It's been thirty years ago since February 1977. The television show Hunter broadcast its first episode. As well, the first International Winter Special Olympics Games were held in Steamboat Springs, Colo., with more than 500 athletes competing in skiing and skating events. CBS, ABC and NBC television networks covered the Games.

From February 24 - 28, dust from the western Great Plains reduced visibilities from eastern Virginia through the southeastern states to Florida.The dust originated in the western Great Plains on the 22nd and 23rd, as winds gust above 100 mph (160 km/hr) at Guadalupe Pass, Texas and White Sands, New Mexico, and over Sherman County, Kansas and eastern Colorado.

If you bought a snowmobile in 1977 you had lots to choose from!

• Arctic Cat - a company that had always produced the 'Cadillac' of snowmobiles brought out an innovative, low-cost Lynx model [$995].
• John Deere - Innovations to the green machines made them tougher and better performing in lighter, quieter liquid cooled models.
• Kawasaki Snow-Jet - A new name in snowmobiling as a Japanese company redesigns the Sno-Jet and adds the Kawasaki label.
• Massey Ferguson - Lean and low, this line offered a wide range of performance and price options starting at $1299.
• Moto-Ski - Eleven new models entered the arena with new, fuel consumption improvements due to Mikuni float-type carburetors on twin cylinder models.
• Polaris - Transferring their performance from the race track to the trail, Polaris was built to take rough going. Top models around $1899.

• Scorpion - Minnesota's sled maker had new designs to make their line-up sportier and more dependable, plus lots of work on making them quieter.

• Ski-Doo - Bombardier announced that, "Our goal is to achieve the reliability of cars in our new snowmobiles." They had 14 models out.
• Yamaha - Claims were that the race-bred line had been toughened up, plus made livelier. A new frame was a main improvement.

And what about places to ride? In 1977 Quebec had more miles of groomed trails than anywhere else in North America, with more than 28,000 miles crisscrossing the province, making it a snowmobiler's paradise. The annual Winter Carnival held in Quebec City ran from February 3rd - 13th.

Wyoming boasted 5000 miles of trails cut through the white mantle of a Wyoming winter with about half groomed, depending on weather conditions. National parks and forests contained most of the trails, with Yellowstone the largest. Five of the National forests were the most popular: Black Hills, Snowy Range of Medicine Bow, Big Horn, Wind River Mountains of Shoshone and the Bridger-Teton.

Utah had 6500 miles of trails available to snowmobilers, with many National Parks included. Washington's eastern portion of the state offered the best of the state's 4500 miles of trails. Yellowstone Park in Montana had 150 miles of trails making nature's wonders available to riders.

Other states and parks offered various locations throughout their borders with short sections of groomed trails. Here at home, in Saskatchewan, there were less than 200 miles of trails in various provincial parks, with Cypress Hills having the most at 17 ˝ miles.

1977 was the beginning of the regulations to close national parks to off-road vehicles. An executive order signed in the US in 1973 gave federal land managers until December 31st, 1976 to come up with recommendations for the use of off-road vehicles on federal lands. Those completely closed in 1977 included: King's Canyon, Sequoia, Yosemite, Mt. Lassen Volcanic Park and Glacier National Park in Montana.

Zane Smith, Director of Recreation for the 187-million acres of national forests gave two reasons for closing parks to snowmobilers: "The primary one is resource damage-snowmobiling may interfere with an elk calving area, or the terrain may be such that the machines cause erosion. The second reason is the conflict of users-some people want the winter forests for ski touring and snowshoeing, and the presence of snowmobiles diminishes their pleasure." [quoted from Snowmobile Handbook 1977 published by Popular Science, p. 43]

Safety regulations were coming of age too:

• Use of headlights, mufflers, brakes and helmets were all mandated.
• Canadian standards also called for tiedowns for trailering the snowmobile, shielding for transmission and fan and handgrips for all passengers.

February 26th and 27th , 1977, is when I got my first taste of the snowmobile race track. SnoPro racing was at its height with all the big names and factory teams. There was excitement enough to go around two or three oval tracks there in Beausejour, Manitoba.

I remember:

• Being asked if I was under 14 at the admission gate so I could get in for half price - and not taking it as a compliment since I was already 23!
• Ending up as a volunteer running the gates at the race track, as there were lots more jobs than people to do them.
• Sitting in a bathtub in our hotel room trying desperately to thaw out after spending eight hours outside in frigid weather.
• Seeing the famous Gilles Villeneuve race - as well as the Deckers and all the other SnoPro drivers. I was in awe…
• Catching the thrill of the snowmobile challenge and never looking back!

	Web www.snowridermag.com

Site Map