cmhprh 5
12 Mar 2019
Heart Six is a great, community-minded organization. You want breakfast, lunch, or dinner? The Buffalo Valley Cafe is affiliated with the Heart Six in some way. Want a finer dining experience? The Heart Six has a restaurant. Want to stay off the beaten path but close to things? The Heart Six has lodging. Want to get some WiFi in a neck of the woods where that's real hard to come by, and reliable cell service is, too? The Heart Six hosts a community center with two public access computers, plus free WiFi. These are great folks.
They also offer lots of things to do, summer or winter. My wife and I wanted to do a little snowmobiling on a recent getaway trip, so we booked through Heart Six. We decided on the Togwotee Pass/Continental Divide ride.
Neither us had ever been on a snowmobile before. Brandon, our guide, wasn't worried. He gave us basic safety and operating instructions, and we were off!
Well, OK, not quite that quickly. First, they suited us up: snowmobile pants and jacket; boots; gloves or mittens; and a helmet. It's wise to dress in layers, although you certainly can leave your jeans on under the snowmobile pants. But get a neck gaiter or a balaclava; you'll want that!
After getting suited up, we took a short ride from Heart Six to the Hatchet Resort. The Hatchet is closed during the winter, but Heart Six keeps their sleds there. Once there, as I said, Brandon went through operations and safety with us, and then we were off.
The trails are groomed nicely. And they're comfortably wide. Brandon was a great guide, leading us on, but looking back quite frequently to make sure we were doing fine. We made a number of stops along the way, both for the scenery (and photo-taking), and just to take a brief rest. It was a sunny day with a breathtakingly blue sky, so this was perfect!
This particular trip follows one of a number of groomed trails in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. I'm sure glad Brandon knew where he was going, because sometimes the trail wound a bit through forested areas (that were stunningly beautiful with all the snow), and sometimes over brief straightaways. Only a few times did we come across someone else out riding, although the evidence was there that we were not the first ones on that trail!
Up and up we went, although we weren't doing the work. Once you get used to a snowmobile, things become easier, of course, and Brandon had a nice way of teaching without saying anything. Midway through our morning (the trip *up* the mountain), we came upon a very, very large and relatively flat area that was filled with snowmobile tracks. (This was pretty close to Highway 26 that runs across Wyoming.) We saw no other sleds here, but, again, it was fun to see all the other tracks and know that the drivers were just out having fun.
On we went, and then through a small tunnel (under the highway) and onto Forest Road 515 (well, onto the groomed trail on top of that road), and ultimately to Brooks Lake Lodge, where we dismounted and went in for lunch. It was fun to pull up to a place and see nothing but snowmobiles -- because that's the only way you could get here in the winter! And, on leaving, there were even more sleds out there.
On the return trip, we took a few different trails back to the Hatchet -- again, some through gorgeous woods with twisty trails, and other times on straighter paths. The scenery was gorgeous, the snow was awesome, we kept warm, and it was a great afternoon.
If you've never been snowmobiling before, the folks at Heart Six will take good care of you. And if you are an experienced snowmobiler, you'll love the scenery and have fun on a different level. Either way, you'll have awesome scenery. Oh, and, they provide both breakfast and lunch, so you'll be well fed!
Enjoy this ride!
