Unique experiences riding with your spouse?

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bankers_hours

New member
Was reading another thread and for some reason this experience came to mind.

Back in 1990, my wife and I were doing a honeymoon snowmobile trip on the Gunflint Trail in Norhern Minn (originally we were going to the FL Keys, talked her into buying snowmobiles instead, what a woman!). I think it was the second day of our trip and my sled ('81 SRX, not very dependable but very cool looking and fast when it ran) has a slow meltdown. We make it to a bar, which turned out to be a bar / airport. Always thought that was an interesting combo out in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, took her sled and went back to our motel to grab trailer and come back to retrieve my sled. When I got back and walked into the bar, everyone boo'd because my new bride was the life of the party! Married 20 years this St. Patricks Day, so I guess the I married right.
Hope to someday return to the Gunflint, beautiful riding.
 
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fredster

New member
The things I remember most happened the first year my wife went riding. I grew up with sleds riding fields and ditches in Ohio so I have always been comfortable with them. Not so my wife who grew up in the 'burbs and had not operated anything other than a car being marrying me - now we have tractors, jetskis, sleds, etc.

Anyways, we got back into the snowmobiling 10 years ago. The first time out in December she headed up a hill in deep powder. I had told her about shifting your weight to the uphill side, etc. but she just decided she could stay sitting. She bailed off the uphill side just as the sled turned 90 degrees to the hill and started to roll. Three complete rolls later it stopped and was amazingly completely undamaged...but totally flooded. Took a long time to get it started but no harm done.

Fast-forward to mid-January. We're riding with another couple. He's leading, his wife following, my wife third and me riding sweep. Other guy is setting too fast a pace, his wife panics and brakes hard....my wife panics, hammers the brake, turns hard left and launches the sled off a snowbank. Wife does a faceplant onto the trail, sled does a 270 degree roll IN THE AIR and then completes roll after making contact with the trail, and it's sitting there upright and idling with only a crack in the windsheild to show for it. I am panicking, pull up jump off sled to help wife who is staggering around in a daze. Amazlingly she's OK except for being really PO'd at the other female rider (yes this was the one and only time we rode with them). To her credit she got back on the sled and we completed our ride, we were 90 miles from our truck/trailer and I had visions of having to ride solo and come back for her but she stuck it out.

Late February and we're back in the UP for "one more weekend". We stop at Micky D's near Newberry for breakfast. She had parked her sled in such a way that when leaving she had to go up a large snowbank at an angle (I had told her about taking these things straight on but it didn't register). This time our 7-year old son is on the back (2 up touring machine). They head up the bank at a 45 degree angle. Left ski clears the bank and just keeps cliimbing, not coming down. When they are just about at the point when the sled will drop over the other side, she panics and they both jump off! Sled drops off snow bank, upright and heads on down the hill under it's own power/momentum for about 30-40 feet. I'm just sitting behind them, amazed and not quite sure what I had just witnessed. I was like, "what the *** was that" and she says "I thought sled was going to roll", etc.

For the next year I had fun telling people about our first year of sledding and how my wife won three Olympic awards for the sidehill roll, barrel roll and dismount!!!

Fortunately no injury to her and only one windshield for the sled. These 'events' taught her a lot about what NOT to do when sledding and we have been accident and error free since then. Well OK there was the one time in Grand Marais when she gunned it to jump a small snowbank behind the gas station and almost collided with a 500 gallon propane tank (another, what the *** was that?!) but all in all she has become a good rider. Now if I could only get her to go faster!!!!!
 
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peter

Member
I remember about 7-8 years ago the wife and I riding dicthes and farm feilds in s.e. WI. Riding back to the truck and trailer her sled broke down maybe a mile or two before the truck. So I get her on the back of my sled to drive her to the truck. Well with her on the back we come upto a hill beside a bridge. The snow was drifted so nicely on the hill I could not resist and up the hill I go, I get to the top she's still at the bottom. She rolled off the back of the sled cause she did'nt hold on, but it's still my fault to this day in her mind. I keep telling her aleast no one got hurt.
 
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coldbear

New member
I picked up a new sled for my wife from Curtis Mich.[Fish and Hunt] and rolled into Calumet Mich. for a badly needed vacation. Now this sled was close to 600 cc's and was a lot more sled than she was than she was used to.We start down the trail and come to a plowed couny road.A three ft. bank was stareing at her, and she went for a power jump. Up the sled goes,nothing but air under her sled, and bushes directly in her windshield before her stop. The odemeter read 2.3 miles.Lucky it only tore the windshield loose, and scratches to boot on the covers.It's buried pretty deep, and fortunately a pack of riders came by to help haul her sled out of the ditch.I was checking her for injuries and making sure she could ride on. But that wreck taught her a lot about ones ability to handle a HP sled.
 
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coldbear

New member
I picked up a new sled for my wife from Curtis Mich.[Fish and Hunt] and rolled into Calumet Mich. for a badly needed vacation. Now this sled was close to 600 cc's and was a lot more sled than she was than she was used to.We start down the trail and come to a plowed couny road.A three ft. bank was stareing at her, she went for a power jump. Up the sled goes,nothing but air under her sled, and bushes directly in her windshield before her stop. The odemeter read 2.3 miles.Lucky it only tore the windshield loose, and scratches also on the covers.It's buried pretty deep, and fortunately a pack of riders came by to help haul her sled out of the ditch.I was checking her for injuries and making sure she could ride on. But that wreck taught her a lot about ones ability to handle a HP sled.
It was also one of the best weeks of riding we ever had. It snowed 4-6" every day.
STAY SAFE.
 
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Snirtdawg

New member
First time ever for my wife on my sled back in 1993. We are at my uncles place on the lake. I have the sled in the yard pointing at the lake and tell her to take off. Well the sled slides a little and is pointing at a pine tree. She freaks and punches it! The branches sweep her off the sled and it ghost rides out onto the lake. She says She's done! 5 yard ride! Last weekend, we are riding with another couple near Lakewood, WI and her sled breaks down. She rides the rest of the day on the back of my Fusion. The trail comes down to edge of a lake and she is apprehensive about going across the ice. I tell her to get back on and take off, but she wasn't holding. My b-law said it looked like she was sitting on the sled, but no sled under neath her. I thought she was going to kill me when she picked herself off the snow, but she was a good sport!
 
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mrfirecat

New member
I bought my wife a sled shortly after we were married. I was hoping to get here into riding. That was not one of my better ideas. The majority of riding in our area is fields and ditches. I grew up riding in ditches and with experience you just know what to look for and how to avoid problems. I tried to tell her that she needed to always stay right in my path and she would be fine. I just couldn't get it across to her. She wanted to do her own thing. I watched my wife drop off of a 4' concrete wall down into a spillway. Fortunately she wasn't going very fast and was just shook up a bit. I can only imagine how it would have turned out if she had been going faster. A guy driving by helped me lift her sled out of the spillway and she rode her sled home and never got on it again. A big part of me is glad that she isn't into sledding anymore. It is just too dangerous for somebody that doesn't pay the close attention that they need to.
 
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sleddermom63

New member
I was the spouse. I never had been on a snowmobile prior to moving to MN. My husband loves to ride, so he got my 3 boys and me to ride. He bought me my very own sled, a really pretty sabercat. I always rode in the last place when we rode trails. Came upon an approach, going way to fast. I panic, hit the brakes and start to slide and turn slightly. I go airborn, when the sled hits, it pitches me off, I land face first in the snow. The sled does a barrel role and plows right over me! My family's all sitting on the trail with their mouths hanging open watching my "dismount"! My oldest son says, with awe in his voice "Wow mom, you could have made it onto a Sledneck video with that crash!"

Got back on the sled and have been wreck free since!
 
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