19 FALL 2019 ISSUE 01 / VOL . 01 SNOWGOER . COM

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Our team arrived just after sunrise on a cool January morning after a three-hour drive and found two of the lodge ’ s snowmobile guides shoveling fresh snow off of the resort steps while Lundahl was plowing wind-rows with a Sno-Cat in a nearby field . Guests inside were just starting to make their way to the group dining room for a fancy breakfast .

“ Have you guys eaten yet ?” asked one affable guide . “ You never know what Gerald and Vivian have going on in there , but it ’ s bound to be good .” We didn ’ t know who Gerald and Vivian were yet , so we just nodded in agreement and explained that we grabbed food at a gas station an hour earlier . “ Ooooh , bad move ,” he said . We ’ d find out what he meant later that night . We worked our way around to the front of the building and found snowmobiling bliss . Waiting in the field were 40 current Ski-Doo Summit 800 and 600 snowmobiles . Soon the rental shop opened on the ground floor , where we signed waiver forms and got ready to ride . We brought our own gear , but the resort has a broad assortment of highquality helmets , boots , jacket , bibs and gloves for rent .

Out front , we met up with fellow resort guests , most who were a part of a big group from Design Plastics Inc ., a Nebraska-based supplier of snowmobile windshields and other plastics components for all four snowmobile manufacturers . Company president John Nepper Jr . introduced himself and all of his guests – which included vendors , employees and clients . His group rents out the entire lodge two or three times per year , he explained , under the auspices of product testing and market research , though admittedly it is also one hell of a junket .

We joined one of three riding groups – one each would be led by Lundahl ( the owner ), Greg Wamsley ( our morning guide ) and the wild-eyed Nate Smoot ( a Ride Rasmussen Style-trained guide for extreme rides ). Each group rode across a field , skidded across Highway 83 and disappeared into the backcountry . Even though we all went the same direction , we wouldn ’ t see the other groups until lunch .

From a snowmobiling perspective , our group was quite diverse – running the full gambit from relatively timid beginners to decent riders to guys with more guts than skills . We followed Greg for a handful of trail miles at first , tracing a path along a treeline and past the actual Beaver Creek for which the resort is named . There , we caught glimpses of open water amid huge snow-covered boulders . Once past the creek and into more hilly territory , Greg stood , swung his right foot over the seat to the left running board , leaned hard and carved a path through the powder up a relatively