Sixteen Becomes Eight

I've made it to Nipawin Saskatchewan around 4:00pm local time. Not quite as cold today, only -5. Out of our original 16 riders we are now down to 8 riders with 100% snowmobile seat time and both my sled and I are still hanging in there. Tomorrow we'll be heading into Alberta.

Fun Fact:
The prairie province of Saskatchewan produces more than half of the wheat grown in Canada. Saskatchewan is the birthplace of Canadian medicare and home of the Sasquatch (at least that's what Wayne Gretzsky thinks).

Enjoying the Best of Minnesota

Snow Date: Feb. 20, 2010

David and the gang decided to take a break from the 1 degree temps, and enjoy a little breakfast prior to today's 200 mile trip. Group 2 cruised through Red Lake Falls, MN (and stopped into Memories Cafe for a bit of lunch), and is well on their way toward reaching Winnipeg.

The Great Trek Begins

Snow Date: 2/16/2010

Larry Harp, Mel Kitchen, Roy Wicht, Don Gapinski (Team #2/Group #2 Driver) and I (David Little) met at the Alba Snowmobile Club at 7:30 am for a photo shoot and interview with the Kalkaska Newspaper. After the interview we departed from Alba, MI at 8:05 am on our way to Mackinaw City.

We had about 2" of fresh snow this morning when we left. Mel was riding his 2010 Polaris 600 IQ Cleanfire Touring, Roy was riding his 2009 Ski-Doo GSX Limited 1200 4-Tec, Larry was riding his 2010 Ski-Doo 600 E-Tec, and I was on the 2005 Yamaha RX-1. In addition to those we have my wifes 2000 Ski-Doo Formula Deluxe 600 as our back up sled which hopefully (knock on wood - We won't need).

We made our way to Elmira, thru the Chandler Hills, up thru Alanson, Pellston and eventually made it to Mackinac City at 10:05 AM to fuel up. We loaded all 4 sleds into Mel's 40' trailer and transported the sleds across the Mackinac Bridge. After paying the $8.75 toll for 5 axels (2 on the Truck & 3 on the trailer) we were going to unload in St. Ignace but the snow was pretty marginal in so we decided to trailer to Moran.

We unloaded and made our way up to the Soo. We went thru Trout Lake, Brimley, and made it to the Soo, gassed up all the sleds and checked in at 1:15 pm. 5 hours and 150 miles, and so far so good. Had a Group #2 meeting at 3:00 pm to discuss tomorrow's trail plans and pass out the satellite phones. Tomorrow we will be leaving the Soo and plan on retiring in Ishpeming.

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David Little Is Always Up For The Challenge

On February 16th 2010, I along with 60 other riders from across the country will be converging together in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to begin our quest to help support a cure for diabetes!

Covering over 4,100 miles on our snowmobiles, MichCanSka 2010 participants will end our journey approximately 21 days later in Tok, Alaska. The published itinerary includes Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon territory and Alaska.

For those of you who are interested in tracking our progress, you can visit the web site at the Command Central Tracking Website: There will be Real-Time Tracking and daily updates whenever possible. In addition you can subscribe to daily updates and post messages for the group or individual riders.

The Diabetes Research Institute is a world-recognized research facility located on the campuses of the University of Miami and University of Alberta-Edmonton, where great strides are being made to defeat this deadly disease. Through the MichCanSka 2010, we will be raising awareness and the necessary funds to help them reach their goals.

Donations may be made online to the ride itself, The Diabetes Research Institute or the Diabetes Research Institute-University of Alberta-Edmonton by clicking here..

And with that...we're off!