When you’ve been riding for as many years as Perry Moulton, it’s not hard to remember a time when snowmobiles were “the next thing that came after a horse.”
“Snowmobiles were a way to get around and get wood,” said Moulton, who first started riding 45 years ago at the age of 10 when he was growing up on the east coast. “The first snowmobile I had was a 7.5 horsepower Ski-Doo. That was in 1964.
“The comparison to what I’m riding now is night and day; like comparing a Volkswagen to a Cadillac. The machines used to be much more high-maintenance, low power, very heavy all-metal construction, the tracks were flat and smooth with no grips, and 7.5 horsepower is only 7.5 horsepower. The top speed was 15 miles an hour.”
Since then Moulton said the machines have made “a natural progression from that to recreation” and he now rides a 1997 Grand Touring with a modified aggressive track that “can haul a 600 pound sled behind it, no trouble.” He no longer uses it for work but to play in the extensive trail areas in and around High Level.
“I ride the trail system a fair amount,” he said. “It’s a great place to explore. You can pick your trail and it turns into a question of whether or not you can carry enough fuel to ride it. You’re never going to exhaust what the club has got out here.”
But the 5000 kilometres that he estimates he puts on his Touring every year aren’t all tracked on the trails; as an avid outdoorsman and camper he often chooses to access areas off the trails for winter camping trips.
“The groomed trails in High Level allow me access to places I wouldn’t have gotten to before,” Moulton said. “You can leave from your doorstep and all along the trails there are opportunities to access areas off of the system if you choose to explore.”
He said that for him, the solitude and natural beauty of the untouched terrain is the biggest draw.
“It’s remote country when you get up here. When you leave the groomed trail system you’re not going into somebody’s backyard, you’re going into the bush. You can get out where nobody’s at, in touch with things around you that you aren’t going to see in the neighbourhood, out somewhere that’s not part of your normal day-to-day routine.”
For a less intensive experience, Moulton said “the trails are really good for campers too” and that no matter what the destination, in High Level, “the fun is in the journey.”
