THE END OF WINTER? MAYBE NOT

Snowmobilers are a strange breed, at least to some folks. While most of the “normal” people grow tired of winter, the die-hard snowmobiler gets slightly depressed when the thermometer creeps above the freezing mark and the snow banks stat to recede. This pain comes from the knowledge that it will be at least another seven or eight months before the snow flies again and they have to spend all of that time looking at their sled sitting undercover in their garage, replaced by the lawn mower and weed whacker. This winter looked like it was well on its way out as we jumped from the twenty below zero range right into temperatures in the mid forties. No teens or twenties here- just winter coming to an abrupt end. Of course, we thought the same thing last winter. I took my obligatory last ride of the season, parked the sled and watched all of the snow melt off my deck. Then one day in April I grabbed my video camera to catch some shots of the huge April snowflakes falling from the sky- 52 inches of snow later I had put another 300 miles on my sled! These late season snows gave us two of the craziest riding days we had all year including one where we got caught in the storm and the visibility got so bad we began wondering if we would find our way back to snowmobiletrail.com headquarters.

So here we are in the midst of another forty-degree stretch wondering how long the trails will be open only to find ourselves back below zero a week later with a potential monster storm looming on the horizon. I guess Mother Nature doesn’t give up that easily. Who knows we might have a couple more weekends left of riding after all!