I love the smell of cigarette smoke and gasoline in the morning. ... or maybe not. Snowmobile racing combines many things I dislike: Noisy, fast-moving vehicles; standing around in freezing cold weather; big crowds; Rush Limbaugh supporters.
But after 10 years in Jackson, Wyo., I finally attended the single biggest annual event here, the one that brings the most people to town, generates the most money for local businesses and allows the local Snow Devils club to make very generous charitable contributions. Yes, I was one of the estimated 10,000 people at the 34th annual World Championship Snowmobile Hillclimb at Snow King Resort, where men and women vie to be the fastest person to climb the 1,500-foot vertical rise.
As I waited to buy my wristband for admittance and have my purse checked for liquor and weapons, I wondered if I was the only in the entire crowd there who voted for Barack Obama. I was jolted out of my smug liberal musings by the sight of two guys watching a flock of little brown birds under a pine tree. "I told her it was time to put some seed out," one said to the other. "Do you know what those are?" I asked. "Mountain sparrows, I think," he said. Hmmm, a bird watcher who likes snowmobiling. So much for stereotypes.
And once I got through the gates, I began to see the fun of it all. It's one thing to encounter a sled-head on a cross-country ski trail, where the snowmobile fills the fresh air with noxious fumes and whining noises that linger on and on. It's another thing to watch men and women speed up a hill so steep that some competitors flip and their snowmobiles tumble down the slope. The noise and smell add to the excitement. And being with thousands of people whose eyes are glued to the slopes makes it hard not to get caught up in the excitement. Viva la Hillclimb!
Addendum: I figured out that the birds those guys and I saw were white-winged crossbills.
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