November 2012 – Presidents Message
Kick Off Party 2012
Can you feel it creeping into view? Working afternoons, I get a daily reminder of the upcoming season. Each evening, the sun sets a little farther south on the horizon. The leaves are all gone now. The purple and gold sunset on a pale blue canvas tells me that winter is not long off now.
Like bucks in the rut, we snowmobilers are a different breed. The cold triggers something inside of us. When 95% of the population looks at that sunset, they feel a sense of dread. A sense of not only a year gone by, with what could’ve been or should’ve been, but of what’s coming.
They fear the cold and snow as well as what it brings to them. Higher utility bills. Stressful Holidays, etc. Not to say we won’t have to deal with these issues, because we will. The difference is that as snowmobilers, we welcome it. We welcome it because it provides us an opportunity to leave all of our problems at home, if not just for a weekend.
You know for a fact that Friday morning, December 14th, as you squeeze that throttle heading out of Munising, everyday life will melt away in the sun glistening on the fresh snow. Who else would risk driving over 400 miles on icy desolate two lane roads, all the while hoping the snow gets deeper the farther north you go? Who else looks at a weekend spent outside in subfreezing temps, riding down a trail at 50mph with nothing between you and the weather but the clothes on your back as a “vacation”?
Yes, we snowmobilers are a different breed. When we’re standing on the platform at Miners Castle, 250 feet above the water, on that Friday evening watching that purple and gold sunset on one of the most beautiful scenes God ever created, we will collectively smile. Because as snowmobilers, we get it.