Riding with Thal (Winter)

When the ground freezes we stable our iron steeds and pull out our sleds.  

My sled is a 2009 Polaris SwitchBack 600 Dragon.  It's a crossover sled able to ditch bang and run through deep snow covered fields while stretching out on the endless groomed trails.









Liz prefers her Cadillac of snowmobiles the mighty Arctic Cat TZ1 1000 Turbo.  This kitty puts out a massive 177 horsepower.  It'll eat up any terrain you point the nose at but get it out on the lake and she's a rocket! Liz loves it for the Cadillac type ride.  The suspension just absorbs every bump and hugs the corners.

Riding with Thal in the winter is different for me than with Thal on the bike (motorcycle).  I seem to get extremely fatigued at times.  Snowmobiling takes more body movement. At times there is constant body adjustments to help the machine avoid obstacles, impact bumps, or just assisting with keeping the skis on the snow.  The ruffer the conditions the more energy, calories burned and fatigue slowly sets in.  I don't really know what sets it off but at times my body just seems to shut down.  I get a real bad headache, nauseous, and extreme fatigue. Just feels like my body wants to shut down and sleep.  An extended rest and quick calories seem to sometimes help. I do try to eat and take in fluids to replace electrolytes. Other times, only an extended power nap of up to four hours will get me going again. I'm currently working at getting my counts up and trying to maintain a higher hemoglobin.  I'm hoping this will help, however I can't always attribute the extreme fatigue episodes to low blood counts as it has occurred with in a few days of receiving fresh RBCs.

I learn to ride with Thal and not against. At times difficult, we do ride on, keeping life good!





Our first ride out from home was an introduction for Liz and her Cat to water as most water holes had not yet frozen. As you'll see in the video they both did well.

We had a great trip up to Golden Lake Canada this year (2017) with two other couples.

We all trailered our sleds across the border.  Easy getting across. Getting back was more difficult.  Have your registrations for your vehicle, trailer, and sleds ready to present at the border.  I keep mine laminated.  And passports or enhanced licences.  Liz and I both have the enhanced licences.

Ignore the date posted withing the video. It is 2017.

Trails were awesome.  Plenty of snow everywhere and all well maintained and groomed.  We parked the sleds right out our motel door.  From our motel we could get to any village or city via their trail system.  Parked our truck on Tuesday and didn't start it again until we left Sunday. Or we could head off into the countryside or forests.  We road allot of beautiful terrain.  

Can't wait for our return trip!

Some local sites.  These are all trail we ride from our home in central New York.  We have the Tug Hill Plateau to the Northwest and the Adirondack Mountains to the Northeast.  Both accessible via the NYS snowmobile trail system.