In the past six months working full time for Backwoods Promotions I have gone on many adventures. Some have been familiar, and yet many have taken me to places I never would have dreamed of. I’m a southerner and though I have a huge respect for winter in the North, I have never experienced it with any type of recreational vehicle. Talk to me about ranch utility and tracks on a UTV in the mud—I’m there. Talk to me about horsepower on an outboard motor in the open ocean—I’m there. Talk to me about a high speed personal watercraft in a back bayou to your favorite fishing spot—I’m there. 

So I stepped away from the Florida heat to make a trip to Minnesota to see what this winter wonderland was all about. I went to visit an area close to Lake Minnetonka, and I remember descending on my flight seeing snow and thinking, “Are we still in the clouds?” Alas I was not, and it was time to hit the tundra. I say that lightly as for me one foot of snow is tundra in my eyes—-to others it may be the precursor for snow they are waiting for. 

Fast forward through the day and experience I must say, after an hour of riding with my close friend I was impressed. Although I closed my eyes while riding on the back of the sled I would open them when we came to a stop to take in the winter beauty in front of me. We spent time visiting with ice fishermen in fish houses, then ventured onto roads carved out in the lake ice, and hopped past cattails on the lake’s edge. 

The scenery was the most amazing part. The second you cut that engine and you’re standing in the snow, the silence is unreal. The nature you see is so unrivaled by any other type of vehicle (OK OK it's hard to beat trail riding your favorite quarter horse but let’s skip that part of my history right now) and the maneuverability takes you to places you only look at from afar. Sleds on snow or ice beat out any other type of vehicle, almost making it an unfair fight for anything else around you. The power that some of these engines can have is unimaginable, and reading about it is one thing but feeling it is an entirely other thing.

So as the spring sets in and more of the frozen places of our country begin to thaw, I have to say goodbye to this new adventure I just caught the tailwind of. Even a few weeks later I am thinking about it, and wondering how soon it will be until winter comes? I jest, but now I fully am in a new era—-just because the warm weather leaves you doesn’t mean there aren’t new roads to go down. Which one will I keep on my mind this year?

Written by: Cotter G., Sales/Business Development Manager

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