Fortunate Son: A Summary of 2008

I’ve had a good run, though, as far as summers go. And, allow me to introduce myself. My name’s Tom Kaiser and I’m the managing editor of ATV Magazine, and an associate editor for ATV Sport and UTV Magazine. I ride, write, edit and shoot photos for our publications, and get to do an almost criminal amount of fun things for my job. This is my first contribution to our new, first-rate blog site, so I’m just going to ramble on to my heart’s content.

From this spring through the end of June, I’ve been a traveling madman: Texas for the wild Mud Nationals, returned a month later to hang out with Ted Nugent at his Waco ranch, attended the Polaris new model introduction in southern Minnesota, rode California’s magnificent San Bernardino National Forest for the Yamaha Grizzly 550 FI intro and attended the Elko ATV Jamboree in northeastern Nevada - a very beautiful place. I’d say that counts as a good few months, for sure! Click here for Ted Nugent slide show.

Mark Magill cruising through the woods on his Can-Am Renegade.

Each trip was a lot of fun, all in places I had never been before. I was really looking forward to July, though. My closest friend Cliff Shierk, who I’ve been pals with since I was two years old, was making the big move from Minneapolis to Chicago to attend grad school at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Congrats Cliffy. Anyway, in celebration of his move, we decided to go on a 10-day road trip out west.

My old pal Cliff Shierk, scoping out the Idaho topography.

We loaded up his elfin, white Scion xA with the bare necessities and headed west on I-94. Heading through wild-and-crazy North Dakota, we made it as far as Billings, Mont., on the first night. Then it was northwest to Glacier National Park, near the Canadian border. So many people had told me it was the most beautiful place they’ve ever been, and I’d have to agree. I especially recommend driving Going To The Sun Road and having a drink on the porch at the Many Glacier Hotel.

From there we headed west to Bonners Ferry, Idaho, and then south to Coeur d’Alene - arguably one of the most beautiful towns in our country. We came to potato land to do some riding, and met up with the friendly folks from Mt. Spokane Adventure Sports and Mark and Tera Magill of Teramark Films.

It’s hard to take a bad picture in northern Idaho, and here’s another failed attempt.

Surrounded by wooded mountains and enormous, meandering valley lakes, northern Idaho is where it’s at. The trails are some of the best I’ve seen, with a lot of variation and stretches where you could really open it up. There were just as many stretches where you just had to slow down and take in the incredible view. And, I saw a moose on the side of a trail.

Before we were done, we stopped at an overlook at sunset where you could see all the way into Washington. Check out the photo gallery HERE. We’ll have a feature story about the trip in an upcoming issue of ATV Magazine.

After being blown away by Idaho’s scenery, Cliff and I journeyed on to Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Salt Lake City, where we followed the rules, but still managed to have a wild night on the town for his birthday. If you haven’t experienced the strange, members-only bar scene in that city, I’d recommend checking it out. Weird. And then we were done, 2,600 miles added to the odometer. That took me through the month of July.

Other attractions for the summer included ATV racer Cody Anderson’s bachelor party back in Minneapolis, a whitewater kayak trip with friends in Wisconsin, a 70 mph thrill ride aboard Daryl Rath’s race-spec Polaris RZR and my second visit to the Rocky Mountain ATV Jamboree in central Utah - a great ATV gathering with amazing guided rides.

This year isn’t over yet, though, and there are more wild times to come: heading back to Texas to ride some mud bogs with Arctic Cat and our annual ATV Trials event, which is being held in western North Carolina. It’s all coming your way in the magazines, but I’ll try and give you the real deal on the blog, too.

With missing stairs, loose nails and frayed support cables, this abandoned lookout tower is one of the sketchiest things I’ve ever climbed.

So you see, it’s been a good summer and it’s okay to turn on the heat, to start spending some more weekends at home and trade in summer’s nonstop action for the leisurely rumination of fall.

Click here for Tom’s Idaho slide show.

Tom Kaiser can be reached at tkaiser@affinitygroup.com.

Last 5 posts by Tom Kaiser

• Rec UTVs: We Test, You Decide - August 27th, 2010
• Load Up The Trucks! - August 20th, 2010
• Stalking Bill Gates - August 13th, 2010
• Going To Extremes - August 6th, 2010
• Ride With A Guide - Take An ATV Tour - July 27th, 2010

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