Western Travels, Day 3

As you know, I'm in Whitefish, MT with my sister and her friend Kathy.  And today is a pretty exciting day for my sister and I.  We're going snowmobiling!  We haven't gotten to do that in over 20 years!  We set aside one day just for this activity. 
Winter Wonderland Sports had all the equipment we needed for our day of playing in the snow.  We had all of our own winter clothes and boots.  But they provide a helmet with the rental.  We knew we'd need two machines; one of them was for two people and the other was for a single rider.  Cathy had made our reservations ahead of time so we just had to get there.
Once we found the place, which was west of Whitefish about 20 miles or so,  we had paperwork to sign and then the owner showed us the snowmobiles.  We were amazed that now, snowmobiles have "Reverse."  Since when???  Okay!...what else?  The handle bars had heat in them, nothing new there.  The rider had his own handle bars as well.  Really?  Cool!  We were impressed by what we learned! 
After all the necessary info, he equipped us with a backpack that included:  a put-together shovel, a first aide kit and a put-together probe (in case of avalanches).  Also, he had Cathy wear an arm band that was specifically for finding us if we needed help or if we got into trouble of any kind.  It sends a signal that "pings" every five minutes and the owner can keep track of any rider via his computer.  Very valuable tool indeed. 
We were going to ride on a groomed trail without a guide.  The weather turned out to be perfectly sunny and quite warm.  We had actually worn too many layers and were shedding some of them before our ride even began.


The guy that rented us the machines said, "OK, now I know you ladies have cameras.  Give them to me and I'll take pictures."  So we did!



Two passenger snowmobile.

                             

One passenger machine.

Kathy and Cathy....my sister driving.

One of our first stops for pictures was maybe 4 or 5 miles into the ride.  We were so impressed by what we saw that we made many stops for photos throughout the entire ride!  And as we rode, we were getting up into the mountains so the looks of the trees with the snow gradually changed as well. 


We thought this was a gorgeous sight but we had no idea what was to come! 

The trail was pretty wide when we started out but gradually got more narrow the higher up the mountain we traveled.  Such pretty views.

                                     



One of my favorites....the fluffy snow and the beautiful blanketed trees.  Very serene and quiet here too.  We'd stop occasionally and shut off the snowmobiles so that we could take pictures.  Except for the other riders that showed up sporadically, nothing else was out here. 



Down in the valley is a lake...not sure which one though. 



The trees cast some cool looking shadows.

Here, some riders have gone off the trail to have some fun in the fluffy untouched snow.  There's nothing better than fresh powder to ride on!



Mountains way off in the background too.

                                    



Example of the narrowing trail.  The view looking down the side was magnificent!

Another one of my favorites.



Plum Creek....so peaceful looking and the sound of it reminded me of a summer day when you would be out walking through it with bare feet.


Once we rode for a few hours, we came to a spot where we could ride through a meadow.  Again, the snow was deep all over.  We knew we were going to stop for a break and eat some snacks.  I had been driving the two person machine with Kathy on behind me.  We ended up getting stuck as we were about to stop. 
We dug awhile then tried to lift the back end and move it out of the hole that it had been in.  We did this many times.  Cathy took the other machine to see if some riders that we'd seen sitting in the meadow were still around to help us.  Meanwhile, Kathy and I kept digging.  She came back with no luck.  We all tried to maneuver it more and dug more.  Finally....we angled the skis a different direction and managed to move the back end over a bit more.  Cathy took the helm while Kathy and I pushed.  Out of the hole it went!  Cathy kept going with it until it was safe to stop it again. 

This looks over the meadow where we could ride all over the place and also looks over the spot where we were stuck!

Cathy, my sister, looking exhausted after we'd spent a long time shoveling to dig out the two passenger snowmobile that had been stuck.  Good thing we had a shovel!  We would sink to our knees each time we tried to walk in the snow.  We had been stuck for roughly an hour. 



Kathy, standing in the hole where the snowmobile had been and watching as Cathy drove the now unstuck snowmobile to higher ground.  We did it!!!  

 After getting the snowmobile free once again, we rode both of them out to the middle of the meadow and stopped for our snack.  We also wanted to give Kathy a chance to drive one.  She never had.  She rode one big lap and came back.  After we asked her if she wanted to go more, she replied, "I'm good."  But she did it!  And, she even said that if we do this again, she wants her own machine to drive! 
We hadn't been stopped in the meadow more than ten minutes and we heard the sound of other snowmobiles getting closer.  And to make us feel worse, they came from the direction that we had been stuck!  Great timing fellas!  There were four of them too.  We could have had so much help had they shown up a little earlier! 
This little side trail was 10 miles total off the regular trail.  So we began our ride back the main trail.  We happened across a couple that was riding four wheelers in the snow.  Another great way to see the beautiful sights!  We stopped for more pictures...and found this:

Toward the bottom left corner, you see some piles of snow.  The one in the back is on top of an out house and the green roof is an information booth.  That's Kathy and Cathy taking a rest. 

It's hard to imagine just how much snow was on the ground.  But seeing the buildings under that much snow put it into perspective a little better!  Near those little buildings was a creek flowing under a bridge that we rode across.  The water looked so clean. 
         

A small creek with the snow appearing to be flowing out into it. 



The snow has begun the melt down and created a neat design. 



We had rented the snowmobiles for the entire day.  Sunday's they are open from 10AM until 6PM so we started our journey at 11:30AM and rode all day.  The total miles we actually rode was 60.  It didn't really seem like it though.  We stopped frequently and didn't get cold at all.  The temperature was 47* when we got back to the rental spot. 



This is the map of part of the trail that we followed.  We started where the X marks the spot, on the left side, on the edge of where the white meets the green areas, about half way down.  We rode up and around wherever you see the red marker.  The portion to the south of where we started (the bottom half of the map), was the section that we didn't get to. 

We were so glad we did this little venture.  It had been fun and we would love to do it again!  After turning in our equipment and getting settled back in Cathy's vehicle, we began our drive back to Whitefish.  We needed to find food!  Yesterday, we'd seen a pizza place and decided to go there.  We found The MacKenzie River Pizza Co. and made our way inside.  They had pretty good food.  We loved it and stuffed ourselves! 
After getting in the car to go back to the lodge, we had barely backed out of our parking spot and a girl came up to the passenger window.  Cathy rolled down the window.  The girl asked if she was Cathy Moberg.  Really?!?!?!  I knew instantly who it was!  Cathy replied, "yes but what's your name?  You look familiar."  I smacked Cathy on the arm and said, "That's Veronica!"  Oh---My---Word! 
We got out and went back inside with her and found her sister Cheryl there, along with both of their husbands.  Yes, in the same restaurant we had just been in!  These two girls grew up about 3 miles away from our family out in the country.  We rode the same school bus together and Veronica and I rode our motorcycles all over the place in the summer!  What a small world!  We hadn't seen each other in about 10 years from what we could figure.  We all laughed and caught up on each other's lives in about half an hour's time.  Sadly, no photos were taken.  Amazing and so much fun to see them!


Need I say more? 

Mmmm....it was so good! 

The visit with our former childhood friends/shirt tail relatives, ended much too soon.  We could have sat there all night!  They were in Whitefish to ski and had been doing this trip for a few years, always on the same weekend in March. 
But soon we got back into the car and began driving to Kalispell, MT.  It's another short jaunt from Whitefish.  We had driven through there on the way to Whitefish and discovered that it was quite large and had many familiar restaurants and shopping.  What we saw looked very inviting as a matter of fact.  But, we knew they had a Cold Stone Creamery!  So that was where we were going after our pizza!  We drove there and found it quite handily, making our selections.  From there we went to a gas station and filled up because tomorrow was our day to leave and head back home.  What a great weekend it had been.