Gord Bushell recently took on the job of general manager for the Eagle Valley Snowmobile Society in Sicamous. He and his best sledding partner, Brian Ogilvie, often set off on lengthy excursions to get the most out of the local terrain.
"We find it easier to sled with two riders, maybe three max, so that we get a full four hours of hard riding in," he said. "We always comment (that the) best day ever is where we run out of gas in our sled, use our spare jerry can of gas and still don't make it back to the truck."
The club grooms a large network of quality trails on four different mountains, but Bushell says that he is still amazed by the new sledding zones they manage to find each season. When he and Ogilvie decide to take a ride, they love to go exploring.
"We find ourselves more adventurous when there is just the two of us," he said. "With the new technology in these new sleds each year there is almost no limit to where you can go."
When asked about his favourite trip, Bushell thought back fondly to a day when the two of them went to nearby Blue Lake. They had snowmobiled in this area hundreds of times, but once again found some uncharted territory in a creek draw that seemed to drop for miles.
"We kept going down and down—sometimes you're thinking that you will never make it back up," he said. "Sledding is Brian's favourite pastime too and he is very well-equipped for it, so it's tough to keep up to him—and the local dealer Dale makes sure of that."
With two and a half feet of fresh powder on the ground, it took them the better part of a day to make it out of the newly discovered creek draw. But this was just icing on the cake for two adventurers.
"With the ski as blue as ever and the snow so deep, it just seemed that it couldn't get any better," said Bushell. "Then the signature event of the best day ever happened. On our way back down Brian ran out of gas four kilometres from the truck, so I towed him back to the parking lot. We made it back no problem."
