Frigid Fun in Winter Wonderlands - Time Out #288

The February blast of frigid winter weather certainly captured my attention. I am certain it got the undivided attention of just about all the folks in Our Town. The single-digit wind chill temperatures, coupled with the unwanted ice, coating our streets and sidewalks, made human movement even more limited during these pandemic Covid-19 times. The February "true winter days" placed me in a heated, indoor environment most of the time, but, rarely, I had to venture outside in order to get from Point A to Point B. During some of my inside "down time", I communicated a little more than normal with my three children, via cell phone texts back-and-forth. Our middle child, Allan, 44, and his family, live far-off in Juneau, Alaska, where it is winter a GREAT deal more each year than we experience in Our Town. Allan recently sent our family group-text several beautiful winter wonderland photos of an outing he and others took through his snow-covered Alaska world. The pictures showed the extensive snow, and the scenes could have been reproduced into lovely printed postcards. As frequently happens for me, I get random writing " inspirations" from totally unplanned situations. This "blindside" inspiration happened again when I saw Allan's outstanding nature pictures in the wild, Juneau-area, snowy outdoors!

So, what past events did his photographs trigger in my memorable mind's eye?

Answer---Riding a snowmobile (a motorized sled, with skis on the front, and a moveable rubber tract on the rear of the machine) in the great American West, faithful weekend readers in Our Town and far beyond.

I realize most people know little of what I will chat about concerning this unusual activity. Even though I have only done it about 10 times in my life, snowmobiling is absolutely one of the most thrilling experiences I have had in my life! These powerful machines will routinely run over 50 mph on flat, snow/ice-covered surfaces, and probably faster, but I have never wanted to have an even faster experience, racing through the winter outdoors. Except for one occasion, my bride, Lady Debbie, and I have ridden snowmobiles only in the Jackson Hole (JH), Wyoming, area. Since we have traveled to that beautiful location in Our Country many times for over 40 years, we have usually snowmobiled in JH during the Thanksgiving Week. During these classic November snowmobiling adventures, the vendor usually transports us 45 miles northeast of the iconic town of Jackson. Here, we ride in the area around Togwaitee Pass, located in the Absaroka Mountains, traversing the iconic Continental Divide, at 9,600' of elevation. This unique location receives an astounding average of 500" of snow each year. Therefore, it usually has plenty of early-season (late November) snow cover (600 miles of trails) for snowmobiling. Another area we have experienced has been snowmobiling to historic Granite Hot Springs, 30 miles south of Jackson. This location is 7,000' of elevation in the Gros Ventre Mountain range. Half way during our ride there, we enjoyed soaking (packed our swim suits on the snow sled) for 30 minutes in the 112-degree natural spring, followed by a delicious steak lunch. We then re-dressed in our rental gear (one-piece heavy suit, thick gloves, and helmet with a plastic shield), and rode our powerful snow machines back to our original pick up location.

Our most memorable snowmobiling experience, however, was our 12-hour thriller, starting at historic Flagg Ranch, located on the far north side of Grand Teton National Park. This adventure took us 90 miles round trip on groomed trails, through the south entrance of Yellowstone National Park at Grant Village, then northward to the famous Old Faithful area of the world's first (1872) national park. We leisurely ate a boxed lunch there, while viewing Old Faithful geyser erupt in the stunning backdrop of the area's abundance of snow and ice. We. also. walked inside one of the wooden park lodges that was open for winter visitors. Both traveling north and returning south, we saw several huge bison, attempting to keep as warm as possible, positioning themselves near the warm rivers close to the many geysers. These beautiful animals appeared to be unaffected by the presence of our snowmobiles, and we took many photographs of the massive creatures in their white winter environment.

The only time my bride and I have had an outside-Wyoming snowmobile experience was in the California side of spectacular Lake Tahoe, renting from a vendor located on the northwest side of the incredible lake. We rode by ourselves through deep snow along groomed trails, during that particular outing. I vividly remember thinking how utterly beautiful and peaceful the setting was then for the few hours we were with wild Mother Nature.

In writing this installment, it certainly makes me hope we will be able to experience the thrill of riding snowmobiles once again, when this pandemic has faded into the history books of time. Fingers crossed, this Covid-19 exiting won't take too much longer!