Mike Hankewich isn’t a hockey player and never really took to curling, so when he was looking for something to do as a winter activity he turned to snowmobiling as a way to get out and enjoy the outdoors.
“We started sledding in 1984 as a way to get out and see some daylight and experience some fresh air in the winter months,” said Hankewich. “This guy was selling his John Deere snowmobile, and I looked at it for a few weeks, and then lo and behold we had one snowmobile.”
While his wife, Arlene, joined him on his first few trips out, she soon discovered she wasn’t content to just sit behind her husband and let him drive; soon the pair were on the lookout for another sled she could drive on her own. Since then they’ve always bought their sleds in pairs—until now.
Currently they each own a 2002 SKS Polaris 700, but they recently purchased a single new Polaris 800 Switchback for the coming season. Hankewich said they’ll probably end up sharing the machine.
“There’s a big argument going on,” said Hankewich. “She says I get to use it, and I say she does, but in the end we’ll probably both be using it.”
For Hankewich, who is a diehard Polaris fan, the move to the new Switchback was made mostly for the suspension and smooth ride it offers—a must-have now for the couple as they get older, since the majority of their riding is done on trails.
“Truthfully speaking, we put the most of our miles on trails,” said Hankewich. “But we have to trailer to them because we live in the west side of the province of Saskatchewan in a minimum snow range, whereas in eastern Saskatchewan you’re guaranteed snow.”
While the couple have spent their time exploring many snowmobile getaway areas throughout their many years of sledding, the pair love heading up into the Hudson Bay area for the variety of trails it offers.
“There’s various different kinds of riding there,” said Hankewich. “There’s some tight, twisty trail riding in a deep forest (and) there’s straight ditch running, but still if you want to angle off and do some deep snow running in a field or meadow, you can do that too.”
Hankewich also enjoys the quality of shelters the Hudson Bay Trail Riders club offers.
“They’re really nice,” said Hankewich. “We’ll usually do a cookout each day at the shelters, and just generally meet up with friends and other ‘bilers to chat and just shoot the breeze.”
Looking forward, while the couple have spent time in the mountains from Alberta's Crowsnest Pass to Revelstoke, B.C., and have even been to Yellowstone twice, with sleds becoming more mountain and flatland specific their future trips will probably continue on the trails closer to home.
“The mountain guys really truly shouldn’t ride here,” said Hankewich,”because their paddles are so big that they’ll dig up the trails and wear out or heat up their sliders. If we go with buddies that have mountain machines and we don’t, well, they can just scamper up the hills and leave us stuck.”
To date, they’ve ridden all over Saskatchewan, including Turtle Lake, Meadow Lake, Candle Lake, Nipawin, Prince Albert, Yorkton and Kamsack, but the trails, the shelters and the friends they’ve made in Hudson Bay keep them coming back year after year.
“No matter where a guy rides in Hudson Bay, you can go on the same trail a hundred times and it’s never boring.”
Ultimately though, for Hankewich and his wife Arlene, it matters less where they snowmobile, than that they do snowmobile.
“The enjoyment level is always up there,” said Hankewich. “Life is good when you go snowmobiling.”
