Snowmobiling on MLK weekend with Carolyn and J

My sister Carolyn and her boyfriend J were out visiting over Martin Luther King weekend and it was great spending some time with them. While they were here we all decided to take a snowmobile tour and it turned out to be an amazing experience(including a few hijinks but you'll have to read to the end to find out about that excitement)

Before I get going on how it all began, here's a quick picture of Julie relaxing on a snowmobile in the Wasatch wilderness. You can see the twin peaks in the distant background but we are completely on the other side of the mountains from civilization
Below is a map of the route we took. Our snowmobile tour started from the backside of snowbird which is at the top of the red line. We then wound our way through the mountains all the way to Deer Creek Reservoir and back covering a total distance of over 50 miles. The spot in the very upper left is our apartment.


Here are Julie and Carolyn getting suited up for snowmobiling and modeling the emergency beacons that we all were required to wear.

In order to get to the backside of snowbird where our tour left from we had to take the tram up to the top and then download the Mineral Basin lift. It was weird riding up the tram without our snowboards

Even weirder than taking the tram with no board was riding the lift the "wrong way" down into mineral basin. It also is reminiscent of riding in a station wagon with the seats facing the wrong way because all the oncoming lift passengers are staring at you.

I also took a quick video as we rode down the lift and in the background you can see the area that we will be snowmobiling in.



Here is our merry group having finally arrived at the backside of snowbird and ready to embark on our journey. We were the only people who had signed up for the tour that day so it was like we had a private guide.


Before mounting our chariots we each had to walk one by one past the magic sign that would beep to indicate that your emergency beacon was functioning correctly.

Here we are on the first part of the trail. The state pays for these trails to be groomed regularly during the winter

The scenery was breathtaking in every direction. Here we stopped after riding for about 15 minutes and our guide informed us that we had already covered 10 miles which was pretty surprising. I put a red arrow in the background of the picture where you can just barely see the top of the snowbird Tram and Mineral Basin lift at maximum zoom.


Here we are winding our way next to a frozen stream
Along the way the guide would let us pull off into some large open meadows and tear around just for fun. Often Julie and Carolyn would opt to get off the sleds while J and I attempted to get a bit of air as you can see in the video below



Here we are after passing through much of the mountain range and emerging on the other side.
And a close-up of Carolyn and J

I'm still amazed at how much ground we covered so quickly. For reference, in this picture Park City would be in the range of mountains on the far left side.

In the below video I am filming from the back of a snowmobile as Julie drives it and Carolyn is piloting another sled with J on the back.



Literally about 10 seconds after I stopped videoing I suddenly found myself airborne and realizing that I was no longer on a snowmobile. Julie had somehow managed to flip the slid while driving in an open field... Nobody was hurt and it was really more like a low-speed rollover but I'm sure the video footage would have been great if I had kept recording.

The below picture of the aftermath of Julie's "driving" is now my new desktop wallpaper


And from another angle...

Anyway, after the sled was righted we were on our merry way and everyone made it back safe and sound.