Jon puts on a clinic on a snowmobile

This is Jon. I've always wanted to head up in the hills on a snowmobile. Everyone who's worth a dang in Cle Elum has a few snowmobiles at their disposal, but the Giaudrone family had more than enough for me AND they can ride right from their driveway. We've been talking about me riding with them for a while now and I finally jumped at the chance to ride.

This is Eric and I right before we left, I'm the good looking one on the left with the helmet. Next to me was my sled for the day, an Arctic Cat I named "Pollywog". It used to be Eric's wife's Cindy's sled, but she bumped up to a new one that has as much power as a rocket ship. Seriously. I named my sled Pollywog only because it had a butterfly sticker on the windshield. I thought it made me feel pretty.

We ran into a little bit of trouble about 20 minutes into the ride. Eric's sled (like Cindy's it looks and feels like a spaceship) started leaking coolant like it was a contest and the sweet smell of coolant on a hot engine indicates trouble. Eric's taking out his iPod headphones so he can better hear himself swear under his breath as he determined the problem. We ended up having to ride back and take Cindy's available sled since she stayed at home for the day.

While Eric tinkered around with his sled, I decided to ensure the food was cooking well. That's right, we were cooking and riding at the same time. Each sled had a pot that was big enough for some burritos and little smokies (marinating in BBQ sauce, yep Cindy fed us well). It's sealed up in a metal box and then clamped to the exhaust pipe coming out of the manifold. Obviously the engine's running hot enough to cook food and whoever came up and patented this idea is a flippin' genius. Had to take a picture of this.

Eric riding off the trail.

This is a view of the Upper County from about 3500 feet or so. Total guesstimate here. If the clouds were gone we would be able to see Cle Elum, Roslyn, Ronald and maybe Lake Cle Elum, too.

Our first lunch stop. Eric isn't working on the sled, he's preparing lunch. Slap on an apron on that fella and call him Julia Child because the eatin' was good. Immediately behind the sleds would be another view of Upper County and a cliff.

Jon making it look good. 'Nuff said.

Stopping for another picture and a quick pit stop. Right behind Eric is Mt. Stuart. Good call on standing right there, buddy.

Oh, there it is. Great mountain. On my drive to work every day, or at least when the clouds part, I get to see this mountain range. But this is a spectacular view. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Eric riding in a play area. We got off the beaten path and rode in this open bowl of hills. Really fun. I watched Eric a bit and then decided to man up and try myself. He's got a video of me clearly setting an example of how to wow the ladies, but since we're still on dial-up internet, that would take about 8 days to upload, so you're just going to have to use your imagination.

Great time riding. I'm of course ruined because now it's another hobby that I have to find time for. The speedometer on my sled reached 100 mph, on Eric's sled it does up to 140 and on Cindy's 160. We reached 55 mph a couple of times and let me tell you, at that speed I'm pretty sure I was flying, so I can't imagine what 60, 70, 80+ mph would actually be. Eric did a great job in getting me acclimated with the sled and terrain. We were crusing at times, getting off the road a few times, stopping and enjoying the view, too. The weather was great. Once we got out of the fog and clouds it was a crystal clear day. Awesome.