Travis Johnson
Member
- Messages
- 2,369
I was just telling the wife the other night that things are getting downright crazy around here. We just entered our third month of 2008 and already there have been four homicides in this state!!
The sad thing is, no matter how high the homicide rate gets, the snowmobile fatality rate is always well past it. Here in Maine you are twice as likely to die on a snowmobile then you are by murder. This weekend was BAD. From Friday Night until Monday morning, there was 5 fatal snowmobile accidents. That makes 9 for the year!
Unfortunately I was almost number six yesterday. We were out riding, when I went around a hair pin corner and started out on a nice long logging road. I had about a mile of straight, flat riding ahead so I opened it up. I did not know that there was a small water crossing that had melted the snow. Well right now we have 4 feet of snow in the woods, so this left a hole about 4 feet deep and about 10 feet wide with pretty steep slopes on each side. Unfortunately you looked right over the top of it until you got up close.
So I see it at the last second, and grab a handful of brake. Well in hind sight, that was the wrong thing to do because as everyone knows, at high speed snowmobiles under hard braking slide to the clutch side. So I drop down into this hole at 50 mph or so at a 45º angle. My right ski catches the ice on the other side and flips the sled straight up into the air. It has enough momentum though to pop itself and me out of this hole. I fall off banging up my knee and shoulder pretty good (yes the same one that is still hurting from the last snowmobile incident.) The sled lands on its side, but hits hard enough to right itself and plow into the snow where it comes to a stop. Me on the other hand,I try to get up...
Once...
Twice...
Three times...
Finally I have enough wind back in my lungs, and enough stamina to get up, check my sled for damage as my brother comes over to me. "Yeah I forgot to tell you about that hole." Yeah...that's my brother, always just a bit late.
Anyway I think I will be alright. I got a chiropractic appointment tomorrow so I'll get checked out pretty good. Thankfully I was going slower then I was last time.
The sad thing is, no matter how high the homicide rate gets, the snowmobile fatality rate is always well past it. Here in Maine you are twice as likely to die on a snowmobile then you are by murder. This weekend was BAD. From Friday Night until Monday morning, there was 5 fatal snowmobile accidents. That makes 9 for the year!
Unfortunately I was almost number six yesterday. We were out riding, when I went around a hair pin corner and started out on a nice long logging road. I had about a mile of straight, flat riding ahead so I opened it up. I did not know that there was a small water crossing that had melted the snow. Well right now we have 4 feet of snow in the woods, so this left a hole about 4 feet deep and about 10 feet wide with pretty steep slopes on each side. Unfortunately you looked right over the top of it until you got up close.
So I see it at the last second, and grab a handful of brake. Well in hind sight, that was the wrong thing to do because as everyone knows, at high speed snowmobiles under hard braking slide to the clutch side. So I drop down into this hole at 50 mph or so at a 45º angle. My right ski catches the ice on the other side and flips the sled straight up into the air. It has enough momentum though to pop itself and me out of this hole. I fall off banging up my knee and shoulder pretty good (yes the same one that is still hurting from the last snowmobile incident.) The sled lands on its side, but hits hard enough to right itself and plow into the snow where it comes to a stop. Me on the other hand,I try to get up...
Once...
Twice...
Three times...
Finally I have enough wind back in my lungs, and enough stamina to get up, check my sled for damage as my brother comes over to me. "Yeah I forgot to tell you about that hole." Yeah...that's my brother, always just a bit late.
Anyway I think I will be alright. I got a chiropractic appointment tomorrow so I'll get checked out pretty good. Thankfully I was going slower then I was last time.
Last edited: