Elanorgold
I hate Snowmobiles!
Posted on: 02/04/2012 13:26
Arrrggghhhhh!!
DO you have this problem? Horrible noisy louts buzzing all around the neighbourhood at any time of day or night? ANd what's worse is it's commonplace and accepted here. They sound like huge chainsaws, going at breakneck speed on either side of your house, sometimes around the back of your house too. Buzzing and reaching a fevered rev that reverbs through the whole region and echoes painfully in your head, disturbing your peace, making you have to rewind your movie at 11 pm, to hear that bit again cause it's louder than the film, waking you up at 7:30 in the morning on the weekend. Buzzing past you when you go to check the mail, these jerks standing up on these $6000. toys that use $70. of gas per tank. I hope they break their legs!
We asked at the town office about noise restrictions, and there are none. Great. We know we're not the only ones who are bothered. At least the librarian hates them too, and individuals in other comunities.
You see these damn pick up trucks going by with two of the blasted things on the back, and they're headed out to the wilderness to shatter the peace there, but they're just as happy do do it around all the houses.
Anybody else have this problem? It's like a noisy work crew that never leaves!
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carolla
Nasty noisy smelly things
Posted on: 02/04/2012 13:37
Nasty noisy smelly things IMO. Right up there with seado's (the water version of snowmobiles!) I much prefer a quiet walk on the woods on snowshoes! Must be difficult to live with so many buzzing by your home.
I do realize that in some areas though, they can be the main means of winter transport - and life-saving at that. But I don't think that's what you're referring to Elanorgold.
I wonder WHY they are so very loud? Any mechanics out there who would like to explain why we can't seem to create better mufflers for them? Probably just money.
Elanorgold
Aparantly it's the two stroke
Posted on: 02/04/2012 13:58
Aparantly it's the two stroke engine they use, because it gives greter manoeuverability, plus, they seem to like the racket!!!
Yeah, one day we'll live in an area we really like...
gecko46
I hate the noise, but I hate
Posted on: 02/04/2012 14:33
I hate the noise, but I hate the exhaust smell more and their pollution of the environment.
In places such as northern Canada where people depend on snowmobiles for hunting, transporting groceries and other necessities of life - no problem.
When snowmobiles intrude on the peace and quiet of neighbourhoods and operators trespass on your property, then I have a problem with them.
A couple of my family members own snowmobiles and ATVs, so I bite my tongue, and they use them in backcountry for the most part. Not sure the deer and birds appreciate this intrusion.
One of the older machines caught fire during the Xmas holidays - I secretly cheered.
Don't think it is repairable.
Mendalla
One of the upsides of living
Posted on: 02/04/2012 14:46
One of the upsides of living deep inside the city is that this crap doesn't happen.
Motorcycles, yes, but they at least can be muffled (the fact that some owners choose to install mufflers designed to maximise the noise notwithstanding).
Mowers, but that's only for 3-4 months, and not that often if it's a dry summer and the grass is basically dormant. After all, no one's going to push their Toro around just for fun.
I'll concur with the general sentiment, though, esp. where watercraft are concerned. I'd much rather be out in a canoe or kayak than a friking seadoo or powerboat.
Mendalla
Arminius
I too hate snowmobiles—with a
Posted on: 02/04/2012 14:55
I too hate snowmobiles—with a passion!
When I still lived out on the old farm, a neighbouring farmer shot at snowmobiles when they trespassed through his land. I wouldn't go that far, but I'm very much in favour of our governments banning motorized recreation from all public lands and waters.
kaythecurler
Living in the country isn't
Posted on: 02/04/2012 15:07
Living in the country isn't any protection from snowmobiles, unfortunately. We had the darn things driving across our fields, crushing our wintering vegetables and fruit and breaking our baby trees. If one of us managed to flag them down and get them to stop they were usually amazed that we would ask them to leave - and to stay in the ditch beside the road as they did so. They really didn't seem capable of understanding that they were trespassing (I guess they couldn't read, our land was well signposted) and damaging what we legitimately thought was our property. I guess if something (like next years crop) is under some snow it just ceases to exist! We always knew when they were coming because we could hear them from several miles away. Same with motor bikes and atv's that also drove over our crops.
I think it is long past the time for the regulatory bodies to ACT on gas guzzling toys - ALL of them.
Slap them with a luxury tax
an environmental tax
enforce stringent muffler requirements
build them with speed linitation - they just shouldn't work at more than 60 kms an hour
require an expensive license
ban them from walking and ski trails
ban them from national, provincial and local parks
limit their usage to roadside ditches or specail trails (that should not pass close to any farms or homes).
trishcuit
kaythecurler wrote: Living
Posted on: 02/04/2012 22:46
Living in the country isn't any protection from snowmobiles, unfortunately. We had the darn things driving across our fields, crushing our wintering vegetables and fruit and breaking our baby trees. If one of us managed to flag them down and get them to stop they were usually amazed that we would ask them to leave - and to stay in the ditch beside the road as they did so. They really didn't seem capable of understanding that they were trespassing (I guess they couldn't read, our land was well signposted) and damaging what we legitimately thought was our property. I guess if something (like next years crop) is under some snow it just ceases to exist! We always knew when they were coming because we could hear them from several miles away. Same with motor bikes and atv's that also drove over our crops.
I think it is long past the time for the regulatory bodies to ACT on gas guzzling toys - ALL of them.
Slap them with a luxury tax
an environmental tax
enforce stringent muffler requirements
build them with speed linitation - they just shouldn't work at more than 60 kms an hour
require an expensive license
ban them from walking and ski trails
ban them from national, provincial and local parks
limit their usage to roadside ditches or specail trails (that should not pass close to any farms or homes).
I have enough friends and relatives who have 'sleds' and like to go out. But at least they go on proper trails. Elanorgold lives in Redneck Central.
Every winter in BC/Alberta you read and hear about snowmobilers and avalanches and the death count. I am waiting to hear a familiar name pop up but hoping it doesn't happen.
ninjafaery
When I lived further north &
Posted on: 02/04/2012 23:02
When I lived further north & rural, they were called "winter Mosquitos". The ignorant ones really spoil it for the respectful ones. Too many sledders are killed each year - going through ice or hitting something - often drunk. I think Kay is spot on about what should be done.
SG
I am not their largest fans
Posted on: 02/04/2012 23:55
I am not their largest fans for some of the reasons listed. Yet, I also live in a tourism dependent area along the trails (Seguin). This area could not survive on just summer visitors. The winter is when they are most in need or tourists and cash (no summer cottagers combined with high heating bills of their own) and the snowmobilers meet that need. All those suggested taxes and expensive licenses would come at a cost to a community like mine. The trail pass itself is expensive and added costs would result in some staying home. So, although I am not their biggest fan, I also know I cannot afford to pay my neighbour's heating oil bill and I do not have jobs for the locals...
jlin
Snowmobiles are only o.k. at
Posted on: 02/05/2012 02:50
Snowmobiles are only o.k. at -30F when the windchill takes it down to -45 and you are in the middle of nowhere - and that is the end of it.
No one to hear you. No one to notice you and it is so damn cold and miserable that the world will completely obliterate memory of your having been ravaging so idiotically a vulnerable season - even if the "vulnerable" season kills as a daily event.
Elanorgold
Well, I can only dream so
Posted on: 02/05/2012 20:27
Well, I can only dream so far. If there were even a policeman living on my street, that would help. But yup, Trish said it, redneck central. Sigh... My neighbour is one of them, ad the people across the street. We're surrounded!
Winter mosquito is an apt name. I've said it lots, they're like giant mosquitos. How can peope actually like the sound?
Last winter we were out for a quiet visit to a local frozen lake, and what shatters the silence but a couple of idiot kids on atv's, skidding and swirling around on the lake. All you can do it stand and stare with contempt, cause shouting wouldn't work. You'd probly only get the finger anyway, or worse. And people buy atv's for their 7 year old boys to play on.
Then in the summer is goddamn dirt bikes!!!
At least recreational use of them is banned in National Parks. Jasper was divinely quiet.
Ahhh, one of these years... off to a quiet part of England...
Elanorgold
Oh, and that was my first
Posted on: 02/05/2012 20:29
Oh, and that was my first experience with them, in Jasper, as a utility tool, to get up a road that was closed for the season, bringing groceries up to the cabin, and notably disliked by everyone except for their advantage over skiing uphill with huge packs. That's altogether different, though still loud and stinky. I rode in the trailer behind the exhaust!
lastpointe
I don't have one but when i
Posted on: 02/07/2012 09:13
I don't have one but when i see them go by in the winter I know what the thrill is. I have been on the highway going 80ish and had one pass me in the ditch. Riders love the thrill of the speed and the wind in the face. Just like folks who ride motorcycles.
in our area( Collingwood) riders are quite respectful of property and there are groomed trails all over. They buy trail passes for the season.
there is a restaurant near by that lists on their web site how to get there by snowmobile trail. One of the coffee/burger places we stop often has a dozen sleds in the parking lot.
when you talk to riders they talk about the thrill of travelling 100 km in a day, heading to a certain town for lunch........ In many ways not unlike folks who go out for a drive on the weekend to go sightseeing.
If I wanted to keep them off my property( they don't cross our property at all as the trail goes elsewhere) I would erect a fence.
If I lived in town and they travelled through my backyard I would put up a fence. I would buy a dog and that would be the reason for the fence.
I prefer skiing in the winter but after talking to riders I do get it. maybe renting one for a weekend will make a difference. I our area it is a very social activity
Pinga
Lastpointe, Fences stop
Posted on: 02/07/2012 09:48
Lastpointe,
Fences stop deer and other wild creatures, and dogs and friends.
People should pay attention to people's wishes -- stay on the trails.
I despise how kids are killed on motorcycles... going through water, or others. It is a rush, and where there is a rush, it attracts teens who love that rush and miss the risk to their life or spine.
I wish we would have the desire to less harmful things, like cross-country skiing
shucks, I wish we had snow.
lastpointe
Actually frences dont' stop
Posted on: 02/07/2012 10:13
Actually frences dont' stop deer unless they are really high. At least my fences don't stop my olympic level jumping deer.
the way i read the issue posted is that the town accepts that snowmobiles drive everywhere. if a norm is established it is pretty hard to change. A fence at least keeps them out of your own backyard although with the drivers i see around me i never see anyone in yards. They all head to the farms and fields
i like skiing too but I do get why people like sleds. The sheer distance you cna travel, the open spaces they get too, the social aspect, and of course there are the challenges
I guess I am of the feeling that before you hate something you should try it and if you are new to a community , participating in what everyone does is a good way to become part of the community
i think if I lived full time at my farm i would get one.
MikePaterson
Snowmobiles, jet skis,
Posted on: 02/07/2012 10:23
Snowmobiles, jet skis, powerboats, trail bikes, farm bikes… there's something about gasoline and the Canadian (especially rural Canadian) male: aggression? fear of nature? wildlife baiting? Or just a love of noise and constant vibration? A horror of traquility? Or is it some kind of pathological desensitisation to beauty, quiet, peacefulness?
These roaring toys are VERY intrusive, aggravating and ecologically hostile… driving them should at the very least involve licensing, age-restrictions and speed and noise controls. Some controls are in place, I know, but they seem to be notional: I've seen children hurtling along walking trails on snowmobiles that they can scarcely control… in PEI it was flagrant and there were deaths… but no real policing.
Elanorgold
Sorry Lastpointe, I'm with
Posted on: 02/08/2012 18:16
Sorry Lastpointe, I'm with Mike and the others. I have no wish to be accepted by the redneck community and I only live here because it was the house I could afford and there is also an arts community here, just not living next door. I also have no wish to go icefishing and drink a case of beer, decked out in garish nylon sportsgear, then watch hockey after, and diss everything I value. I am part of the arts community, and that's what counts to me.
SG
Guess nobody better decide to
Posted on: 02/08/2012 19:05
Guess nobody better decide to minister here. Coming among "savages", you would be.
Funny how some who hate elitism as members of the middle class, do not see that elitism happens to those lower on the totem pole.
The folks who live year-round here use snowmobiles, ice fish, drink beer, use fishing boats, hunt... and do so in ways that preserved it for a long time for vacationers who come visit and do not care about the place they visit as much as those who live here and often by by those who look down on them.
I shall go play dominoes with the rednecks, now.
preecy
I love sleds. I don't know
Posted on: 02/08/2012 21:43
I love sleds. I don't know what it is but I have since I was little. I even like the smell of the exhaust. Even my mom who is a cross country skiier liked that the snowmobilers would basically cut a trail for her that was easy to follow. There are two sides to every story. Other than that I would just second what SG said.
Peace
Joel
lastpointe
I am sorry Elanor that you
Posted on: 02/09/2012 13:04
I am sorry Elanor that you have such a disconnect with your community. It doesn't sound like you have found a very good fit for yourself.
Our rural community has its share of those involved in community theater, music and art. It also has it's share of original farmers, transplanted city folk, riders, bikers, athletes, snobs and slobs.
In my experience, having had this place now for a decade, those who make an effort to join in are accepted and welcomed quickly.
there is alot to relish in a rural community and i would never think of my neighbours as rednecks or rubes. they may not have the type of jobs we have and they may not be educated in the way we are but they have a level of intellegence and independance that most of us who live in cities will never get.
Pinga
(sg...thanks) (preecy: good
Posted on: 02/10/2012 01:20
(sg...thanks)
(preecy: good to see you, haven't seen you for a while)
lastpointe....there are so many different types of intelligence.
My Dad shared a story of being in the Laurentians back in the 60's. He was english speaking on vacation with my mom and 4 of us kids. ...all only speaking english.
he ended up in a location where he was dressed in his dress clothes (white shirt, dress pants). We wee visiting a bilingual family, when a neighbour came by for a lift, he had a problem with equipment that needed welding and needed to go into town. Dad heard the translation and said, "i can weld it". The guy looked at him as if he was nuts. This anglo who looked like he sat in an office could weld? Dad went over, told the guy, you line it up, I will weld it....and he did. -- a lovely weld. Dad had his welding ticket and kept it current due to the potential for strikes at Union gas and he might have to weld.
Appearances can be deceiving.
ninjafaery
This isn't a "redneck vs
Posted on: 02/10/2012 10:46
This isn't a "redneck vs townie" issue. I too refuse to catagorize people this way. To me, there's just respectful and ignorant. People from any social strata can be either.
"Rednecks" have saved my butt several times by hauling my car from the ditch, shoveling snow off my roof and asking how I am when I was under the weather when so-called "friends" didn't. I don't agree with the politics most of the time, but usually that doesn't come up in normal conversation. No pretensions -- I like most of the rednecks in my life.
Much easier to take than the white-collar guys that have no clue how the rest of us overtaxed souls really live.
In that sense, I agree with lastpointe and with Pinga -- don't judge a book by it's cover.
Re: fences. Lastpointe, I agree with most of what you said. I don't however condone trespassing (whether or not I have a fence) for sledders or hunters. I would not have a problem with skiers on the property though. I don't think a property owner should have to have the expense of keeping people off their property apart from posting "no trespassing signs". I also think there should be noise bylaws everywhere so that sledders don't wake you up at 3am zooming past your house. The law should be enforced.
MikePaterson
It's not the people: it's the
Posted on: 02/10/2012 12:31
It's not the people: it's the damned machines!
Elanorgold
Well, I seem to have shot
Posted on: 02/10/2012 15:24
Well, I seem to have shot myself in the foot. I'm not sure you understand me and my perdicament. I have just found out a new noise bylaw has been put in place since the last time I inquired at the district office, and we have a number to call to get the particulars for our town. Also found out, it IS illegal for them to drive snowmobiles on the road, and if the police could get here in time, there would be fines, so I am in the right.
Also I have not heard snowmobiles called sleds before. To me a sled is a quiet thing that works only on gravity.
As to me being a snob, well, I can only say that you must have the wrong idea, and that everyone has gripes about others from time to time. I have lived in the wrong places for years, and had to be the odd one out, living where I don't mesh with the culture.
Colwood Lastepointe, is Victoria. You don't have the type of culture I live in there. Though I thank you for your kind sympathy. True, I am not as accepting as some of you, but that doesn't make me a white collar snob. Think if someone suggested you should go out and smoke up with the teenagers that keep you awake at night with their shouting and engine revving. That smoke and spit and swear. I'm sure there's someone out there you wouldn't wish to hang with, and after years of being amongst people who don't understand you, and yes, have rejected you when you tried (religious zealots in the prairie), you may begin to understand.
We were very friendly to our neighbour when we moved here, til he began boasting about his income, teasing and laughing at my husband and myself, slagging off our car, then revving his engines onthe driveway daily, and driving his damn dirt bikes and snowmobiles with his pot smoking friends, wildly and noisily accross our back yard. I remain kind to him and his wife, but I do not go out of my way to try and greet or make friends with them any more. We blocked the route accross our property, and thankfully they have respected that, and we plan to put up a fence, but it is a big and expensive, time consuming job.
I remain friendly to people I meet so long as they are being friendly toward me. I am not a bitch.
somegalfromcan
Elanorgold I find it hard to
Posted on: 02/10/2012 16:10
Elanorgold I find it hard to imagine you as a bitch! That was about the furthest thing from my mind when I met you last summer! I'm pretty sure Lastpointe was referring to Collingwood, Ontario, not Colwood, BC.
That said - Colwood and the other communities in that area of Victoria have a culture that is quite unique. It's a mix of backwoods, urban, redneck and artsy people. It started as a farming community, then the navy moved in and now it's a part of suburbia. One thing it doesn't have a lot of is snowmobiles - but if more snow fell there, then I'm sure there would be lots of them.
Elanorgold
Thanks Somegal. Sorry
Posted on: 02/11/2012 13:56
Thanks Somegal. Sorry Lastpointe, I didn't realize you were in Ontario. I like the Highland area of Victoria. That might be a nice place to pitch up. Apparantly a lot of other people think so too as it's very expensive. When I lived in Vici, it was in central Saanich. We didn't fit in there either. The neighbours suggested we would like Saltspring. Yeah, recon we would.
somegalfromcan
From what I know of you
Posted on: 02/11/2012 20:35
From what I know of you Elanorgold - I could see you fitting in on any of the Gulf Islands!
Tabitha
growing up in Ont. I found
Posted on: 02/11/2012 22:47
growing up in Ont. I found skidos (as we generically called them) annoying.The caused the TV to go fuzzy when they passed on the lake.But there weren't too many and now in that town there are separate cross country ski and sledding routes.
If I had one I'd enjoy some adventures for sure-but be respectful of others properties and the hours I drove. Alas one is not in the budget.
Today I had fun. I hitched a pull from the skido picking up the course flagging after a ski race-a bungy was attached to the sled behind the skido. Lots of fun-and kids don't try this at home!
Tabitha
On relection Elanor-It's rude
Posted on: 02/11/2012 22:50
On relection Elanor-It's rude disrespectful, law breaking folks that bother you.The lack of concern for others and the enviroment.
(and I don't think you are snobby-we'd probably be great neighbours!)
Elanorgold
Thanks Tabitha. Love your
Posted on: 02/16/2012 00:01
Thanks Tabitha. Love your hearty avatar!
SG
There was a trail update on
Posted on: 02/16/2012 19:28
There was a trail update on the radio the other day. It is put on by a snowmobile club.
There have been troubles with snowmobilers and land owners.
So, what did the update say? "Abuse it and you lose it"
Ride responsible, on a bike, in a car, on a motorcylce, in a boat, on a sled....
InannaWhimsey
all this writing on
Posted on: 02/16/2012 20:32
all this writing on snowmobiles reminds me of this matt groening bit
“Love is like racing across the frozen tundra on a snowmobile which flips over, trapping you underneath. At night, the ice-weasels come.”