Dash through the snow on a snowmobile

“My first a-ha moment aboard a snowmobile was when I realized how much effort it took to steer the thing. The handlebar controls two skis up front, which, in theory, tell the machine where to go. In reality, though, if you really want to turn quickly and sharply, you must take your butt off the saddle and hang it over the side. In some of the smaller and more agile Ski-Doos it’s not too bad, but one specific machine I rode weighed nearly 700 pounds dry, so that sucker required effort. And because having to shift my weight to turn is not something I typically have to do in my Honda Civic, it took me a good while to get used to that.”

“Things like the wind, snow, ice, rooster tails and exhaust from the snowmobile in front of you, chapped lips, and more annoyingly, foggy glasses are all things you must deal with when snowmobiling. [...] In one instance, I tried to dismount my Ski-Doo, but instead, I sank into waist-deep snow. The more I tried to get out, the more I got stuck. It was like quicksand in a cartoon.”

“I pulled down my visor, set the hand warmers to max, and felt like the head of a Hells Angels gang. Suddenly, the theme music from The Magnificent Seven started running through my head. This was it. A gentle squeeze of the throttle and we were off. [...] For the first mile, I don’t think we went over 15 miles per hour — it was a pleasant jaunt. I kept checking my mirrors but saw no-one behind us. The speed limit was 45 miles per hour, so I accelerated rather bravely to 25 miles per hour. As the trees started to sweep by in a blur, I gripped the handlebar tighter and wondered why my gloves were melting. The hand-warmers were getting seriously hot.”