Don “Carbonie” Carleton, far left, and Paul Van Caulart, middle, stop to try and assist a man, far right, with an overheated 1969 vintage snowmobile which attempted to make it up the Boulder Mtn. trail to Boulder Cabin. This was only the 2km mark and there was still another 18 kilometers to go.
PHOTO BY CARL BR JOHNSON
By Carl BR Johnson
Few times in a guy’s life where he can say that he severely underestimated something and then lived to tell the tale about it afterwards.
I am speaking of course, about the Vintage Snowmobile event that occurred in Revelstoke which also coincided with Yamafest – a yearly event put on by Yamaha Motor Canada.
With many vintage snowmobiles came many high performance machines too, which I have been told, range anywhere from $12,000 to $32,000 and possessing as much as an uncanny 350 horsepower for a few select models.
For these events were to take place up at Boulder Cabin so I had to find a way up there as I did not have a snowmobile.
And here I was thinking that it would be a simple ride up the mountain on a Revelstoke Snowmobile Club member’s machine and that would be that.
I couldn’t have underestimated the journey more.
Before we start up the mountain, I meet Ron Berthelette, a member of the Kelowna Snowmobiler’s Club who was taking part of the Vintage Snowmobile Event and I catch sight of his 1980 John Deere Spitfire snowmobile.
“We couldn’t get up the trail to Boulder Cabin on that machine,” says Berthelette, sighting its vintage state and lack of horsepower as a reason.
“We had to give up and come back down so I’m gonna go find a more powerful machine.”
This collection of trails on Boulder Mountain are specifically built for the more ‘expert’ type of rider and this is no walk in the park with a run-of-the-mill machine.
“I love that! We got a reporter here who’s never snowmobiled before and he wants to come up with us on an expert trail!” exclaims my ride up the mountain, Don “Carbonie” Carleton.
His cocky words create mounting trepidation within me as I jump on the back of his Ski-Doo Summit Millenium Edition snowmobile and we start our journey up the mountain to the Boulder Cabin from the Boulder Parking Lot.
At first our trip seems impossible as we our surrounded by nothing but mounds of snow that appear to pile up without end.
As our metal chariot grinds away at the impossibly deep snow on the path to the cabin and I wonder if I will make it up alive.
Just hanging on to Carleton, I become weary very early on and to my absolute relief we stop every few kilometers to rest.
Things are not encouraging because Carleton informs me halfway up that he has an arm brace due to a previous injury and hanging on to his snowmobile for the weight of both of us is straining that injury.
“It’s [his braced arm] giving me trouble but we’ll be alright,” he says.
As we continue, several straight-aways become available and that’s when Carleton guns the throttle as if our tail was on fire and we were racing from the devil himself.
This is where I truly appreciate the gravity of our situation because it is currently raining which slowly turns into snow as we get closer to Boulder Cabin.
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My triumphant arrival at Boulder cabin is greeted with many onlookers staring in disbelief as I have made it up with zero cool-looking gear that, apparently, the rest of the snowmobilers there have in great abundance.
My ‘vintage’ snowsuit and helmet was temporarily donated by both Carleton and Paul Van Caulart, both of whom attended these snowmobile events.
I spot an unusual vehicle amongst the hundred-or-so snowmobiles around the cabin which turns out to be a Polaris RZR XP – a cool looking four-tracked Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV) that seats two and belongs to a Mike “Mikey” Farlinger.
I secure transportation with him quickly for whenever he decides to go back down the mountain but in between that time he takes me on a tour of the so-called Sugar Bowl area of the mountain.
“Hey! Wanna go see the Sugar Bowl?” Farlinger enthusiastically asks me, which of course I readily agree to.
His powerful UTV provides endless fascination for me as I bump around in it as we traverse the mountain and I am flabbergasted by the sheer amount of wide open space that we come up to.
Clearly, we have hit a flattened area on what should be the side of a mountain in the Sugar Bowl and this entire area looks like it should be a ski hill – with its various climbs and drops with the occasional straight-away built in.
We see a couple of tents setup near the Sugar Bowl where many snowmobilers have congregated and decide to stop for a bit.
After which Farlinger suddenly experiences a burst of ambition and we attempt to climb a very steep ridge just beyond the tented area and his machine starts to groan violently.
A couple of seconds later something gives and we stop moving.
The left-front track has slipped of its wheel base and we roll back a bit to create a temporary work area to fix the problem.
“No problem!” says Farlinger.
“This isn’t the first time this has happened.”
At the same time I experience a certain calm as well as uncertainty about whether or not I am in good hands.
We dig out the snow underneath the damaged track and I assist him in the repair which turns out to be relatively quick and easy.
He has learned that the tensioning screw was too loose and did not provide enough force on the wheel base which is why the rubberized track simply slid off as we attempted the steep ridge.
Moving on, we try again after making pack snow by moving back and forth over the same area and we slowly but surely make it over the impossibly steep ridge which by my calculation, would be around 60 degrees steep.
Farlinger announces that it’s a good time to head back down Boulder Mountain to the Boulder parking lot and we jump in his Polaris RZR and fly down with the speed of Hermes’ winged feet.
As we have continually chatted throughout the day, I have come to respect Farlinger’s adept driving skills and find it easier to enjoy his rides.
With many straightaways also comes many times to exercise caution and he is neither reckless nor overly cautious – just right to be enjoyable.
Counting my lucky stars that I have made it through the day in one piece, I found myself thinking of ways that I can get a hold of the meanest, most powerful snowmobile out there so I can come back here and conquer that which scared me silly – Boulder Mountain.