The time is here again. It’s that wonderful time of year that the Allen family gets terribly excited about life. Only a week to go before we get the biggest present of the year! The tree is done, the presents are under the tree and the stockings are filled.
Now I know what you are all thinking. The Allen’s must LOVE Christmas! We do. We love Christmas very much. What we love more, though, is what Christmas means about what time of year it is. We all know that it’s only a few days until we can get onto our prized snowmobiles and head out on the frozen lakes and trail system around our cabin.
I’ve now made it a daily ritual to look at my Weather.com application on my IPhone to see if snow if forecast for northern Minnesota. You see, last year we had more snow than we could imagine. By Thanksgiving time, snow was a high as our deck railing. It was crazy, but beautiful! You know if you’re worried about getting your snowmobile stuck while going through the yard to get to the lake you have enough snow. Here’s a shot of our deck from last season at this time which shows our chimnea almost covered with snow.
Now compare that picture with this picture and take one guess what we’re all stressed about in the family?
That’s right…..we need more snow! And now! The lake has tremendous ice already, so no worries there, but we need the snow in order for the trail system to be groomed and ready for riding. We also need more snow on the lake in order to eliminate sleds overheating.
The snowmobile season is a short one for us anyway. It usually starts Christmas week and goes through the middle of March. Some years you might get to ride until the first week of April on the lake, but we typically hope for 8-10 weeks of good riding. That means we spend the other 42-44 weeks dreaming of snowmobiling. Pathetic I know. I think about all the things I could sit around and stress about, and snow is foremost on my mind.
I can’t speak for anyone else in my family or the many friends I have that also love to snowmobile, but for me the experience is one that I’ve never been able to duplicate with any other activity. I literally get a euphoric feeling of complete peacefulness when I snowmobile on a trail with snow covered trees. There are those times when conditions aren’t optimum that it becomes more work to snowmobile, but I’m speaking of those moments when my IPod music is playing one of my favorite songs and I’m riding through a beautiful trail with towering pine trees all around me. It’s the closest that I’ve ever come to feeling that God is right there with me. I’ve literally had tears come to my eyes as I ride through these conditions. Not from pain. It’s from a feeling of thankfulness that I’ve been given the opportunity in my life to have experienced this hobby firsthand.
My other favorite time to ride is at night. It’s completely dark except the taillight of my husband’s sled in front of me and the reflectors of the stakes put on the lake to help people from becoming lost at night. If I’m really lucky, a full moon with provide a beautiful landscape to outline the islands on the lake. This is an awesome experience! I love it when we stop for something on the lake like a portage or just to touch base with one another. It’s completely quiet in the middle of the lake and totally peaceful.
So….will you please perform your own special snow dance for northern Minnesota on behalf of the Allen family. We, along with our Lake Vermilion friends, would greatly appreciate every inch of snow we could get between now and March.
