These days it seems that people make “best of” lists for just about everything, not wanting to be outdone the staff of snowmobiletrail.com got together and compiled our own list of the ten best things about snowmobiling. Here it is:
10. Reigniting your love of winter:
Remember when you were a kid and you would pray for snow days so you wouldn’t have to go to school and then you would spend your winter days out sliding or skiing or skating? Meanwhile your parents would be complaining about having to drive and shovel snow. As a snowmobiler you forget about all of the hassles that snowstorms bring and once again find yourself watching the weather every night hoping for a huge blizzard, the bigger the better!
9. Escape: You know the feeling, you are sitting there in your cube in your office going through the same mundane humdrum of your workday, watching the clock and counting down to quitting time so you can hop on your sled and get away. Or sometimes the pressures of everyday life are crushing you and you just want to find a way to get away from it all. A snowmobile is a passport to freedom and an hour or two in the saddle can alleviate a lot of stress.
8. Adventure: Every time you climb aboard your sled you have no idea what is in store for you. I learned at a very early age that even the most routine ride can turn into an adventure of a lifetime. It is this uncertainty that keeps me coming back year after year. Trail conditions are always changing and no two rides are the same.
7. The Bonding of Man and Machine (AKA Speed and Power): Let’s face it, there’s nothing quite like being on a lake or long straightaway and cracking the throttle and feeling the sheer power of horsepower meeting snow at your fingertips. Ever since the invention of the internal combustion engine we have been obsessed with horse power. The same can be said for the overall feeling you get of your snowmobile floating through a field of deep powder or dropping into a mountain pass. The snowmobile is, after all, a machine and as human beings we have an instinct to create and use machines to feed the curious nature of our brains. The snowmobile delivers in this area in spades.
6. Seeing Things You Can’t See at any other time of year:
One of the greatest things about snowmobiling is being able to go places that you have never been and see things that you have never seen. Snowmobiles are capable of bringing you to places that are not accessible by any other means. There are many places around the world that can only be reached in the winter due to swampy or rocky terrain. These places are equally difficult to reach in the winter without a snowmobile. The opportunity to experience some of the places you can visit on a snowmobile cannot be equaled5. The Clothing: Snowmobile clothing has come a long way from the snowmobile suits of the sixties and seventies, now there is every imaginable style of jackets, pants, bibs, helmets, gloves, boots and anything else you want. The snowmobile clothing industry is as big as the actual snowmobile industry itself, primarily because of the awesome styles and the overall warmth and effectiveness of snowmobile clothing and layers. There has been a huge crossover here because the designers of snowmobile gear make some of the most attractive winter clothing ever made.
4. Being Part of The Snowmobile Community:
People want to belong. The snowmobile fraternity is a great group to belong to. There is a sense of comradery when you pull into your favorite trailside bar for a burger or when you stop to take a break at a shelter. There’s a lot to be said for sitting by a cozy fire with other snowmobilers after a long day on the trail recapping the days adventures. There’s also a lot to be said when you have buried your sled and other riders stop to help you dig out! The snowmobile community is truly a brotherhood of people that share a passion, and in a world that can’t seem to agree on anything these days, it feels good to be around people that love something as much as you do.
3. Connecting With The Wilderness: Human beings were not meant to be confined in an office or caught in traffic or sitting on a couch in the suburbs, we were meant to be free and to be interacting with the natural world around us. Snowmobiling helps you escape the concrete jungle and get back into the wilderness where you belong. This is the reason that every weekend there is an endless caravan of trucks and trailers fleeing the city and heading to Northern Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin, the U.P., the mountains, or wherever that great snowmobiling paradise is in your state. Snowmobiling can get you into wild areas where you can see animals that you won’t see in your everyday life. Here in Northeast Minnesota we’ve run across moose, deer, owls, bald eagles and even a few wolves and we can tell you there are very few things that can compare to seeing these animals in their natural habitat.
2. Snowstorms:
You are watching the weather forecast on the ten o’clock news and the weatherman says that a big storm is coming, you wake up in the morning like a kid on Christmas morning and you look out the window to see snow falling at a furious pace, school has been cancelled, work is closed, roads are closed, everyone is snowed in. You grab your gear throw on your helmet and hit the powder and you spend the rest of the day riding. This is every snowmobilers’ dream scenario and when it happens there is nothing that can really compare to it. For every bad snow year and every time that conditions aren’t ideal they are all erased by being able to ride in one good storm. We’ve heard many snowmobilers say that it’s worth owning a snowmobile just to be able to ride when there is a big snowstorm and we agree.
1. Family:
95% of all snowmobiliers cite “Spending Time with Family” as one of their favorite things about snowmobiling. Snowmobiling is the ultimate family sport and is enjoyed by mothers, fathers and children alike. Many snowmobilers that started out riding with their parents as youths continue to ride with them throughout their adult years and it’s common to see three generations of snowmobilers out on the trail together. In this world where every person in the family seems to be constantly on the go doing their own thing, to have something like snowmobiling to bring a family together makes this hands down the number one thing on our list.