When he heard I was looking for interesting snowmobile pictures, Ron from gothotrocks.com just knew we’d want to see these.

 These photos cross the nation from the state of Washington, where Ron says, “we manage to run our sleds year round, even in summer.”

In regards to the event in the photos, Ron says,

“This event happens the end of July at Ione, Washington. There are 50+ sleds involved each year.  It is about 1/3 mile across the river and 70+ feet deep. Sleds start with skis almost touching the water, no running start.  Anyone is invited to compete, and Yes, some sleds do sink.”

 

 

Sled vs Jet Ski–Sled Wins!

It looks like tons of fun, and Ron assures me your first ride is the most thrilling, so if you’re already longing for white trails again, consider a trip to Ione, Washington in Eastern Washington state in July; or one sooner–last we spoke, Ron said there was still 4 to 6 feet of snow in the mountains where he sleds, with some locations reporting 10 feet!  One year, they were snowmobiling on June 1st!

Ron has a video of last year’s event up on his site.  You can see it here: WaterCross Snowmobile Video

Looks like good times riding in Washington!  And by the way for all of you watercrossers out there, I did find watercross snowmobile shirts at SledderWear the other day (the woman has everything…)

Thanks for the pics and links, Ron!  If you’ve got something worth looking at, send them along to sledderchick@gmail.com.

In closing, I’ll leave you with Ron’s words of wisdom, which I’m taking to heart to get me through the warm months ahead…

“…After all, water is just warm snow.”

I knew there had to be a place where you could sled year-round.  You can in Alaska!  And without risking life and limb (well, not too much more risk than you have on the average snowmobiling trip)! 

You can head up to Alaska and go on a helicopter Glacier City site-seeing tour.  Then for under $400 they’ll set you down on a glacier and you can ride in 60 degree (average) comfort over and through ancient blue-ice glaciers.  Now that’s my idea of cooling off in the summertime!  Or in September for that matter—it’s 95 and humid in Massachusetts today. 

You can check out pics from this Alaskan adventure at the Glacier City Snowmobile Tours website.  Heck, while you’re there, you might as well book your trip!  If only… 

I’ll at least file this under ‘things to do when my kids are rich & I’m retired’.  Hopefully we’ll get a handle on this global warming & we’ll still have Alaskan glaciers to ride!

So yesterday I’m bragging about how we’re just a little over 3 months away from the snowmobile season.  And look what happens—today it’s hot and humid enough to rival any day yet this summer!  And tomorrow’s not looking any better.  Now add insult to injury: we’ve just had the second driest August in recorded New England history, and it hasn’t rained yet this September!  If we’re lucky, we’ll see a few intermittent drops on Sunday.  But still, I’m optimistic for the impending sledding season. 

How so, you say?  Isn’t this exactly the type of weather to make a snowmobiling woman lose heart?  Hardly. I won’t give up looking for great sledding (or even crappy sledding) until next April.  Besides, I have a theory. 

What Goes Up Must Come Down 

All that evaporated water must be waiting somewhere, right?  Well, I’m holding out that it’s waiting ’til January.  Then, the Northeast gets slammed. (cross your fingers, cross your fingers) This year’s Farmer’s Almanac supports my theory.  Okay, well, I don’t know if it directly supports my emphaticism that the moisture is waiting until my sled is ready to run, or that this winter will be white and wild because we’ve had no rain for near 2 months, but it does say that the Northeast is due for a big dumping of snow this winter (read snowmobiling) season.  And I’m taking what assurances I can get that this winter will rival the excellent sledding we had in Maine last year.  If it doesn’t, I’ll be swearing at the Farmers (who I trust explicitly, being a born and bred Dairy Farm girl) and trailering on. 

I came across a very informative & interesting site today for snowmobile information, snowmobiling statistics and more.  For today I’ll just leave you the link, but expect to see a lot more posts citing this site.  There’s lots to learn for fun & for all things snowmobiling in general.

Here’s the link:

http://www.snowmobile.org/snowmobilestatistics.asp

 Have fun perusing yourself, or come back here and I’ll weed out the good stuff for you!

Just about every riding season I determine the same thing—I’d be a more confident snowmobiler if I was a little stronger.  When I say that, I don’t just mean that I’m wimpy (but I am), I also mean I lack a little in endurance.  Sitting at the computer raising 4 kids will do that to you. 

You see, I have a theory that the guys have a little more fun riding because they have more upper body strength and endurance.  Very simply, they can handle the corners better so they can move along more quickly (yet reasonably!!) You might not quite know what I mean if you’ve yet to do any lengthy riding, but trail riding is tiring.  It takes a lot out of you.  And the more fit you are, the easier snowmobile riding will be, and the longer you’ll be able to stay on the trail. 

Why do I mention this now?  Because this is the time of year you might be able to do something about it.  This is the time of year you can start exercising or adding some light weight-training to your exercise routine.  Not that I’m going to, but usually I don’t remember this until the first week in January after an exhausting day pulling around the front of my sled.  

Does this mean I think the guys are better riders?  Of course I have to answer ‘no’ (even though a number of the guys we ride with are, hubby at the top of the list), because riding involves a lot more than muscle.  There’s brain involved, too.  Specifically, brains enough not to outride your own abilities.  This is definitely where the girls have the edge because most guys are always pushing the envelope trying to look cool and keep up with the leader (read: Bill) regardless. 

Nevertheless, just thought this was worth a mention in case someone is more ambitious in preparation for the eventual upcoming snowmobile season.  Never to early to start thinking about riding.

I’m sure many of you are snowmobiling Moms, Aunts, Cousins, Sisters, and relative guys, so it made sense to me that you might also have an interest in snowmobile themed gifts for kids.  Today’s post is a gathering of some snowmobile gift options for children of a variety of ages that you might enjoy.  Keep reading to the end—I saved my favorite for last. 

Knowing just how pricey gifts & toys for kids can be, I kept the list today to sled gifts for kids under $50.00. 

RC Snowmobile at StoreForKnowledge.com—Not quite as nice as the name brand models, but about a third of the price at $39.95— 

See it here: http://storeforknowledge.com/RC-Snow-Mobile-P6463C294.aspx 

Snowmobile TrinketsA wide variety of sled theme gifts; these are the people with the snowmobile baskets, too.  They have two pages of kids snowmobile toys, varying in price & quality; here are a couple I had my eye on: 

-POSTERS—most are Artic Cat, but there are some really fun ones there, especially the ‘Waiting for Winter’ posters.  Priced at $9.99.The link: http://www.snowmobiletrinkets.com/POSTERS.html 

-NEON LIGHTS—a few options, the best of which are the tube-type molded into the shape of a snowmobile, available in a variety of colors.  On sale now at $45.00.  Check them out for a great kid’s room decoration, especially for older SledKids.The link: http://www.snowmobiletrinkets.com/NeonLights.html 

eToys.comGreat, cheap, fun gift—for $9.99 order the 50 in. inflatable snowmobile sled, ‘the Blizzard’.  We had one a few years back, and the kids loved it.  It went really well; got great reviews on this site from owners.The link: http://www.etoys.com/genProduct.html/PID/3145379/ctid/17/INstock/Y/D/ 

Barnes and NobleThis was my favorite pick.  It’s really cool.  It’s a Lego snowmobile model kit, rated for ages 7 and up.  I never even knew Lego made this, which is ironic because we’re big Lego people here and I thought we’d seen it all.  Check this out at BarnesandNoble.com—I know it’s on our Christmas list!  Priced at $27.00 for B&N members, otherwise it’s $30.00.The link: http://gifts.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?z=y&cds2Pid=15549&ean=9781400661190 

Puzzle gameAnd just for fun, I’ll leave you with a link I found for a fun little puzzle the kids can do online; it’s not much, but the younger ones will get a kick out of it.  Check it out at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/kids/features/games/snowmobile.html 

As always, happy shopping!

We’ve just gotten back from ‘Summerfest’ at Uncle’s in Maine. It’s kind of interesting to travel back to our winter playground during the summer, because almost all of our vacation time in

Maine is taken during the winter months when we can snowmobile (of course!).  This is despite the fact that we both have family in

Maine—nearly all of my husband’s mother’s very large side of the family. 

It’s kind of neat to return to your winter playground when the sled trails are green.  It gives you a little more perspective in regards to the real life of snowmobile trails, direction, trail width, and so on.  At least it should.  I’m convinced that maybe guys get a little more out of the experience than the average woman snowmobiler.  Inevitably when we drive down roads in Maine we pass a number of the trials we spent the better part of out riding time on.  The funny thing is, my husband recognizes and points out all of them, asking me, ‘remember riding there?  Recognize that trail? Remember coming out there?’  With the exception of the one trail up the road we used to access the local system, and a few others with unmistakable landmarks, I almost never do. The funny thing is my 4 year old son seems to have inherited this innate, hormonal sense of trail direction; within 30 seconds of riding on the four-wheeler in Uncle’s field my young navigator said to me ‘this is where we ride snowmobiles, don’t we?’ Yup.  Nothing like a preschool-age male to put your sense of direction exactly in its place.

Just a quick post today to remind everyone, including myself, to enjoy your freedom and independence!  

After all, snowmobiling really is all about being free and independent, isn’t it? 

Being free and having the right to ride whenever, (almost) wherever there is snow is not something sledders should take lightly.  And we all need to remeber the men and women who continue to fight to keep it that way!

None of what we have would be possible if we didn’t live in this great country, despite its imperfections.  That does mean freedom, but it also means the freedom to work and earn to support our sled habits, and have available to us all the resources we need — all just for our own fun, based on nothing but our own ambition!

 So Happy Fourth to al lthe SledChix and guys, too.  And in case you need more inspiration, just think…January snow is only 5 short months away!!

Thus far we’ve yet to find anything better to do than snowmobile.  I’m very doubtful we ever will.  But it would be nice to find something that comes close to sledding during the spring, summer, and fall. 

It seems logical that a reasonable substitute for a sled in the summer might be a personal watercraft; similar styling and handling, manufactured by the same companies…  Of course, I’m shooting from the hip here.  I’ve never actually been on one.  And I just read that Polaris doesn’t even manufacture personal watercraft anymore, so I’m not sure there’s a lot of point in getting involved.  I am curious to know what others think, though. 

From what I’ve seen so far, the biggest drawback to me would be the amount of people you’re likely to encounter riding a jet ski.  Your likelihood of running into people on a lake on a hot summer’s day has got to be exponentially higher than your likelihood of traffic-jammed backwoods

Maine sled trails.  I think the weather-factor has really helped us out as far as that goes.  Since one of the biggest draws to snowmobiling (at least to me) is the escape, maneuvering around a mass of people on a Jet Ski or Sea Doo just won’t do. 

But I’m not as closed-minded as I sound.  If you ride personal watercrafts, I’d like to hear about it.  If you ride snowmobiles and watercraft, I’d love to hear your take.  Who knows, I may even learn something.

For a true-blue Sled Chick, there’s really nothing that replaces her snowmobile.  Not for this Sled Chick, anyway.  I’ve tried a few things, but snowmobiling is just about all there is for me in the power sports venue.  A couple of years ago my husband had a motorcycle.  A Harley even.  Maybe that sounds impressive to you, but it did nothing for me.  Part of the problem was that motorcycles are supposed to represent freedom, and for me most of the time, they only represented being left behind while hubby disappeared for a few hours.  I thought about learning to ride myself (as if he’d have let me take his Harley!!!), but I really had no interest.  For one thing, bikes are just too tippy.  For another, you’re still battling traffic regardless, and who needs more of that?  Even when we did have a chance to go together, I hated it.  I don’t like not being in control.  I feel the same way about my sled.  I’d never be a passenger.  I guess I just like knowing my mistakes are my own.  And I can crawl along at 25 if I want to. Eventually we both tired of the overpriced garage ornament and the bike was traded for a Polaris (OF COURSE!) ATV.  Just a few weeks ago we took the ATV up to Maine and I went, for just a few minutes, out on a trail ride, hoping there really was life in the summertime.  Unfortunately, it turns out I was right.  It’s just not sleddin’. It was a little fun, but mostly it felt too similar to driving for me to really get into it on a regular basis.  The other problem I had is that I couldn’t see it being any fun with a group.  Riding with a bunch of friends is a blast on sleds, but on a four-wheeler, it’s just eating dirt. So there you have it, my two cents.  Sorry to those of you who think a four-wheeler is a more practical past-time.  I disagree.  Guess Bill can keep it for hauling cordwood.