Throttle Thumb: A Weekend of Snowmobiling

If you read my last post you know that our original plan for this past weekend was to go ice camping. A 3-day weekend, two nights of sleeping on the ice, and a whole lot of fishing. Perfect! Or at least, it would have been perfect if it actually happened, but a blizzard got in the way.

After finally accepting that the camping trip was not to be, we figured that we could salvage the weekend by hitting the local snowmobile trails. We had barely spent any time on them thanks to Darrell’s sled needing repairs. With rain and warm temps in the forecast, it looked like this might be the final weekend to get out locally.

On Sunday I continuously checked the OFSC trails app to see if the trail down the road was open. By the time Darrell had finished clearing the snow that fallen and blown in the day before, the trail was open and we got ready to go.

Being a complete newb to snowmobiling, I had read a lot of articles and watched a lot of YouTube videos, and practiced with my sled around our property while waiting for Darrell’s sled to be ready. Of course, nothing is as instructive as actually doing it!

The adventure started before we even reached the trail, with a neighbour stuck in a snow drift at the intersection. Darrell helped to give a push and the truck eventually came free. It was the beginning of a theme. The wind was still incredibly strong and drifts were everywhere. Many roads ended up being closed again that night due to the drifting.

Once on the trail I was thrilled to let my sled pick up speed. Sure, it wasn’t near as fast as many people of the trails were going, but it was perfectly fine with me. I loved getting to see parts of properties that we normally don’t get to see, and when the trail entered the woods I was thrilled.

Only a few minutes into the ride my right thumb was absolutely killing me. Holding onto a throttle is not something my hand is used to and my thumb screamed about it. I kept shifting my hand into different positions and eventually settled on something that felt less painful.

We drove through farm fields, on unmaintained roads, down a section of road where the trail was impossible to get to because of the snowbank, but the wind was also making it impossible to see as you travelled beside the snowbank. There were horses to see and barns to look at it, though I was pretty focused on just controlling my sled, following Darrell, staying on the trail, and staying out of the way of other sleds.

Our first major lesson for the day was that we should have brought the paper map, or found a way to mount a phone on the sled so it was easy to pick the right section of trail. We made plans ahead of time and then managed to get confused while out on the trail and took different turns than we meant to. It worked out fine and we ended up on the sections we meant to travel, just not in the order we planned.

I loved travelling the winding trails through the forest. It was so much more fun than going straight in a wide open field. I got to play with my sled more, work on my skills other than holding on, and trees are so much more interesting than fields. Crossing over bridges, following the signs, and being thankful for good trail markers when the blowing snow reduced my visibility made me really grateful for all the hard work the trail clubs do to keep trails open.

We came across a sled in the ditch that Darrell once again had to help free. I would help if needed, but Darrell’s strength is usually what’s needed to free people from a pickle. I’m the one who helps him get out of trouble (more on that soon). Further along we came across another group of sleds in the ditch. One snowmobile had made it out and the others were working on it. The mixed bag of weather we’d had lately was making it difficult to follow the trail in some spots, and if you ended up off trail in a swampy area, you were dealing with water.

As the sun started going down we decided we weren’t ready to call it quits yet and continued on. There were drifts across the road that made me wonder if a car could actually get through them, and on the trails we were finding many sections that were now only wide enough for one sled, making it more important than ever to keep an eye out for oncoming sleds.

I had planned to stop at the next road but Darrell wanted to keep going. That was not our best choice. That stretch was so blown in that it was constantly up and down over the drifts, with the northbound side of the trail being the only passable option for most of it. By the next road I decided it was time to head home.

At this point I saw Darrell playing in the drifts on the southbound side and I knew exactly what was going to happen. Sure enough, he started going up a tall drift and stopped and blew snow everywhere. He was stuck. This is where my kind of rescuing comes in. We carry a ridiculous amount of recovery gear with us whether we’re in the truck or on the sleds. I pulled out the kinetic rope and a couple of soft shackles (shoutout to Afraid Knot Ropes for the great gear) and hooked up the sleds. It took me a few tries and he had to clear some snow from under his sled, but we eventually got it out. That’s the second time my snowmobile has had to rescue his.

The rest of the ride home was as quick as we could go, but with a stop to admire the beautiful sunset. I’d had about enough of the wind trying to blow me off of the sled, but I’d also had so much fun. My thumb was still a little sore from the throttle but not doing too badly. I nearly ended up falling off my sled on the final stretch before home when my ski slipped on a slope and I didn’t give it enough throttle. I slid down the ditch and stopped before hitting some trees. My first instinct was to put it in reverse but I remembered a YouTube video telling me never to do that. I cranked my skis, hit the throttle, and worked my way out of the deep snow and back to the trail. It was pretty exhilarating!

On Monday morning we decided to hit the trails as early as we could, with the goal of being done around noon. The wind was gone and the temp was climbing. The trails were going to start melting.

This time we headed elsewhere, taking some of the same trails from the day before, but largely riding new ones. After dressing far too warm the day before, we both wore our Arc’teryx base layers under our suits and left it at that.

Without the wind we had zero visibility issues and got to enjoy a beautiful day. The drifts remained and there were so many moguls in some sections. Having had a good ride under our belts the day before, we both felt more comfortable and picked up the overall pace. There was a lot of field riding on these trails. This time we remembered the paper map which helped Darrell follow the trail, and I kept my phone more accessible, so I could follow our route better and make sure we were staying on open trails.

The highlights of this ride included going through two spots of standing water with slush – we both pinned it and made it through no problem. We also came across two flocks of turkeys, one running off the trail when they heard us coming, and another flock running up a hill. We also encountered some crazy snowbanks at road crossings, one of which I was pretty worried about, but we both made it no problem.

Some sections of trail were really icy and my non-studded track sure likes to slide around in those conditions. I found it pretty fun. The trails were really starting to soften up as we got closer to home, which were also the heavier travelled trails.

My thumb had been doing pretty well on this trip, but after our last stop it suddenly started aching. I could not find a good position for my hand on the last part of the trail heading home. Good ol’ throttle thumb. Once we were home I had trouble undoing my jacket with that hand and immediately headed for the Advil. It’s still taking some time to regain strength in that hand!

Huge thanks to all the volunteers with the Durham Trail Blazers and the Mount Forest Drifters Snowmobile Club that made it so we could get some riding in!

Looks like we’ll have to head north to enjoy some more winter fun, but I’m grateful to have had some time closer to home to get much needed experience. The snowmobiles are mostly meant for getting us to fishing spots, because that’s clearly always our end goal. But it was nice to hit the trails and take in the sights. I look forward to doing more of that.

Keep an eye out for the YouTube video that I hope to have out later this week. I only captured our second day of riding, but for anyone that hasn’t ridden a snowmobile, or hasn’t ridden on the trails, you might find it interesting!