As I write this, 3 to 5 inches of glistening heavenly goodness is falling from the sky, making the commute home pretty slow and kids hoping for school closings. If all goes well (ie, nothing blows up at work), by this time Friday night we will be heading north on I-75 into the cold darkness, the snow flurries illuminating in our headlights. It’s January 11th, and soon we will be halfway through the month, with only two more months left to ride, as the public trails in Michigan close to snowmobiles on March 30th.
There are few things as magical to me like a winters night, up north, on my sled. The woods are silent, except for distant snowmobiles, if any, and the clear sky is ablaze with stars. The shadows of the trees dance along both sides of the trail, as your headlight slices through the night air. It’s rare that I ride at night anymore, unfortunately. A busy weekend on the trails increases your chances of meeting up with a rider that’s had tee many martoonies. So I cruise through the darkness, following Bill’s taillight with a 12 pack balanced between my knees. In the safety of our motel room or a friend’s home, we kick back with a few cold ones and spend the evening reflecting back on a great day of riding. Stiff and sore, but ready to do it all over again.
I used to hate winter. It was the longest, loneliest, most depressing season of them all. Time always flies when you can never get enough of something, and summer is a perfect example. As everyone knows, summer is gone before you know it, and Halloween rolls around at the same time the Christmas décor starts to appear in the stores. Christmas, New Year’s, then……January… The longest months of our lives lie ahead, until the weather finally breaks and the buds begin to appear on the trees, and you wake to chirping birds once again.
Snowmobiling makes this winter season go by so fast. We look forward to each weekend, watching the weather and the trail reports, hopefully we get to load up the trailer and explore a new trail system, and I have another journey to share with you here. We run through the last of the winter weekends to go riding up north, and before we know it, we’re flipping the calendar over to April. The weather begins to warm up and chrome begins to shine.
And it’s time again, to ride.