I have written previously about our friendly neighbourhood snowmobiles cruising on thin ice, if you will forgive the pun, potentially reducing the gene pool. The machines are smelly, noisy, speedy, with 400 lbs. of weight, and have been irritating as they experience the last flashes of winter. With above zero temperatures we've had a great thaw, but everyone is hot to trot this weekend.Last night's temperatures dipped to double-digit negatives again.
I can deal with it when the snowmobiles stay on the other side of the lake. The unpredictability of the operators scares me, what with tales of drinking and driving, and the excessive speed. Eventually, the stink of the fuel wafts across the lake, but it is temporary. If you look closely, or click here, you can see four machines in a row above my husband's right shoulder. It must be fun to be out in the bush and screaming across the lake in youthful abandon. They do drag race across our lake. It is unnerving, like seeing someone do the speed demon thing along a street.
On a beautiful winter day we took the cats our for our regular afternoon walk.
The cats play about, watching in fear when the snowmobiles appear in their field of vision. They listen and stay on guard, but they seem to be able to judge the distance the noisy machines are and head for the hills when the sounds becomes too scary.
They play their little games, and do their little cat dance, pretending to chase one another.
Sady, the cat, gazes at the open water and tell tale tracks down the way. She has an excuse: she can't read the sign. I can read the tracks, though, and someone has been taking a chance.
Lately, some snowmobilers have been downright stupid. I even found a YouTube video demonstrating this stupidity! My brother tells me he has friends that do this, too.
Knowing that these people likely have mothers caused me concern.
Some cottagers run bubblers all winter to prevent the ice from heaving and destroying a dock. Legally, they need a red light and a sign to keep snowmobiles, and people away. Blame a teacher if they can't read the signs. The water is about 5' deep here. I know. I used to swim off this dock as a child. My aunt & uncle bought the property in the early 60's, and built the cottage that sits there now. It is deep water, rendered liquid by runoff from the land, as well as the bubbler.
It our victim services training meeting we spoke about the effect suicide has on a family, friends and a community. Dangerous behaviour, such as snowmobiling across open water, has an impact on all of us: from EMS responders, to OPP, to victim services volunteers who give up time away from other things to help people out.
Encourage your kids to be careful out there.
Somebody, somewhere out there, loves them. We all pay the price.
11 comments:
Wow. So someone went in that water? The tracks lead right to it.
I am the same - I consider the helmet-less motorcyclers here to be another case of weeding out the gene pool. I, like you, worry about those left behind, and have also learned from poor neighbors that there is something worse than death - a son left alive but not alive (he's a vegetable after a no helmet ATV ride in the moonlight went bad). Still, young men have that risk taking behavior.
Yes, Junosmom, they came back out. I noticed this evidence last year. There is another dock with a bubbler on another part of the lake, visible from the highway. I imagine, with inertia, they keep on going if they are going fast enough. I just had to get a photo of it. It seems as if that testosterone contributes something to the behaviour. Plus teenaged brains - we know they don't have the ability to see the danger. They are creating brain cells at a phenomenal rate, without the foresight that age and experience contribute.
some people just like taking risks too much to bother about the cosequences....
the cats are wiser I think, lovely photos of them btw
We have the Same problem on out local lake.
Sadly, there will be a few casualties again this month on Lake Simcoe. We just don't know who they are...yet.
In Florida,we have jet skiers on our lakes.Guess people are the same all over.
Wow those are incredible shots, thanks for sharing.
Have a great week!
Guy
Regina In Pictures
Great post...but sad that some of us can't think above the "stupid line". We have ATV's ripping up our beaches, sand dunes and sensitive bog lands and generally making a nusance of themselves day and night. I love the photos of the cats! Thank you for sharing.
Smiles
I am glad we lived in Montreal in pre-snowmobile days when the woods aere quiet and safe for snow shoeing. 15 yrs later in Vermont the scourge had arrived with th roar and the stench and the fear.You always had to watch your children and not walk on open tracks.
A helmet dis not help much when the idiots drove through a fence and decapitated themselves on the to wire. After the hunting season with bulles whistling across our yard from hillside to hillside and later the snowmobile madness we were glad to come back to quiet and safe Australia.
Well written post! Sad that somebody should die in that water.
How reckless to go riding snowmobiles there.
Sounds like the cats have more sense than some of the snowmobilers.
I have never heard of taking cats for a walk. I'm not sure ours would go for it.
Snowmobiles? I wonder if they are useful anywhere? Definitely not in southern Ontario.
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