Loving the Outdoors Part 5

By Jill Fennema –

This week’s feature about enjoying winter outdoor sports is not a sport that everyone enjoys, but those who do, are in love with it and travel miles and miles to find white powder to play in. It’s certainly not a sport you can enjoy in our area right now, because nearly all the snow is melted. It is only March, so there is always the chance we will get more snow, but many are hoping that is not the case.

Many local snowmobile enthusiasts would like to see some more snow so that they could enjoy hitting the trails around the four county area. You can find a trail map at the MN Department of Natural Resources website. We have a map of the local trails posted with this article.

Those trails are maintained by local snowmobile clubs. In Pipestone County, the Hiawatha Sno-Blazers Club handles that work. They groom the trails whenever necessary, depending on snowfall. They groomed the trails a few weeks ago when we had several inches of snow on the ground. On the weekend of February 21, we had several inches of snow and the temperatures turned mild, so there was a large group of people out enjoying the trails that weekend.

The Hiawatha Sno-Blazers use a 2010 Tucker Sno-Cat to groom the trails. Several members volunteer many hours throughout the season to groom trails.

The Minnesota United Snowmobilers Association collects the money from the dues and from all snowmobile registrations and puts it in a dedicated fund to be doled out each year to the many clubs throughout the state. The amount each club gets depends on how many miles of trailed they groom. There are a total of 22,000 miles of groomed trails in Minnesota.

“The funds benefit local members because that is what pays for our equipment to be able to groom our local trails. That is why it is so important to be a member of a club if you ride the trails,” said Danielle Thompson, one of the club members..

In the four county area, there are four snowmobile clubs and the trails in the area all connect to one another. The other clubs include the Southwest Ridge Runners in Lyon County, The Drift Clippers in Lincoln County, the Drift Busters in Murray County, and the Sno-masters in Rock County.

Many people who love to snowmobile also travel out to Wyoming, Montana, and western South Dakota to find the really deep snow. These are the people who are hoping for snow in November and wishing it wasn’t gone until April. While out west, they hit the trails and go off-trail to find hills and meadows where they can let loose and enjoy the thrill of riding their machines in the deep snow, enjoying nature that you cannot find locally.

It’s typical for the snow to be so deep that if they get stuck and have to dig out, they might just find the top of a stop sign buried under all that snow. The deep snow is good – it keeps them from wrecking their machines on rocks and other hard surfaces that can be just below the surface of the snow. This past year there was less snow out in Laramie, Wyoming, than they were used to and some men came home with broken machines. Snowmobilers like to have a 60 inch base of snow with a few feet of powder on top.

One should be in reasonably good health to enjoy snowmobiling out west in the hills and mountains – the air is much thinner, so you can get out of breath faster. Packing along water and snacks is also a good idea because, while there are warming houses and places to use the restroom, there are not a lot of places to stop for food or drink. Some people have a “muff pot,” which is a metal container that connects to the snowmobile’s muffler. You can put food in the pot and the heat (not the exhaust) from the muffler will warm up the food.

It’s also a good idea to stick to trails. Some are groomed and some are not, but even those that are not groomed are marked. Experienced snowmobilers like to get off the trail and enjoy hill climbing and playing in meadows, but there is always the chance of getting turned around and lost.

A couple of years ago, you may have heard about snowmobilers that got stuck on the Snowy Range. Some of our local snowmobile enthusiasts were out there at the same time and had met the lost adventurers earlier at a warming house. This group of guys from South Dakota lost their GPS and thought they were on the trail, but they were not. They kept moving forward, but lost their sense of direction and got themselves down into an area where their machines could not get out. They had to spend a couple days and nights out in nature, burning brush and as much firewood as they could find within a two-mile radius of where they were stranded. They were rescued with helicopters and it turned into a very expensive affair for them.

Most of the time, snowmobilers do not have to deal with these types of extreme complications. Usually the biggest problem is getting a machine stuck in deep snow and having to dig it out. Everyone has a backpack with a small telescoping-handle scoop shovel and a saw for saplings. Usually those two tools and the help of a buddy can get most machines out. Sometimes they have to roll the machine over in the snow to get it out of the hole, but once you have it facing downhill, most machines will be ready to go at that point.

Mike Van’t Hof and Dan “Boone” Gunnink digging out a snowmobile in several feet of snow. (submitted photos)

Kyle Van’t Hof, Dave Mohlenkamp, and Brogan Mohlenkamp on the trail in the Snowy Range.