First, I grew up in St. George and the only experience I ever had with a snowmobile as a kid was when I got hauled home from our Boy Scout cross-country ski trip because I was puking my guts out and too sick to ski back to the truck. I skied all the way in to the cabin where we were staying, it was all uphill, and the ski back to the trucks the next day was supposed to be awesome. Well, that night I came down with some sort of stomach flu, and didn't even get to enjoy any of the downhill on the way out.
Fast forward a few years and still, the only snowmobile experiences I can think of are unpleasant to say the least. Take for example, last Valentines day when I got stuck at least a dozen times while trying to drag out a dead elk in the dark. I didn't get home until 11:00 pm and was too exhausted to do anything nice for Tristie. This is just one in a long list of similar snowmobile experiences. And, the list goes on...
Yesterday I agreed to help a co-worker snowmobile into a remote area to set motion activated cameras for a wildlife survey. Doesn't sound much like work does it? Well, I though the same thing until 10 minutes into the ride when we had multiple machines stuck in 40" deep powder. The next 5 hours were punctuated with multiple episodes of digging, lifting, pushing and pulling snowmobiles out of deep powdery snow. I also somehow managed to tear one of the front skis off my machine when I was trying to get it out of a tight spot. We pretty much rigged the ski back on with some duct tape, bailing wire, and a little faith. It was so cold that any time my fingers touched anything metal, the metal stuck frozen to my skin (remember the tongue on the flagpole Double Dog Dare?). I limped the snow machine back to the trailer and miraculously the ski stayed on until I drove the sled up onto the trailer.
Chalk up another awesome day snowmobiling for me! I can't wait to see what the next one is like.
