Snowmobiling

Today was my fourth time ever snowmobiling. 1st time: I was so little I can only just barely remember it. We went riding around on a snowmobile and then my dad, uncle, cousin and some other people cut a hole in the ice at some lake and caught fish. That's all I can remember. 2nd time: We went while our family was visiting family friends up in central BC on their property. I think we took two or three snowmobiles with sleds attached behind them and the kids sat in the sleds while their dad and older brother and my dad drove them. I remember we saw an elk or moose or that type of animal during our travels. 3rd time: Bryn and I went with a whole group of our guy friends. We took three of four snowmobiles and some of them had sleds too that Bryn and I and some of the guys sat in. By the time we made it to a cabin at the top of the mountain, Bryn was so cold she thought she almost got frostbite or hypothermia (which, to my understanding, are vastly different, but I'm not a medical professional so what do I know). So she basically spent the rest of the time in that cabin warming up by a fire the guys got right to work making. I was pretty cold too, but I warmed up faster than Bryn and went out with the guys for a bit as they snowmobiled around in some deep powder. Some of them had brought their ski/snowboarding equipment in the sleds and they drove each other up the mountain and then skiied/snowboarded back down. They all took turns doing this and I rode along behind, but it wasn't the most fun because the powder was so deep that we kept on tipping over and me and the driver usually fell off. I was pretty cold again by that time too so I probably wasn't much help to lean the right direction and help make it easier to steer either. By the time we got back down the mountain and back to the cars Bryn and I had made up our minds that we weren't ever going to really like snowmobiling too much.

So today we went up into the mountains to an area that our city's snowmobiling club maintains. They make sure the roads and trails are groomed and well kept. We got to the parking lot a bit after 10 a.m. We were planning to go with three guys my dad works with. When we got to the parking lot two of them were already there and one wasn't there yet. My dad and the other guys, my cousin Ward, and a fellow church member Duane, got their snowmobiles unloaded. Then the other guy, Durwin, got there with his wife and four-year-old son. When his snowmobiles were unloaded he showed me how to use the big one that Bryn and I were planning on sharing and then told me to go test it out by driving it around the parking lot. I took it for a spin and it was fine, but kind of powerful. I asked Ty if he and our friend Sarah would like to use it at first and so they did that and I used one of Ward's snowmobiles. Finally we were all ready and started on the trail. By the time we made our first stop at a chalet, I was just about boiling to death. The hand warmers (on the handles) and thumb warmer (on the gas throttle) were on at almost full blast and my thumb was nearly burning up. As soon as we stopped I pulled off my helmet and goggles, took off my jacket and also my top sweatshirt. (To ward off the cold I had worn four layers under my jacket and three layers under my snow pants. I also had two pairs of socks on in my new -100 C rated boots.) I even took off my gloves and just stood there in the nice fresh coldness for a bit while other people ate some lunch and socialized. Finally I got back to a normal temperature and put my jacket and gloves back on, but I didn't wear my sweatshirt again the rest of the day. My dad put it in a compartment under the seat of the snowmobile Bryn was riding. Then we started out again and I rode the small snowmobile that Bryn had been riding while she rode my dad's and he rode the one of Ward's that I'd started out using. (The whole day turned into snowmobile-trading between us Q.'s and Sarah.) It was a little colder, but then we got into some trails and it kept the wind down a bit. When we got to a frozen over lake, Bryn said she was freezing so we made more switches and Sarah drove her own snowmobile while I rode along behind my dad on the machine with a long enough seat for two people. It was actually kind of scary riding with my dad. He went pretty fast and I couldn't really see around him to learn to one side or the other as we went around corners. And we were using our quadding helmets which have pointy chins so the chin of my helmet kept bumping my dad's back whenever we went over bumps in the trail. Then we came to another lake and stopped to take some pictures, eat more of our lunches, and have some fun in the powder. I ended up getting stuck once but Duane and Durwin's wife helped me get out. Then Ty got stuck in a deep hole and most of the men went to help him get out. After that we stayed away from the area with all the deceptively deep snow and it was fun to race across the other side of the lake and not have to worry about getting stuck. It was also fun to watch Durwin's son play in the snow. He was adorable in a little red snowsuit and helmet and I couldn't believe how happy he was to be out there in the cold. Whenever we stopped, he'd get off the snowmobile he was riding on in front of his dad and go sit in the snow. When he was ready to keep going he's ask Durwin, "Dad, when can we leave? I want to keep going." He was a pretty good-natured kid to be along with adults all day and in the snow and wind. Then we continued on and Bryn went behind my dad while I drove again. I did switch sleds with Ty once after that because the windshield on Ward's snowmobile was right in my line of vision. I had to try and either see overtop of it or else crouch down to see through it and it wasn't very comfortable for me. A few kilometres before we got back to the parking lot I switched with Bryn again because my right (driving) had was getting cold and I wanted to warm it up. Around that time Durwin told Ty that his son had fallen asleep. I bet that would feel pretty comfortable to be small enough to fall asleep while riding on a snowmobile. Anyway my hand warmed up pretty fast riding along behind my dad again.

About half a kilometre, or maybe even less, we came around a corner and saw a huge group of snowmobiles stopped on the side of the trail. I saw that some of them were ones that people in our group were using and I hoped nothing bad at happened. Some of the men were down the bank. When we stopped my dad jumped off and ran to help and I went to stand to the side and watch with Bryn and Sarah. It was a guy from a different group who was heading back to the parking lot and was going too fast around the corner and went off the edge and into the trees. He was just being helped up the bank when we got there. Apparently Sarah (who's in SAU's nursing program) had already asked him some nursing questions to make sure he was alright and hadn't hit his head or anything. He said his arm hurt, but nothing much else. Once he was up the bank he sat on his friend's sled while the men all worked to get his snowmobile back up the bank. It had stopped when it hit a tree, so he was lucky he hadn't slid farther down the bank. He was also lucky one of his friends was right there with him and that he wasn't at the back of his group and also that Durwin had seen the snowmobile tracks going off the trail and then looked down to see the machine down the bank and stopped to help. The men found some ropes and finally got the sled up the bank. More of his friends had come back to help (someone from our group had gone to the parking lot to tell them) get the snowmobile up the bank and then they towed it slowly back to the parking lot. Then another couple friends helped the guy on another snowmobile and carefully drove him back too. Then we all left, loaded up our machines and piled into the trucks for the drive back down into the valley. All in all, it was a really fun day and a great new experience, but I still think I enjoy boating and quadding more. They're less cold - even though I hardly froze at all because of my many layers, new awesome boots and great new gloves (thanks to Santa for putting those in my stocking) - and less icy. They also seem more stable for some reason, but maybe that's just cause most of the machines I drove today were a bit too big for me to control too well. Anyway, it was still a lot of fun and a great time.