Holy cow guys, we got some deep snow. This is that, right? Yeah. At least a moose went down it. We got some cereal snow. Cereal, cereal snow here, Pat. What do you guys think? Doesn't look terrible. It only looks about four foot high. We send the boy in with snowshoes to Pakistan trail. Yeah, it's not far, Elliot. He's done. He was just about to say it was okay. I think you're gonna be okay. Yeah. I haven't reached bottom yet. I just didn't see that. This is something. We're here, so we gotta try it. But are you guys willing to help dig if I get buried? Yeah, Elliot is for sure. What track is that? Buffalo. Oh yeah, looks like coyote. Ah, maybe not. No, right here. Oh, that one, yeah. What do you think, Donny? I don't know. I think you're gonna get freaking buried, but. But what? Why didn't we bring a plow? What are you gonna do with a plow? You could at least knock this coming back. Wow. Oh, this isn't the problem, it's that. Is that? We're gonna lie over this, I think. Oh, that's something. You think it's worth a try, since we're here? We're here, so. Yeah, it's 11 o'clock. If we don't try it, we'll never know. Well, let me get suited up. Get the old girl out, we'll see what happens. Or the new girl, we'll leave the. Get the panther out there first. Yeah, I want you to take a rip first, Pat. Hold her right wide open. If I can go, I'll go down to the corner and come back and get you guys. I won't even go down to the lake yet. If I can go, but we'll know pretty quick. And it's gonna wanna, like when I had enough, it's gonna wanna get stuck and like drip and do this. And last time I was able to like jump on a side. All right guys, wish me luck. Should I go in high or low range? Does it even matter? I'd go high range. Okay, regular mode? Yeah, C and pet pee. Yeah. Any bets on how far I go? 17 feet. Okay, that's not looking good. So much further, but we're close. It wants to pull me. I had to keep jumping side to side and flatten her, but I think if I flatten her, I don't know about getting down to the camp, but we'll figure that out after the corner. What do you guys think? At least, yeah, it's a little powdery in there. It's deep. I had to get off one time because she wanted to roll over. And it was, when you guys get on it after I come back out, stay on the freaking trail. I'll try to flatten it the best I can. All right, I'll be back. Hopefully a little quicker. How long was that? I didn't even look. About 15 minutes. Was it? Yeah. I'm not gonna. I think one more time, we're golden. Yeah, it went pretty good that time. You wanna come, Elliot? If you will. You think so? I don't wanna take that yet. No, okay. Yeah, I had a little bit of trouble getting turned around. It almost got stuck. But I could bring Elliot on the back for weight and do one more time. There's like two spots that are a little tricky, but coming out was pretty awesome. Oh, wow. Yeah, so I think we're gonna be good. All right, good luck. All right, I'm gonna make one more run in with Elliot on the back. Okay. I'll pack that down and then come back up and get you guys. So let's run her out, get the boys. What do you think? How do you like it? You having fun so far? Oh, I'm having a blast. I think you guys are all set. You don't need to feed. Yeah, I think so. I think we really ought to feed it down. And then we could probably throw everything in my tote sled. Elliot will ride with me. You guys got behind me. I packed it down at the turnaround. Just go easy, because it'll suck you. There's nothing to the sides. Yeah. I even did it one time. Looks like no problems for him. Any problems? Perfect. Okay, cool. I think I'll pack that trail alone. I'm gonna try to, should I go to the parking spot, turn back, or should I try it? Okay, cool. I feel better, you guys made it this far. Yeah, there was a little touch of go the first trip. I got, I was getting stuck. I was getting stuck a lot. Yeah. Cool. All right, I'll run in. I'll leave Elliot with you. Love this machine. You got her stuck, but not stuck bad, because I've already been through here once. That was better than me and stuck on the lake and that slush. But I'm gonna take my jacket off because I'm smoked with sweat already. And I'm gonna dig her out some. She's sitting up on the rails is what's going on. So the track's not touching anything. Pull this one up. Take her easy for a sec. I wonder if that slush is like all stuck up under there and keeping me from dropping down. When the track stops making contact with something a little more solid or packed, it'll kick it out, spin it out like spinning a tire and then you're stuck. Especially if there's something pushing on the front of you like all this snow. So I'm gonna dig her out and kind of shake her back and forth and see if I could catch something. Maybe even try her in reverse a little bit and see if I could free her up. All right, let's try that. Think if I goose her. I think if I give it to her, I can pop her right out. Just gonna stay on my trail if I can. Might be easier said than done. That was the one bad spot I knew about. Yeah, I got in some crazy deep slush. I can't believe she popped out deep. Like not even moving just like this. So what are you gonna have to do? And then I got stuck coming up. So this is the only, I got stuck this second time. So I'll just have to pack in the area down there for us. I'm not gonna be able to get around. Should I stay down there? Definitely stay down there. Yeah, we gotta figure out. This is the only bad spot here. Isn't that right around the corner? No, you gotta go down a hill. It's not far. I mean, it's another 700 yards, maybe 800, sucking me off the trail right here. That sled doing no problem. I got a shovel. Just let, just get somewhere. I can back right back up. Could I strap it? Paul, are you able to lift it or pack snow under? Can you pack snow to the side of it, lift it up and set it on top of the snow? You can't feel frigging chowder heads. You should have waited till I got everything. Yeah, that frigging thing, smell slush. If that sled smells slush, she's buried. You guys all right? Don't work up too bad of a sled. I hope there's enough room. I hope I can reach. I hope there's enough rope. Pull the sled a little closer. Okay, I'll do that. Oh, can you get it around this? Oh no. Back up a hair again. Oh man. I'm just here for the ride. Sometimes that's just the way it goes, bud. Sometimes that's just the way it goes, that's right. Well, we made it. Naughty's left us, so we're on our own. Have you made it back up the hill, yeah? No, I don't believe. I think I'm gonna have trouble going up this hill because it's got turns and... You're gonna just try it. Yeah, I think we'll use this as like the, come down this way, go back up that way. This thing can't make that sharp turn. I need to. This is a perfect example of what wisdom is over youth. Those guys got that much burden about, oh, five, six times. I don't know what the hurry is. They won't let me back to track. They're digging it out, but Naughty, look at, I wanna show you guys what wisdom is. Look at wisdom. Wisdom's sitting here, waiting till everything is right. That's what a smart man, that's what a smart man does. Those two jokers got that sled, they got it buried every two feet. They won't wait for me to back a trail down. Yeah, they thought, well, I think they came in thinking you were stuck. I was stuck. I got stuck twice, but I got her out. Okay. Yeah, not too bad. You wanna put this wood in? Yeah, we probably ought to, huh? That's what you said. Well, we're gonna put it in. He doesn't wanna burn his own wood. Ha ha ha ha. Don't do it. What do you think, old boy? Bad? I got an extra pair of bibs and boots. No, I got, this is how we fishing down East Main. Got a heart jacket and jeans. Oh man. No pants or no pants? A pair of shorts. For the camp, that's it. Well, what do you think of the old Panther? What do you think of the old slush mag? She doesn't like the slush, do you mind? You know, how was it coming out of that hill, though? Like, just up? Is it a challenge? Yeah. Did it span a lot? Yeah. If this warms up and makes a snowball, we could pack a nice trail down. Can you take all the wood down? Why's it taking off? This thing will beat a trail down. You're not kidding. We got two big water jugs. There's quite a lot of weight in it. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, or I could just take the small one. You can have this. Wow, that's it. Nice. Thanks, buddy. Well, that's the first thing he's ever given you. He's trading. He's not even giving up. Oh, he's trading for the other one. Yeah. Do we need to bring anything else? We can come back out. No ice fishing stuff, right? All right, guys. We'll give you a midday update. To get in, break trail. I got stuck twice. Two or three times. For real stuck, like, get off and shovel. Pat got stuck about six times. That wasn't my fault. It was Elliott's fault. Elliott's fault? You wouldn't get off the sled, he said. Yeah, he was afraid he was going to drown. So when you were left in it, he was still sitting on it. He was out on the sled, but he didn't want to do it that way. This is just slander. Oh, I'm so glad I'm nothing. I'm so glad I'm not the youngest here. Remember when poor friggin Andrew was the youngest? He was bad. Like that first year we went ice fishing. He was like, God, they're always giving me so much crap. Remember that? Did he cry? He must be the new guy on the block. I love him. The new guy on the block really gets it. Yeah. That's going to pack a trail right there, Bob. Oh, yeah. Man, this is over your waist height. Yeah. Hey, you know what's good about these old camps? Is that the last guy to leave always builds a nice fire so it's dry in there. All you got to do is touch a match. That one's empty. Who was the last one here? Of course. Of course. The last time I was here with Donnie, we watched a bear swim the whole lake and tucked in behind that island Yeah, you seen that? Careful. Freaking huge. That and I saw. I don't know if the dogs would see. You know, it was during, I think, dog hunting season. You can't hunt dogs, can you, Donnie? Yeah, you can chase bears with dogs. It's just like college. You're top bunk. I don't know what the weight limit is on that top bunk, though. Well, I never saw it. I'm sleeping below him, so I don't care. Donnie, get that sleep up top. I'm sleeping down bottom. Ellie is sleeping above me. Yeah, I'm sleeping above you. Yeah, you can sleep up there. I'll help you out. It's warmer up top than that. You're always cold. You're going to roast up there. Did you guys ever think we were going to make it in? Not really. Not after looking at that. Getting up over the hump there by the road. I'm not sure we were. I think maybe colder in here than this outside. It's definitely colder in here. Yeah. Good job here, bud. Elliot, how you feeling about this trip, bud? Oh, I'm wicked excited. Nice. Elliot likes it. Elliot works for me. And I wouldn't have hired him. But his grandfather, Donnie, begged me to hire him. So I hired him, brought him on. He did a great job. And then Donnie every single day last summer asked me why I haven't fired him yet. He said, he said, you got to fire that son of a gun. And I thought he was doing a great job. But Donnie said, get rid of him. Well, he took more time off than he did working. That's true. He didn't get many hours, but he came through at the end when I needed him. He's certainly not going to carry in groceries or something. He was going to bikini parties. Wasn't he, Donnie? Yeah. This is just Elliot's slander weekend. It's going to be hard on you for the first day or two, bud. That's camp. That loop I made out there by accident, you know, I kind of came down and had to turn around. And it just started sucking me in. I cannot believe that thing made it out of that. There's two foot of snow on top of. Easily a foot to two foot of slush. And she had the skis up at the end. And I was like, and she had the skis up in the air and just barely rolling out of it. I don't know if I got it on video or not, but I was pocket up because I knew how bad that would have been. And that's a long way from here. That would have been awful. Oh, he's letting us bring the wood in? Yeah. Those are all the names that signed my sled on our ice fishing meet and greet seminar day. Pretty awesome. Really big day for me. Big humbling day. Super touched by all the people that came out. And hopefully we helped a lot of people that day. What it's all about in the outdoors. But the old sled, if you guys recognize that from the old videos, we got Pat running that thing. He buried her four or five times already. I don't know what he was in a pretty good hurry to bury it. But there's the outhouse over there. There's the dog's outhouse. About it. Now what? Eat and play some cards? Pat can snore. He cuts a couple cord of wood a night when he's snoring. It's not the snoring. It's the stop breathing and the screaming. The swearing usually gets me. Swearing. I think something's wrong. When you start yelling fire. I'd usually jump out of bed and look around. Sir, do you want a Lewiston Lobster? Sure. How many lobsters can you drive into? I'll just have one. You want butter or a ketchup? What kid? He don't even know. He don't even know. Pat, the nice thing about this trip is you're actually going to learn how to play cribbage. He doesn't know how? You know? I don't think he's even caught my backpack yet. Elliott's a learner too. Elliott and Pat, both learning? Yeah. I get 16, 2 for 4. 13 for 5 is a great game. I love it. What do you were down here once trapping? And I came down from up north to visit him. And I thought it would be funny. I'd come in camp and start screaming. Main game, Mordens, open up. So they're in here playing cribbage or something and I pound it on the door and I yell. Main game, Mordens, open up. Put your hands up. And they come to the door and they go, hold on. We got to put our hearing aids in. And then they go, what did you say, Joe? Nothing. That was... Woody's got to be one of the funniest people I've ever met. Just a total different dry, maimed sense of humor. Tell them about the story. We were setting traps. And I made Woody. I was setting them. And Woody was carrying the scent, which is in a little bottle about that big. And I had a five gallon bucket that he was... had the scent in. He had the tools the scent, a big roll of wire, extra traps. And you thought it was the funniest thing. Yeah, Donnie. Let Woody carry... Woody wanted to see a trap line, so he let him carry the bucket. Bucket's like probably good 20 pounds. And it was just a walking line, so they did a couple miles and they walked the whole line and didn't catch anything. So none of the traps were messed up. Didn't need a wire, didn't need anything. Donnie gets the very last trap and digs through that bucket that Woody's been carrying the whole time. Gets a scent jar this big. Takes one droplet out of it and puts it over the trap. And puts it back in Woody looks at that thing. And he says, I could have carried that in my pocket. That's all you needed. Well, we're going to have a good lunch. I think we would. What do you think about the fishing situation? Um, iffy. Pretty iffy. What kind of percentage would you put on a set of line this week? I'd say 5%. State-sale stack? Five and a half? You never put a catch up on a hook? I only put a catch up on a hook. People get right mad about it. That is just pure ugly right there. I got lucky to make that turn. I can't even believe it. It is deep out there. What are you working on over here, old fella? We're working on American chop suey. We got Pat here, so we have to make quite a bit of it. I don't know who eats more than him or Ellie. Ellie eats a lot. Ellie likes the food. You don't like chop suey? Do you want us to make it? Chinese chop suey. I don't like American chop suey. Really? Do you want us to make you something special? Yeah, I'd like a T-bone. A T-bone? We'll T-bone you. This is all you're getting, Pat. That's it. Some chicken soup. Good. This is what my food eats, darling. That's it. No spoon. You have to use your fingers. I don't ever eat salad with a spoon. No spoon. You've never eaten salad with a spoon? Dottie would need a salad last trip. I don't know. He hates salad. He said, I don't go on top food chain to eat rabbit food. He doesn't eat rabbit. If that jacket's in the way, Dottie, we can move it. It doesn't need to be hung up. No. Let's go. What do we need a knife for? In case a rabbit comes to steal a dinner, we can stab him. How long do we have to wait for the rest of this meal? Maybe till breakfast? All right. Save your plate. Put your name on it. You get one. For the week. Just like underwear. I hope this is done. No. Pat, I hope. We need a bigger table. No, let me put it right here. That's so hot. You might not be in the middle. Where's your beer? I put one on the porch for you. It's on top of the... There's a white claw up at the trail turn. No. Can I leave the door open? If you want to freeze... Jesus. What happened? He's giving me a squid here. I gave Pat a half a scoop when I gave Elliott two scoops. He went something in your blood. He was waiting for the second scoop. I think he's... Stop breathing. I don't think he's... Who's breathing when I gave Elliott two scoops? Terrible. Daughter, you've outdone yourself in your culinary arts again. Jesus. Slow down. Nobody's fighting you for it. Oh, goodness gracious. Oh, my God. It's funny, Donny. Real funny. Well, we made a dent into it. Yeah. We'll fill the void. The trail over on the camp. It's 20 year old sled. It doesn't turn on a dime. I think it doesn't turn on a... Especially with someone on bad going. The whole time. What was he doing? He was just scared. He was like, where's my life jacket? He didn't want to get his feet wet. Well, he wasn't. Oh, my God. I said, you just spent $300 on those bibs. Yeah, but what if I get cold? I'm like, yeah, they're all right. You said that all yet? I'm not getting off this. And he did that. It was like, Elliott, come on, buddy. You're going to help me out here. You're going to help me out here. You kept yelling, grumpy. I don't know what that means. If we do one mile a day, break trail one mile a day. We've got seven miles to go to get the lobster. In a week, we'll get there. Yeah, we'll get there. Yeah. 20. 20. 29. For a go. 20 to go. 31 for two. Six for six. 16. 15. 19. 29. 30. Let's it go. Nice try, grumpy. I think we got screwed in this region. In this general region right there. Not so much here. You can never move. Mostly here. Like when he took two, added three, then added six. Then he moved his backpack up. Any time a guy moves his backpack in this game, you know he's cheating. I moved my backpack to show you that there are two, so the one peg was for the go that you didn't let us have the first. He's a backpacker. He's a backpacker. He knows you're a backpacker. You're a backpacker. I thought it was a little shady myself. Yeah, because you're not used to getting more than two points. You're like three points. That's true. We wouldn't be cheating if I got three points. That is going to do it for the day, guys. Had a pretty awesome day getting in here. I'm pretty tired. Jumping on and off the sled and down into the snow and digging it out a couple times and all that stuff, but I did not think we were going to make it in today to be honest with you. Once I saw those snow bags five, six foot tall, what do you think? I will say I am super impressed with that snow wheel to be able to come in and three to four foot of snow. All powder, no good. We got, I definitely put a little hurting on my belt today. When anytime you're getting stuck and hitting him like that and digging it out, Donny's belt is toast and Pat, the old machine. Yeah, you had some digging today too. You must be a little tired. Anytime you get those things stuck, but I think Pat nothing was burping you said a little bit for some reason. Probably just because it hasn't been run much this year, but plan for tomorrow. What are we doing tomorrow? I don't know. We're going to find someone to fish. We're going to try to fish somewhere. We're going to take a ride down the moose head where we still got high hopes to get into the lobster and hopefully we don't hit slosh like there is out here. That could be real bad, but that's going to do it. Thanks for tuning in. Check in for tomorrow. Maybe we'll get on.