Subduing a Wayward Snowmachine

Dennis was thrilled in 2014 to buy a new 2015 Ski-Doo Tundra snowmobile. He and friends made a quick trip to the homestead late last November to try it out. The stream wasn’t solidly frozen, so they picked their way along the shoreline. A sharp hummock concealed beneath snow toppled Dennis’ machine and threw him onto thin ice. When he tried to stand up, his leg broke through and sank to the hip.

With help from his friend, he got up and out of there with no more damage than a few possibly cracked ribs. The next week he told the story to a group of friends. One guy listened incredulously, then asked, “Aren’t you getting a little long in the tooth [old] to be doing this kind of stuff?”

Long in the tooth or not, Dennis was determined to master his new machine. The first few days he rode it the following spring, it bucked him off nine times, once at 35 mph in the middle of a groomed trail (visibility was bad and he hit a rut, he says). No injuries, thankfully, just lots of grumbling. April 15, when the stream ice should have been thick and solid, he hit an unfrozen patch under deep snow and sank!

He and his young companion made it to shore, wallowed through sugary snow to the lake, and began trekking home.

Everybody at camp rallied to the rescue and with boards, winches, man power and machine power, got it up out of the creek. It started right up and has run perfectly ever since. We hoped it had learned who was boss!