August 23, 2006 ; CA snowmobile news article;
California Dreaming; Written by: Dan Gardiner

California is not well known for its snowmobiling, or even its mountains at all. Indeed, the most populous state in the union is better known for high levels of smug and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the governor’s seat. However, California is home to some of the best snowmobiling terrain in the world.

The state of California has a population of 36 million people, but there are only a mere 20,000 registered sleds in the state. How could there be so few snowmobilers in such a large population that is situated close to the mountains? Wyoming boasts more than twice as many registered sleds with a population of only 500,000! The answer is that California is the largest opportunity for growing the snowmobile industry.

We need to attract new people (especially the younger generation) or our sport is doomed. Lets face it, not a lot of new riders are going to go out and buy sleds to pound trails in the Midwest/Northeast a couple months of the year. It is the West Coast, and more specifically California, that has all of the right ingredients for a growing snowmobile population. There are a lot of people close to mountains, they regularly have good winters, and the state’s average income is $50,000. The key to growth is shifting people’s perceptions of the sport.

When you step onto a snowmobile, the possibilities are truly endless. You can carve powder as gracefully as a skier, hit jumps like you’re on a dirt bike, or climb slopes that would not be possible on any other type of motor vehicle. Not to mention the beautiful backcountry that can be easily accessed on a sled. We must show this side of the sport to more people. Too many see it as simply a redneck sport. What we need in California (and everywhere else) is increased attention from the industry and good representatives that can help to make snowmobiling more mainstream.

Last winter I met a group of California sledders known as Team Summit. The team recently released their second film, Elevation: Season 2. This is not your typical sledding video, there are very few jumps. Team Summit is a group of “sophisticated rednecks” that have come to love the sport and aspire to advance their riding skills every year. Director Jeff Aiello managed to take the experiences of this group and make it into what is quite honestly one of the better sled films I have ever seen. What better way to attract new riders than to show them a video that depicts the new direction the sport is taking, through the eyes of average guys?

Environmentalists are currently trying to shut down many of our riding areas. Any reasonable person would agree that snowmobiles should not be allowed everywhere, there must be places that other winter sports enthusiasts can enjoy the landscape without encountering sleds. The problem is that the balance is already tipped in their favor and they still want to take more land. Anyone who rides snowmobiles should be a member of their state snowmobile association, local clubs, and also organizations like the Blue Ribbon Coalition. Yet, simply preparing to fight more legal battles over land use is not enough, to win the war we must change public opinion. To do this we need more people on our side, and the best way to do that is to expose people to the progressive side of sledding through the videos like Boondockers or Elevation: Season 2 and magazines like Sledheads or Slednecks.

Posted on Sun, Feb. 26, 2006; Snowmobiler survives cold night in SierraBy JIM GUY The Fresno BeeFRESNO - A Clovis man was rescued by Fresno County sheriff's deputies Friday morning after burning his snowmobile to survive freezing temperatures overnight in the Sierra. Casey Steggall, 24, became separated from his brother Chris, 27, during a snowmobile outing above Shaver Lake on Thursday, Sgt. Kathy Curtice said. The two, along with a friend, had planned to travel from Tamarack Ridge to Bald Mountain and then return. Casey Steggall reportedly tired and decided to head back to Tamarack early. His brother continued on. On the return, Casey Steggall became disoriented, Curtice said. He took a wrong turn on a ridge and found the snowmobile.... read the rest of the snowmobile article here...
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Friday, February 17, 2006; Forest Patrols Monitor Snowmobile Activity; Sabrina Sabbagh ; MML News Reporter; Sonora, CA -- Law enforcement personnel in Stanislaus National Forest will once again conduct aerial and on-the-ground winter patrols to monitor snowmobile use in national forest wilderness areas. The enforcement effort is comprised of flights, coordinated with on-the ground patrols looking for riders of motorized over-snow vehicles, who may have illegally entered designated wilderness areas. The aircraft are equipped with GPS locators and mapping equipment, in addition to video cameras to document snowmobile violations. Trespass by over-snow motorized vehicles crossing the boundary into designated national forest wilderness is a misdemeanor under federal law. Written by sabrina.sabbagh @mlode.com

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Posted on Tue, Feb. 14, 2006; Tahoe lodge allows skiers comfort off the trail; JOHN FLINN ; San Francisco ChronicleTRUCKEE, Calif. - Night is falling and I'm deep in a wintry wilderness, miles from the nearest road, not far from where the Donner Party stragglers met their fate. The temperature is free-falling toward zero. At times like this every decision is crucial, so I ponder long and hard: Should I go for a soak in my private Jacuzzi before or after I pull the cork on a bottle of Chilean Cabernet? Such are the conundrums of the Lost Trail Lodge, which was built for backcountry skiers and snowshoers who enjoy a good dose of comfort with their adventures. Opened two years ago, it's aimed squarely at the newly en vogue travel category known as "soft adventure." "Aging baby boomers like me don't want to sleep in a snow cave anymore," said owner David Robertson. "What's wrong with a Jacuzzi and a soft bed at the end of the day?"

Four miles up Coldstream Valley from Truckee, in the mountains between Sugar Bowl and Squaw Valley, the lodge is inaccessible by car in winter. You have to ski or snowshoe in. But, as I discovered a couple of weeks ago, it's about as easy as these things get. I pulled off Interstate 80 at the first Truckee exit and parked in almost the exact spot where some members of the Donner Party shivered through the winter. As I laced up my cross-country ski boots, Robertson arrived on a snowmobile to take my luggage.

The first couple of hundred yards of the route were slightly confusing, but after that it couldn't have been more straightforward: I just followed a set of well-established snowmobile tracks up the enchanting valley of Coldstream Creek. After a tiny hill at the beginning, the route was nearly pancake-flat. As my golden retriever, Tucker, loped alongside me, I skied through a silent forest of lodgepole pines, their branches clumped heavy with snow. Traversing Donner State Park, we followed the Emigrant Trail, the route the doomed settlers had intended to take. Frozen ponds and the corkscrewing creek slid by before we crossed the tracks of the transcontinental railroad.
Minutes later we smelled the wood smoke wafting out of the lodge's chimney. It took less than two easy hours. (On the way out, with faster snow conditions, I made it in well under an hour.)

The lodge is large and tasteful, with a high, beamed ceiling and an enormous hearth. Robertson built it himself with materials he gathered in the valley: Downed lodgepole pines provided the beams, and river stones form the chimney. Completely off the power grid, the lodge runs on a tiny hydroelectric dam, solar panels, propane and a small generator. Filled with leather sofas, Indian blankets, elk-horn chandeliers, bear skins and a menagerie of mounted trophy heads (donated by a friend; Robertson doesn't hunt), it's an authentic version of the look Ralph Lauren is trying for.

My room could have easily handled a family of four. It had a queen-sized bed, a loft with two single beds, a gas/electric heater and a bathroom with a shower and Jacuzzi tub. (Four of the seven rooms have Jacuzzis; all have lofts.) Guests bring their own food and cook in the spacious gourmet kitchen. There were just two other visitors this midweek night, and, as apparently happens frequently, we pooled our food and wine for a communal feast. This worked out especially well for me, as Terry Alling, a marketing consultant from Reno, brought about 10 pounds of tenderloin steaks that he and Robertson grilled out on the icicled front deck. Much better than the Safeway Select mushroom risotto I brought.

As we sipped the last of the Cabernet next to fire, Kelly Bentson, the innkeeper, brought out a guitar and filled the room with a voice both angelic and assured. Bentson performs professionally around the Tahoe area and Robertson, who accompanied her on an upright bass, is an accomplished musician himself. Later he played some of his own compositions on an upright piano. In the morning Robertson led me and another guest, Brandon Fernandez, on a tour up the north fork of valley, accompanied by Tucker and Robertson's dog, Opie, which looked to be a cross between a Great Pyrenees and a yak. He was, no kidding, one of the largest dogs I've ever seen - and, fortunately, a gentle giant.

There isn't a system of machine-groomed, well-marked trails, like you see at Royal Gorge or other Nordic resorts. For the first hour we followed a set of snowmobile tracks. Purists recoil in horror at the idea of sharing the backcountry with snowmobilers, but the few we encountered were polite and friendly, and their machines weren't terribly noisy. They didn't bother me nearly as much as I expected. And when we turned off their tracks to bust trail through knee-deep snow, I kind of missed them.

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