The next day we had a little snowmobiling adventure. Now I grew up in MN, have driven snowmobiles as a kid, but I do not drive snowmobiles now. I know my limitations and ATV’s, Motorcycles, Snowmobiles not my thing to drive, but I will enjoy them as long as I am more the passenger. Thankfully Tim said I could ride with him.
The morning was a little chaotic at the rental place but we hung back and let the other groups go first, there was only one guy who was checking out the machines when we were there and it turned into more of a comedy watching him try to figure it all out until help arrived.
Soon enough we were off, we did a little pit stop in an open field to let everyone get used to driving on a snowmobile, you need to go fast enough to get through the snow but you don’t want to go too fast on the other hand, especially when taking turns and you need to make sure you lean your weight with turns if the machine decides it wants to kick up a bit.
Oh I am so glad I went along on this adventure. It was so fun and pretty! We had a little pitstop at this lodge along the way and had some much-needed sustenance and a break. I stayed mostly warm on the ride, except for my knees, they were cold. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed my knees as much before, well the creaking of the knees yes, but cold, now that was a first.
After lunch we decided to head up to Two Top but we had a glitch in the plan, one of the machines were indicating it was low on fuel. Weird because all of the other machines barely had a dent in the amount of fuel used. We had to backtrack out and find a gas station to fuel up, only to find out it appears the fuel levels were fine it was a faulty gauge. This took about an hour out of our plans but we felt we still had time to make it up to the top of the mountain.
Wow! I am glad we did, it was so pretty! Honestly it was great being a passenger I was able to enjoy the scenery a little more and even the drive up the mountain was incredible. Dr. Seuss Trees everywhere. Honestly reminded me of some of the images I have seen from winter in Lapland, Finland (one of the my to do’s on my travel list).
We enjoyed our time at the top of the mountain but the hour was growing late and we wanted to make sure we were back down the mountain before sunset and we had about a good hour or so to travel back.
Let the fun begin
Here is where we took a fun “turn”….
The trails were nice and groomed from the previous days snowfall but if you strayed a little too close to the edge you could easily get sucked in making for a much harder drive. Well of course this is what happened. We just clipped the edge of the trail and soon took nice detour down into a low sloping open hill. Timmy was doing what he could do turn around, keeping us going fast enough to not get stuck, but the snowmobile kept wanting to kick into the turn causing us to have to lean hard to ensure we didn’t tip. This tipping not tipping experience went what felt like slow motion for a period of time, now I am on the back and this two-seater snowmobile had its own handgrips for the passenger so I’m tucked in to my spot.
There was one tip where I was fairly certain we were going to officially tip to the right and the thought of oh crap I’m going to break my leg ran through my head. It was then when I started to see dirtier snow which was what I thought was coming from the exhaust and Timmy went off to the side while the snowmobile stopped, fully upright. I honestly do not know how Timmy went off without clocking me in the head but he was just snow angel position lying in the snow, not hurt thankfully. Did the cursory, are you okay question, yes. Then we both chuckled. He hopped back on and we were able to loop around and get back onto the trail.
When we started to kick up to some speed it was comical that feathers started flying everywhere. Apparently around when Timmy was jettisoned off the snowmobile something caught on his coat and he had a nice rip from about the collarbone down to the hip pocket. It was right along the seam so you didn’t notice at first, but it was at the pocket where it snaked over which is where the bulk of the feathers were coming from, this is what that dirtier snow was, it was the feathers. We stopped briefly for Timmy to swap coats (he had a spare packed away), so we weren’t in a cyclone of feathers on the rest of the drive. It was around this time my leg started to throb, I guess some of the tipping and our attempts to make it not tip I must have slammed my leg into the machine or the hand grips some, nothing major but I felt a deep bruise coming.
Continuing on in our caravan of snowmobiles down the mountain, we would stop from time to time to keep the group together, we were second in the pack, this next stop proved all sorts of fun. Our leader, David, pulled over to let the group catch up, Timmy was behind him slowing down to stop just after a little slope. Timmy didn’t stop directly behind David but went a bit to the side, but oop! Too far to the side where we started to get sucked into deep snow and headed right towards a tree and Timmy revved up the engine a bit to hope to get out of it. Nope, we are now friends with the tree, but not directly. Just brushed under a few branches, very slowly though so just a gentle scape as we ducked under but the machine stopped and tipped to the side. Well there was no easy way for me to get out/off of the machine but to lean in and go towards the tree.
So I get into the hole next to the tree, and I do mean hole. I am in midthigh to hip deep of snow. At this point I can’t go out behind the machine and Timmy is to my right so I am just there until I can crawl out after Timmy. Timmy was okay, I was okay, so I just sat there and laughed. Well more of a quiet laugh that I couldn’t stop and the case of this giggles couldn’t quite stop. The rest of the group caught up to us, since they didn’t witness what actually happened I can imagine what they saw and how the scene played out for them. Seeing our machine tipped into a tree and both of us underneath. Timmy crawled out and I got out too but now the machine getting out was the next bit of fun. The front skis were buried in deep and it looked like it may be easier to pull the back out first but that proved unsuccessful. It took a bit of people power to dig out the skis and get the front pulled out enough so we could get the machine back upright to drive it out of the deep snow.
We joke, that in a group of photographers, no one grabbed any pictures. So no photos = it didn’t happen…. Ha! I can only imagine it looked like this (only probably not as cool)
All while this was happening one of our group inched into the deep snow themselves and it didn’t look favorable for them to get out easy. David jumped on the sled and gunned it to get out, we told him to back up from there but he decided the best way was forward and up a really steep hill. He made it within 2 feet from the top and just dug the machine in hard into the snow. Some of the group and some probably far more experienced other passerbys worked to get the sled out and it turned out it was easier to manuveur it down the hill than back up.
We were all free! Hooray! But since Timmy decided to give us an extra exhilarating experience twice within a short period of time, I decided that instead of going for three strikes and you’re out I would hitch a ride back on another sled, but that said third time was a charm. Timmy made it back to home base without further incident but what a fun little afternoon even with the added excitement. I joked with the group, hey when things go as expected, yeah you’ll remember bits and pieces in the future, but when the unexpected happens I bet we will have stories for years about that afternoon.
Where’s Doc?
The next day we departed back to Bozeman but made stop pitstops along the way and photographed some of the ghost towns in the area. Our driver, Sweeney, was a hoot and he really dressed the part for us to be transported back in time and take some portraits. Sweeney didn’t even listen to Mr. Cash as he even took his guns to town.
I kept looking around for Doc Holliday, this seemed like a place he would’ve enjoyed. He is someone I would like to have a drink or two with, but alas we didn’t find him but we did take a couple shots of whisky at the saloon in his honor, okay maybe this was just me, but the whisky was good.
