hondarider
01-27-2007, 05:02 PM
That thread reminded me of a particularly painful story from my past...it's a two-parter though...if I just tell you how it ends, you won't be able to empathize with star character (me) properly...LOL. So here I go...
OK...here's the first portion of my snowmobile story...it was 1994 and I bought a shiny new 1995 Ski Doo Formula 500 liquid...decent sled...went pretty well...a definite upgrade from my Arctic Cat El Tigre air cooled...so I was single at the time and we rode alot that winter...we rode out of my uncle’s house which is directly adjacent to Balance Rock and PSF...right on the edge of an expansive trail system leading clear to Canada...we rode morning, noon, and night...if it snowed, we all bagged work and rode like crazy...so one night in January, less than a month from the purchase of my new sled, we got like 14" of snow and we rode ‘til the weee hours of the morning...rode back to my uncles house and crashed for the night...got up at 6:00AM with the intent of busting first trails up Greylock (a local mountain)...now Greylock has a road that goes all the way to the summit and at 3500 feet, it gets substantially more snow than the surrounding area...the road is closed to cars in the winter and is perfect for sleds...it's probably about 20-30 feet wide with dense forest on either side of the road...some mean looking cement pillars to keep cars from plummeting off the cliffs are also along the roads...
So we make our way up to the base lodge and we're happy to see that we're the first people on the trails that morning...so we head up the mountain...the wind had drifted the snow so that there was a ridge running along the center of the road and the snow banked off sharply to either side...it was loose powder and probably 3 feet deep at the center of the road...you had to ride fast with your weight back in order to stay on top of the powder...if you let of the throttle, the nose would dive and snow would come right over the windshield into your face....you had to straddle the peak of the drift because it was so steeply banked on either side that you could hardly stay on the road otherwise...
So I'm leading, as is so often the case, and I'm having a great time...I'm straddling the center of the drift and running up the road at full throttle...now this is only a 500 and the snow is deep and loose so I'm guessing 50mph was about as fast as I could have been going....there's a long straightaway as you're coming up from Lanesboro and I was cranking along...at some point, I started slipping to the right side of the peak and the sled was drifting off to the right...I stood up and leaned way to the left in an attempt to regain the center of the road...but the bank was too steep and I kept slipping to the right...so, in a moment of panic, I let off the throttle for like a second...the nose dipped...snow came over the windshield...and everything turned white...I could feel the sled slip hard further to the right so I hammered on the throttle and leaned way to the left in my blindness....I was back to the sitting position after the face full of snow and I was leaning as far as I could off the left side of the sled...my right foot was in the foot well and my right knee was sticking way out the right side...I got the skis back on top of the snow and cleared my vision just in time to see that I was all the way to the right side of the road and about to have a full throttle impact with a white birch tree...I steered as hard as I could to the left and my right ski tip just passed to the left of center on the tree...then black....
When I finally came to a stop...there was no sled...no road...no mountains...no noise...just a bright white light…I thought that I must assuredly be dead. But as it turns out, I just happened to come to rest lying face down in bright white snow. Searing pain shot through my body and my leg felt wet and warm...I laid there for a very long time...and my buddies, fearing the worse, were afraid to disturb the body…they just stood around watching...When I finally rolled over onto my back to take a look around...mostly ‘cuz I was curious about where my sled had gone and a little scared that I might get run over soon...I saw that I had narrowly missed hitting an 18" tree dead on…I had hit it nonetheless...the right ski, the hood, the belly pan, the right DSA arm, right foot well, as well as my right knee had impacted the tree at what I can only surmise was 40+ mph...my body and the subsequent rolls had taken care of the windshield, handlebars, seat, head light, bumper, etc...My 1 month old sled was in tatters and my knee was much worse...we sat there for a while…stunned...and then the laughter started..."holy sh*t"..."that was cool!"..."I thought you were dead for sure" and my personal favorite "It's OK if you cry...I won't tell anyone...maybe"
So that's part 1 of the story...sled smashed into little bits and my right knee buggered up pretty well. After towing the carcass of the sled and myself off the trails and back to a place where we could get a truck into, I spent the rest of January, February, and March with a little orthoscopic surgery action and a lot of physical therapy...crutches...no work...lots of pain meds...blah, blah, blah…good times
OK...here's the first portion of my snowmobile story...it was 1994 and I bought a shiny new 1995 Ski Doo Formula 500 liquid...decent sled...went pretty well...a definite upgrade from my Arctic Cat El Tigre air cooled...so I was single at the time and we rode alot that winter...we rode out of my uncle’s house which is directly adjacent to Balance Rock and PSF...right on the edge of an expansive trail system leading clear to Canada...we rode morning, noon, and night...if it snowed, we all bagged work and rode like crazy...so one night in January, less than a month from the purchase of my new sled, we got like 14" of snow and we rode ‘til the weee hours of the morning...rode back to my uncles house and crashed for the night...got up at 6:00AM with the intent of busting first trails up Greylock (a local mountain)...now Greylock has a road that goes all the way to the summit and at 3500 feet, it gets substantially more snow than the surrounding area...the road is closed to cars in the winter and is perfect for sleds...it's probably about 20-30 feet wide with dense forest on either side of the road...some mean looking cement pillars to keep cars from plummeting off the cliffs are also along the roads...
So we make our way up to the base lodge and we're happy to see that we're the first people on the trails that morning...so we head up the mountain...the wind had drifted the snow so that there was a ridge running along the center of the road and the snow banked off sharply to either side...it was loose powder and probably 3 feet deep at the center of the road...you had to ride fast with your weight back in order to stay on top of the powder...if you let of the throttle, the nose would dive and snow would come right over the windshield into your face....you had to straddle the peak of the drift because it was so steeply banked on either side that you could hardly stay on the road otherwise...
So I'm leading, as is so often the case, and I'm having a great time...I'm straddling the center of the drift and running up the road at full throttle...now this is only a 500 and the snow is deep and loose so I'm guessing 50mph was about as fast as I could have been going....there's a long straightaway as you're coming up from Lanesboro and I was cranking along...at some point, I started slipping to the right side of the peak and the sled was drifting off to the right...I stood up and leaned way to the left in an attempt to regain the center of the road...but the bank was too steep and I kept slipping to the right...so, in a moment of panic, I let off the throttle for like a second...the nose dipped...snow came over the windshield...and everything turned white...I could feel the sled slip hard further to the right so I hammered on the throttle and leaned way to the left in my blindness....I was back to the sitting position after the face full of snow and I was leaning as far as I could off the left side of the sled...my right foot was in the foot well and my right knee was sticking way out the right side...I got the skis back on top of the snow and cleared my vision just in time to see that I was all the way to the right side of the road and about to have a full throttle impact with a white birch tree...I steered as hard as I could to the left and my right ski tip just passed to the left of center on the tree...then black....
When I finally came to a stop...there was no sled...no road...no mountains...no noise...just a bright white light…I thought that I must assuredly be dead. But as it turns out, I just happened to come to rest lying face down in bright white snow. Searing pain shot through my body and my leg felt wet and warm...I laid there for a very long time...and my buddies, fearing the worse, were afraid to disturb the body…they just stood around watching...When I finally rolled over onto my back to take a look around...mostly ‘cuz I was curious about where my sled had gone and a little scared that I might get run over soon...I saw that I had narrowly missed hitting an 18" tree dead on…I had hit it nonetheless...the right ski, the hood, the belly pan, the right DSA arm, right foot well, as well as my right knee had impacted the tree at what I can only surmise was 40+ mph...my body and the subsequent rolls had taken care of the windshield, handlebars, seat, head light, bumper, etc...My 1 month old sled was in tatters and my knee was much worse...we sat there for a while…stunned...and then the laughter started..."holy sh*t"..."that was cool!"..."I thought you were dead for sure" and my personal favorite "It's OK if you cry...I won't tell anyone...maybe"
So that's part 1 of the story...sled smashed into little bits and my right knee buggered up pretty well. After towing the carcass of the sled and myself off the trails and back to a place where we could get a truck into, I spent the rest of January, February, and March with a little orthoscopic surgery action and a lot of physical therapy...crutches...no work...lots of pain meds...blah, blah, blah…good times