Snowmobile stories

[t_man]

Another one from me. In the late 90's my cousin and I took a several hour ride from our cabin to Grand Rapids, MN. As were we eating lunch he started to feel sick, so we decided to head straight back home instead of exploring like we had planned.

As we were heading out of town the trail was on top of a high berm next to a street. My cousin was leading us slowly and suddenly the front of his sled dropped out of sight, he did a perfect superman handstand on the handlebars, and then he continued to rotate and landed on his back on the hood of the sled. It was absolutely hilarious to see in slow motion, and I can still picture it very clearly in my head. Thankfully he and the sled were undamaged.

Turns out some thoughtful homeowner had shoveled/snowblowed his sidewalk and cut a very clean slot in the berm. Remember, this was the marked trail! After we dragged the sled out my embarrassed cousin gave the pull start a good hard yank. To add insult to injury the sled fired right up but he was left standing with the pull cord in his hand several hours from home.

We managed to get home, but had to leave the sled running when we stopped for gas. My cousin kept getting sicker as we rode and ended up in bed for several days afterwards. He hates to be reminded of that day, but I'm betting he would have seen the obstacle if he hadn't been so sick.

 

[scott_b]

I was up riding with a friend who was relatively new to snowmobiling. We left our house on Gogebic and headed up to Houghton. The ride up was rather bumpy and took longer than expected in part due to the newer rider in tow. As we sat at the Ramada having lunch they brought carafe after carafe of diet coke and water, I think we both drank at least 2 of each.

Since the trails were not so great and it was already later in the afternoon we started heading back home down a very bumpy trail. I made it just outside of Houghton before my first pit stop, much to my surprise my friend did not go. Shortly after South Range nature called again, I stopped and this time my friend asked me where the next bathroom was, I told him we could go back to South Range but he said he would be fine until Twin Lakes. We pull into the BP station in Twin Lakes and my buddy was off the sled before it even stopped and into the bathroom. I assumed lunch wasn't agreeing with him... We continue down the trail and stop again, he asks me where the next bathroom is, I told him Bergland, I have toilet paper in the sled if you need it. Turns out he is the most pee shy individual you have ever met, if there isn't white porcelain in front of him, he can't go and no, white snow doesn't count. His relatively slow pace kicked up several notches after that bit of information. Try as I might I couldn't make it with out stopping 2 more times to pee, I swear his eyes were turning yellow at each stop. To this day the poor guy basically dehydrates himself when we ride.

 

[doospunk]

I was in Christmas quite a few years ago. We were across from Foggy's at the old motel. There were two of us waiting on our sleds for another guy to get out and take off. While we were sitting there some dude was ripping up and down the parking lot on his new yamaha 4 stroke I believe. Anyway he saw us watching him on his new sled and came over to us. This guy was just a class act let me tell you bragging about his new sled. Said it even has engine reverse. He hit the button motor shut off and turned back on and he went backwards. Then he said later and thinking he was going to spray us with snow, he jumped on the throttle. Sled went backwards, he went forwards, and ended up hugging the windshield while he was on the ground. The guy got up windshield in hand and took off without saying a word. Cried for hours on that one.

That's a classic "Parking Lot Superstar" for ya. haha. Love to see that kind of stuff. I always tell my buds that I bet I could be thouroghly entertained the whole day just sitting at a boat launch or sled parking lot with a 6 pack of beer and my lawn chair while watching all the "Superheroes".

 

[Firecatguy]

there was a group we met at a lodge in Mich from this site they did circles around the lodge at 100am drunk as **** that was very entertaining.....

 

[whitedust]

Oh yes parking lot drama! I can't remember where we were,but bunch of Cat guys out front of gas station by hugh pile of snow hooping & hollering. I went in paid for gas & my buddy hurries in tells me I got to get outside ASAP to see this! I went over to snowpile by Cat guys & this 1 rider is just beating the living sheet out of brand new ZR circles around goes up snow pile hammers ZR jumps off sled goes straight up comes crashing down 10 feet or more to ground pieces flying everywhere. Guy gets up & does it again & again to the delight of everyone. The suspension had collasped tunnel was bent a complete total mess. We think he was making sure insurance company would have no choice but give him full total settlement so we cut out before local police got involved but was fun to watch.

 

[danschevyv8]

Wow it seems like I'm always telling poty stories but I think they are funny. A group of us were up in the Keweenaw stoped at Slims in Mohawk for breakfast lots of coffee great chow. Get back on the trail of course the natural happens time for a pit stop one friend seems to haveing problems, seems he put his longjohns on backwards. Now you know we usually ask if he has them on right every time we ride.

 

[miked]

...and then there was the time I was so excited to hit the trail that I grabbed the wrong pump at the gas station. Pumped a couple gallons of diesel into my brand-new XP800...had a cold and couldn't smell anything, so I had no idea what was going on when the dash lit up and the sled coughed and died a mile down trail. Thankfully, I had a backup sled to save the trip.

 

[skiroule]

There are so many...but this is probably my favorite.

In the mid 90's I was cruising one of the power lines in the Calumet area on my semi-restored 73' 340 Polaris Colt. There was a lot of fresh snow but the base was good so the little Colt was doing OK. I gave only a passing thought to an approaching depression in the snow. I should have thought about it more. Little did I know that this was just a layer of suspended snow over a very deep valley created by flowing surface water under the snow.

I'm sure it was one of those slow motion things but it seemed like I dropped a long time before I hit bottom. The machine bounced and attempted to scale the other side but the impact sent me rocketing over the hood in a full-gainer, taking the windshield with me and tearing off the hood. After taking stock of my physical condition, I realized I was still holding the handlebars in a two-fisted death grip. The bars had snapped off at the weld and I now had a remote control machine.

Not to worry. We got the Colt out of the trench, attached a vise grip to the steering shaft, re-rigged the throttle, and we were off to find a welder. To this day, I'm suspicous of any depression in the snow pack.

 

[Admin]

It was back in 1996 before I moved here and I was riding with a friend/co-worker. We were heading from Wakefield to Gogebic for breakfast. We were very near Marinesco and the trail passed through a logging area, so we slowed down. It was still early in the morning, but the sun was up. I was in the lead and about 100 yards ahead of me a deer crossed the trail. When I got to the spot where the deer had crossed, I looked to my left to see if I could still see it. At that moment, I saw something coming at me out of my right eye and turned to see an even larger deer on a collision course with me. My only reaction left was to lean as far over to the left to try and avoid as much of the collision as possible, as I did this, the deer took off and jumped right over the sled and I and cleared us vertically by at least 3 feet. It kept on down the logging road to follow it's buddy. I stopped, let my heart start beating again and talked about it with my friend. He was pretty blown away by the whole thing as well, even said: "Man, you should have seen that, it was the coolest thing I have ever seen!". I said back that he should have seen what I saw!

-John

 

[doo_dr]

1993/Milwaukee. I was in college and home for the holidays. We heard that Wausau and north was getting dumped on so we loaded the sleds and drove north at 9:30pm. Got to Merill and decided to start there but it was 3am. We decided to sleep in the truck rather than get a room for a couple hours so we pulled into a big parking lot and crawled in our sleeping bags. About 40 minutes after arriving, we were woke by a loud engine noise and flashing lights. after sitting up and wiping the windows clear of frost we started to laugh our arsses off. In the middle of the parking lot was a Greyhound bus whipping $hittys. This guy was talented because he had that bus flying and he was missing all of the light poles. Riding was wet and fun but the bus was the highlight of the trip.

 

[lvr1000]

...and then there was the time I was so excited to hit the trail that I grabbed the wrong pump at the gas station. Pumped a couple gallons of diesel into my brand-new XP800...had a cold and couldn't smell anything, so I had no idea what was going on when the dash lit up and the sled coughed and died a mile down trail. Thankfully, I had a backup sled to save the trip.

A number of years ago a friend and I pulled in to fuel up. As I was topping off, I noticed the fuel didn't look right. I had just put 7 gallons of diesel into an eleven gallon tank. I walked in to complain about the poorly mark pump. I was told they just changed the pump (late March) and I was the third sled to do this today and to just take the sled over to the woods and dump it. I would never do that, instead We jumped on the sleds and rode like heck. Lucky for me, the big cat triple burned the 7:4 diesel mix AS LONG as the RPM's stayed above 6800 and we were running a lot of grades and power lines. What a smoke screen and the reactions I got from oncomming traffic. My poor buddy was having difficulties seeing which made it difficult for him to keep up. I was alittle disapponted that when we filled up again, I only got a little over 5 MPG. I though diesels did better> LOL. I put at least another 10,000 miles on that sled with no engine issues. The sled did require a good scrubbing to remove the soot on the exhaust side and both our suits needed washing.

 

[jakester]

stories

Got alot of great ones,but can only be shared with the parties involved!! We talk about making a movie , but no one would believe all the craziness .Like someone else said, you come back hit the state line and get memory loss. I have gone up almost every year since 1980. Use to have some great times at Delaware Days. One year that was awesome was 1990. All I can say was the three amigos Made some beautiful friends. Okay memory is starting to have to many great trip memories. We had good times -- end of story. Outdoorsman- you are still a legend in the U.P.!!

 

[saber]

About 6 years ago decided it was time to take the wife for her first ride. My Uncle had 2 ZRT 600's and I had a Doo 600 triple. Wife has ridden Sea Doo's and such before so I wasnt really too worried.

Put here on my/our Ski Doo and gave her a quick overview of the controls, explained to her to be careful because of the power. BAM! She was gone down the driveway and down the street before I could get on one of the ZRT's to catch her. She went up and down the street just fine and said she was ready for the trails. My Uncle led, she rode middle and I rode sweeper. The last thing My Uncle said was to stay behind him and she will be fine.

We rode for 30 miles or so at a nice slow pace so she could get used to it, she was doing really good. We then got to a long stretch or road, aprox 1.5 miles long that is really really wide. So I slowly went around her got up next to my Uncle and gave him that "look" and we took off. We ran over a 100 mph for almost a mile before slowing down. I turned around and my wife was only 10 ft off my bumper. We stopped and just stared at her in disbelief until she said "you said to stay right behind you!"

We laughed so hard because she did not realize how fast we were going, the scared look on her face when we told her was priceless. That was the day we stopped looking for a little 500 for the misses because she did not want anything smaller than a 600 like the guys ride.

 

[peter]

I was in Christmas quite a few years ago. We were across from Foggy's at the old motel. There were two of us waiting on our sleds for another guy to get out and take off. While we were sitting there some dude was ripping up and down the parking lot on his new yamaha 4 stroke I believe. Anyway he saw us watching him on his new sled and came over to us. This guy was just a class act let me tell you bragging about his new sled. Said it even has engine reverse. He hit the button motor shut off and turned back on and he went backwards. Then he said later and thinking he was going to spray us with snow, he jumped on the throttle. Sled went backwards, he went forwards, and ended up hugging the windshield while he was on the ground. The guy got up windshield in hand and took off without saying a word. Cried for hours on that one.

Oh yes I cant forget that gas station. I have a friend who decided to buy a sled a come with us on a trip up north. 4 or 5 of us there getting gas and our friend got gas and paid for it before the rest of us. He decided to be a parking lot crowd pleaser in that same gas statio, doing donuts, speed runs, little jumps, etc.. I go in to pay for gas waiting in line to pay, two guys come walking in laughing loud. I look over at these two guys and they look right at me and say did you see that dumb a$$ out there roll his sled. I knew right then who they were laughing at. The one guy then said good thing your not riding with him and I replied you got that right. I then pay for gas go outside see my friend picking up his windsheild and other parts. The rest of the group was nowhere to be found, I then spotted them across the street waving at me. I then drove across the street to be with the rest of the group. We tried telling this guy but, he did not listen. He never rode with us again, he then sold his sled shortly after that trip. This guy does not belong an a sled.

 

[1flatlander2]

so one sat we were having a late lunch at a bar by the citgo in wakefield. we just got gas and parked in front all 6 of us. about halfway through lunch the bartender asks "who has the zrt?' my buddy goes i do why? i was thinking some one hit our sleds as we were taking up most of the parking lot. the bartender said someone is trying to steal it and i called the police. we go to the window and watch some dude that was so drunk he could barley sit on the mach. after a few pulls i went and got my camera and took some video. the cop came and talked to the guy for a while and he claimed that was his sled. a long story short the drunk had a fight with his buddy and left him there. the cop asked if we wanted to press charges we said no and the cop gave the guy a ride home. i am pretty sure the drunk puked in the cop car because it wasn't 1 min later and an ambulance went down the same road the cop went down. we still tell that story every year.

 

[miked]

About 6 years ago decided it was time to take the wife for her first ride. My Uncle had 2 ZRT 600's and I had a Doo 600 triple. Wife has ridden Sea Doo's and such before so I wasnt really too worried.

Put here on my/our Ski Doo and gave her a quick overview of the controls, explained to her to be careful because of the power. BAM! She was gone down the driveway and down the street before I could get on one of the ZRT's to catch her. She went up and down the street just fine and said she was ready for the trails. My Uncle led, she rode middle and I rode sweeper. The last thing My Uncle said was to stay behind him and she will be fine.

We rode for 30 miles or so at a nice slow pace so she could get used to it, she was doing really good. We then got to a long stretch or road, aprox 1.5 miles long that is really really wide. So I slowly went around her got up next to my Uncle and gave him that "look" and we took off. We ran over a 100 mph for almost a mile before slowing down. I turned around and my wife was only 10 ft off my bumper. We stopped and just stared at her in disbelief until she said "you said to stay right behind you!"

We laughed so hard because she did not realize how fast we were going, the scared look on her face when we told her was priceless. That was the day we stopped looking for a little 500 for the misses because she did not want anything smaller than a 600 like the guys ride.

Ha! Its kinda funny how these stories fall in line with each other. The fact that someone else put diesel in their sled makes me fell a LITTLE better! And now with this one, well...I had the same scenario the first time I took my wife. She had been begging to try sledding for YEARS, I finally caved (I had not ridden but a single time in the previous 10 years...I was busy snowboarding in the winter). She had TONS of experience on Jet Skis, both standups and sit-downs, so I didn't figure handling would be a big issue. I had bummed a buddy's two-up Rev 500SS and brought it up to St. Germain, where I rented a Vector for her. I took her out on the back of the Doo and showed her how it worked, then switched positions with her and let her give it a try. She did fine. We got the rental and took it out on Little Lake St. Germain, and I told her to run around the lake a bit to get used to the speed and handling. She rips off across the lake, and comes back not 10 minutes later with a HUGE grin. The words that came out of her mouth pretty much guaranteed I'd be buying sleds in the very near future: "I made it go 100! It was at 94 for a while, but I just held on until it got all the way to 100. We have to get these."

 

[ill marty]

The stories are great. About two years ago , we trailer from my camp in Ishpeming up to wolf lake road into the Huron mts. We stop and fill up . We trailer up to the mountains when we get out of the truck i notice yellow liquid all over my sled and trailer. I forgot to put the gas cap on and half the gas blew out da tank. We cover the tank the best we can and trailer back to Ishpeming to Meirs Yamaha. I buy a gas cap and we trailer back to the Hurons. After that i bought 2 gas caps and keep an extra on board. Lost about two hours of riding it ended up being a great day as always.

 

[saber]

OK, have another one. This one wouldnt be funny except that my friend was alright...

Agreed to meet my Uncle and a friend for a ride. His cabin is about 10 miles from mine. So I am waiting at the agreed spot and here they come. My friend pulls up on his sled and raises his modular face to say "HI" and there is blood everywhere on his face! Turns out when leaving the cabin he jumped a snowpile in the driveway w/his shield up and ran into the dog run cable right across the bridge of his nose! (He forgot to take it down for the winter months like he usually does) All the blood was from where his glasses dug the bridge of his nose. He was fine and we rode all day, but the next day he had 2 swollen black eyes and had to take 3 days off work that week because he did not want to face any customers looking like that.

Saber

 

[Firecatguy]

Ok here it is........back in 03 we stayed in Ironwood alot and the trails got bumpy trying to leave there on weekends so we started to trailer up a little farther.......I had just bought a new sled before said trip,we left out of the hoop and holler got 60 miles on sled and went to jump off the trail..this is where it went wrong....you know them famous drainage ditches that run along the fire roads well one was filled in with snow and when i went to get off I side swiped the ice shelf on back side of said drainage ditch bent ski in half......got it back on the trail the ski went right back with a little push here and there......WELL we got back to truck that night and had ramp down to pull onto trailer....Pk lot at Hoop was packed with people I pulled up to ramp jab gas to get enuff speed to get on trailer never noticed I bent the carbide and it grabbed the bottom of ramp up and over I went landed on the trailer on my back and looked up and everyone say it.....

 

[mezz]

No Words are necessary....view the first 4 frames in a slide show fashion, just like being there! The last frame, well, we still don't know to this day what he was thinking!?! Good Times!-Mezz