I was hoping to turn over a new leaf.
As many of you know, I also work on SnoWest Magazine, a snowmobile pub that focuses on the steep terrain and deep snows in the western United States and Canada. While riding for that publication, I’ve been know to get stuck a time or two (or three) on a snowmobile (and that can be on just one ride). Or get bucked off after nailing a stump or rock lurking just below the snow as I ride off trail in what I thought was deep powder. Or even roll a sled off a mountain due to a “miscalculation” on my part. It happens.
But that’s snowmobiles, not dirt toys. Certainly I won’t get stuck riding an ATV or side-by-side. Not gonna happen. Those same rider “issues” won’t follow me when the snow melts and I’m riding on Mother Earth. Turn over a new leaf indeed.
Not so fast.
Hmmm …. Maybe that’s my problem—not fast enough.
In the past few months I’ve gotten stuck a couple of times and apparently I’m not very discriminatory because I’ve done it on an ATV and a side-by-side, including in our Commander XT 1000. It’s almost more embarrassing to get stuck on an ATV and side-by-side than it is on a snowmobile.
I have to admit that when I got stuck in the Commander, it was in the snow. (Where’s Mattracks when you need them?) We went for a ride in mid-December in the hills above my house in eastern Idaho. It was somewhat of a mild winter and we rode ATVs and side-by-sides more than we normally get to in the winter. It was that mild weather that tempted us to head for the hills, which sit at the base of the Big Hole Mountains. We were about 10 miles into our ride when we started to find a little snow on the road. Nothing real deep, so we kept riding along—that is, until we tried to cross a snowdrift that blocked the road and buried our Commander up to its axles. A little—okay, maybe it was a lot—pushing and pulling and we got out of the snowdrift and headed back down the hill. We decided it would be better to ride along the river.
The other time or two (maybe three?) was while riding at the Oregon Dunes and down in Glamis in the Imperial Sand Dunes. In one of those instances it basically came down to letting off the throttle at the wrong time and not having the momentum to keep going up the hill. Another time I just ran out of power and didn’t turn out in time.
I don’t mind stucks on an ATV as much as a snowmobile because ATVs are definitely easier to get unstuck. There’s the obvious weight difference for one thing, and ATVs are shorter than a sled and you can usually just lift up on the rear rack or bumper and lift
the wheels right out of the sand. Heck, some snowmobile tracks (just the track, not the entire sled mind, you) are longer than some ATVs. No wonder a sled is harder to get unstuck—especially when the suspension is full of snow. That doesn’t happen too often on an ATV or side-by-side.
So it might be embarrassing to get stuck on an ATV but easier to get unstuck. Not a bad tradeoff. After all, it’s just my pride on the line.
By the way, I’m not going to count the time I was kind-of-sort-of-but-not-really stuck on a ride in Moab. Stuck in Moab most of the time means up against a rock ledge. That’s not really stuck. That’s up-against-a-wall stopped. So throw that one out.
I guess by now it’s obvious I haven’t turned over a new leaf. I like to think of it as being consistent—on snow and dirt and sand.
Consistent is good.
