Snowmobile Racing in -25 Temps!

February 9th, 2019

Time for another new Canadian snow country winter experience! The sun and snow look so appealing and welcoming up here, yet are so deceiving . Even Brat, the cat, decided she wanted to step outside and check out the snow. It was her longest adventure to date lasting nearly 2 minutes before she raced back inside! Lol

My friend Deirdre and I set off to discover the location of these famed Burns Lake snowmobile races. We heard they were towards Babine Lake Road past the garbage dump. So…With that knowledge, we headed off! Luckily we discovered a couple of signs marking the route. The road was rather slippery after we passed the garbage dump, but soon we saw evidence of snowmobile tracks running through the woods and surrounding area. It cost $10 per person to enter; however, apparently the races started about 10 a.m. and as we missed the morning we were only charged $5 each. Deirdre and I joined others sitting on the wooden bleachers for a couple of races but then departed. The freezing cold, shade, and icy wind drew us back down to stand in the sun. In each race, two snowmobiles raced against each other down a straight run way. Then the next 2 racers would line up and race. etc. The “King” category hosted the biggest and fastest snowmobiles. The top speed of the day was 105 mph. I’m not sure why the speed was measured in mph rather than km?

Deirdre and I watched several races, took several photos, then rushed into the snack shack (with woodstove) to get hot chocolates and warm up. It was freezing!!! I can’t even imagine how bitterly cold it would be while racing those machines down the runway over and over again! Snowmobile racing is now officially ticked off my bucket list!