Snowmobile stories

[tealracing16]

I was a parking lot hero once. We were in Chassell getting gas and since I had filled up in Houghton before meeting my buddies I was just screwing around in the parking lot. I had a 1994 indy trail deluxe and was spinning and having fun. They were the slowest donuts you would ever see. The track and skis caught and very slowly I went over. I probably could've just stepped off but I was too shocked. As I lay there on the blacktop I look up and a whole Escalade of people from IL are just laughing. I stood up and waved then went and parked. Out of 10 people in our group only one saw it. Come to think of it that was kinda fun.

 

[lee]

picked up wrong bag took kids hockey stuff to u.p. for 4 day weekend

 

[whitedust]

Buddy & I haved identical doo jackets exact same size as well. I got home after our ride & no wallet inside breast pocket & bud was on the road to flatland. I'm thinking how the heck did I lose my wallet?.... money & ccs everything gone! Phone rings & my buddy driving home buying gas says "I don't know how I did it but I have your wallet in my jacket." I respond "Correction you have my wallet in my jacket" & "I have your jacket & no wallet bad trade for me".lol We had a good laugh & the mixed up jackets happend again & again as the years went by. To this day we still use those jackets for wrenching & still not sure if we ever got the jackets right we just check to make sure keys & wallets are with the right guy.LOL

 

[bearrassler]

In March of 09 5 of us went to Antler Lodge between Grand Rapids and Bigfork MN for 3 days of riding. The first day went great, we rode almost 300 miles. The next day we went up to Tower, and then Crane Lake, down to Cook and it was getting late and the restaraunt across the road from Antler closed at 8:00. We decided to eat in Cook and took our time. We got back to the motel at about 11:30 and had rode about 380 miles. We had two rooms and went to open the doors and both were locked. Everyone had left the doors unlocked and the keys in the rooms. The housekeeper locked the doors and this motel is 15 miles from town and nobody is there after 10:00. There was only one other room filled and we woke him up and he opened the main door and let us in. Thankfully the inside doors to our rooms were not locked so we got in. All this took about 45 minutes and if the inside doors were locked I don't know what we would have done.

 

[ilcatman2]

These are some great stories please keep em coming Have a great turkey day!

 

[jr37]

I don't know how long ago this happened, probably 20 years ago or so. We were riding somewhere between Calumet and Copper Harbor. We pull up to an intersection on the trail and there sits about 8 new sleds. This is when the Indy 650s and Vmax was new. These were new sleds, but not pretty. We sit there for a couple minutes and these 8 guys decide to leave. I don't know if they were drunk or just didn't care about their sleds. They were T-boning each other, rear-ending, just ramming each others sleds any way they could. When we got to the Mariner North in Copper Harbor those 8 sleds were sitting there. Upon a little closer look of those sleds, I wouldn't have given them the price of one new sled for all 8 of them. They were all junk, they had everything wrecked on these sleds, and they were new sleds. I guess some people really do have too much money.

 

[amazza76]

Part 1: Several years ago, I convinced my wife's cousin to make a trip up to the UP for some riding. Luckily, one of his friends has a place in Ironwood and we were able to stay at his place. I trailered my sled up but Steve, my wifes cousin had to rent a sled. He had brought up what he thought would be enough money to rent a sled and have a good time over the long weekend. Well, in doing his math, he neglected to figure in the deposit required for his rental. Being the nice guy that I am, I put his deposit on my credit card. I suppose in hindsight, realizing that this being his first trip should have given me pause before signing on the dotted line....but I digress. So we head out to take possesion of the rental and the shop manager makes a couple hot laps around the parking lot, drifting the sled, sliding the tail end around...making sure the sled is in good working order. He gives Steve a quick review of the controls and we head out. Steve and his buddy cross the street to a vacant snowcovered lot, with me in the rear waiting for a car to pass. As I glance across the street, I see Steve make his best attempt to mimic the drifting move the shop manager had displayed...only his attempt didn't go as planned. The track caught and as I watched as if in slow motion from across the street, the sled rolled over, and slid across the parking lot. I couldn't believe that I had just signed for his deposit and here we were, not even out of sight of the store and he rolls the sled. Matt and I help him get it righted and thank god no damage...we head out

 

[amazza76]

Part 2: We are out on the trails, heading for Hoop n Holler, and its snowing pretty good. Steve's borrowed helmet keeps icing up because the breath box is missing. We are on trail 8 head east towards Lake Gogebic...those of you familiar will remember this trail follows along 28 for a while, then there is a tight left hander into the woods. Well, with this icing problem, Steve didn't see the turn. He jumped on the brakes at the last second, but ended up going off into the woods. I too, didn't make the turn, and upon hitting the snowbank at speed, launched my SRX700 short track fifteen yards into this wetland/drainage area. After landing unharmed, I rush back to check on Steve. He is sitting on the snowbank in a daze and his rental is lodged up against a tree. Anyone coming from where we had would have thought the sled was wadded up but upon closer review, the only damage was the slightest dent in the front bumper that you would totally miss if you weren't looking for it. We get Steve situated and back on the trail and I am now left with my short tracked triple sitting in chest deep snow, over unfrozen swamp. Not being familiar with the area, I mistakenly took the advice of a passerby and tried to continue riding my sled in its current tradjectory, as opposed to turning it around and back tracking. I got the sled going, making it about 80 yards before losing momentum and digging the worlds worst trench. Now I'm stuck 100 yards from the trail, with no hope in sight ahead of me. Steve and Matt make the trek out to me in the attempt to help dig me out. After 2 hours of digging, we are in no better shape. Luckily, a group of guys on longtracks come boondocking along, seeing us poor saps in our prediciment and decide to take mercy on us. The eight of us proceeded to carry the sled up the embankment, depositing my sled on the highway. We thank them, regroup on the the trail, and finally make it to Hoop n Holler. I gotta tell you, that was the best tasting beer and cudigee I have ever tasted. To be continued...

 

[amazza76]

Part 3: After making the most of our weekend, we are loaded up and ready to head home. Steve has to return the rental, so I follow him in the truck. We arrive and head into the showroom. Steve is going thru the process of checking the sled in and right before the shop manager heads out to inspect the sled. A guy from a different group in the showroom begins telling the story, in none too quiet a manner, about being on the trail heading for Hoop n Holler and coming upon some guy whose driven "one of your rentals smack dab into a tree". You should have seen the color drain from Steve's face, as he looked back from the long walk to his rental. By the grace of god, his sled had come out unscathed enough that no deposit was forfeited. Matt and I wait in the truck and upon Steve's entry, couldn't contain our laughter any longer...we were in tears.

 

[blkhwkbob]

One of our group has a bad habit of putting his sled keys in a different pocket at every stop. It's a five minute ritual of searching every pocket when we get back on the sleds, so we always give him crap. One time, somewhere in Vilas County, we leave the lunch stop and he goes through his routine again, this time he can't find his keys anywhere. Just when we were about to leave him there, a guy comes running out of the bar with a jacket in his hand. Our guy grabbed somebody else's coat. We think we have finally trained him to put the key in the same pocket every time he stops now.

 

[mjdeutsch]

when my son was about 15 months old we went on a trip headed to munising, MI with the inlaws with the plan to trade off staying back with the baby. so we take the inlaws truck, trailer, and one sled and 2 of my sleds. well i was driving the rig and hit an icy bridge with a good cross wind, saw both guard rails out the front window, got it going strait again and thought I had saved it then bam jack knifed in the ditch, trailer on 2 wheels leaning bad, I look around and everyone is ok and I say "well at least the trailer didn't flip all the way over" and then bam!!! it did. My wife said that is the closest I have every came to crying. lol. tow truck, 3 hours, new trailer hitch and we were on our way. we decided to stop at gaylord for new windshields on the sleds and ended up staying and riding there. We did salvage a trip out of it but the women REALLY wanted to turn around and go home.

 

[mjdeutsch]

another time we meet up with a friend and his friend to ride a few days, the friend of my friend had never ridden a sled (and by the looks of it he had never riden anything with handle bars including a bike) well this guys missed a turn for the second time and stands the rental on its rear end up against a tree and is holding it up from flipping over by the handle bars (this guy weighed 125 soaking wet) so the rest of the trip we asked him if he noticed the signs on the trail and the they really were for the snowmobils not just cars!!

A different trip we went with 3 couples total and shared a big cabin, well the guys all head out to the outdoor hot tub only to find 3 women in there in their early 20's that were drunk and out of beer, they are begging beer off of us and we dare them to get out and do snow angels and jumping jacks, which they do very loudly, well about that time I see the blinds open and 3 faces in the window of our cabin and a few minutes later 3 pissed off wifes tromping through the snow to join us!! they made no bones of marking thier teritory and we reminded them that none of them wanted to get in the hot tub in the first place. my wife still gives me $hit about that to this day but it was totaly funny seeing the wifes faces when they realized we were going to have fun with or without them

 

[sprchev1]

Last spring for our last ride of the year we stayed at Hilltop in Grand Marais and rode the area south of there. One of the places we stopped was eagles nest. Everyone took a turn or three crossing the water. One of us took one too many attempts(not me):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oBrvkFZkSA

Some of us thought it was dang funny. One of us did not. We did get it running but it would not stay running so he got towed back.

 

[homan]

That video of the sled sinking at the Eagles Nest is very similar to one of the guys I ride with sinking at the same spot about 10 years ago. We did not have a video of it however. I'm sure we used the same boat to retreive the sled!

 

[freezinbevr]

One time, at sled camp...

I even hate to admit this one, back in '98 My brother and I picked up our brand new Formula Z 670's on a late season deal! Excited about our first brand new sleds ever, a huge snow storm swept across Iowa and DUMPED. Sooo we got a crew together to go down from sothern MN and run for the day. If any of you have ridden the farm country snowdrifts, ya know they get kinda hard! We un loaded the sleds and were rippin up the ditches and having a great time and came to an area where the drifts were about 10-15 feet high and quite wide. Awesome right?? Grip it and rip it. The drifts didn't "give" as much as I had hoped after catching some air in between and the awkward landing in between launched the sled up and to the right, me to the left with a lap full of windshield. Needless to say, after riding my "new" sled for roughly an hour, it was "broken in". One trip, one roll! He was actually giving me crap about that at Thanksgiving, what are big brothers for?
Note to self, density checks are Very important on drift "busting"!!

Been hooked ever since, just take it alittle easier at the start of the trips.

 

[doo_dr]

A few years ago we were riding with Carter. It was a nice day but a little overcast so you could read the snow all that well. The week before we got out to Togwotee it had been clear and warm so most everything was hero snow. We were playing through the trees trying to find some some snow that wasn't set up. Carter tried to drop out of the trees and across a small open chute to the other site when all **** broke loose. The chute was south facing and had set up like a bob sled run. He lost traction and couldn't turn out. He and his sled started to tumble down the chute. By the time we got down to Carter (he was Ok) we got to see the carnage. There are quite a few of you that know how equipped/prepared Carter is..... Well, his sled rolled and slid enough to pop the hood open and all of his gear on his sled (goggles, first aid, gorilla tape, socks, gloves, lunch, tools, belts,Blah blah blah....) was scattered all the way down the chute. We called it "Carter's Garage Sale Ride". I never knew a sled and guy could hold so much gear.