a couple of weeks back, the “3 Old Guys” are embarking on yet another adventure, this time snowmobiling from Grand Rapids, Minnesota, to the east coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
In case you’ve been hiding under a rock the past few winters, the “3 Old Guys” are Paul Dick, 74, of Grand Rapids; Rex Hibbert, 71, of Driggs, Idaho; and Rob Hallstrom, 67, of Park Rapids, Minnesota.
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“They literally left moments ago,” Hallstrom’s wife, MaJeana Hallstrom, told me Thursday morning.
All three of the “Old Guys” have extensive snowmobiling backgrounds that include participating in the grueling 2,500-mile Cain’s Quest endurance snowmobile race in Newfoundland and Labrador.
I first wrote about the “3 Old Guys” back in 2019, when they made a a trip of some 2,950 miles. In March of 2023, they kicked it up a notch, steering their Arctic Cat Norseman snowmobiles from bushwhacking their way through deep wilderness for large swaths of the journey.
The going should be easier this time around, as they will largely be riding groomed trails on a route of some 4,000 miles that will take them from Grand Rapids through Wisconsin along the southern shore of Lake Superior and north into Ontario, through Quebec and eventually to the Gulf of Labrador before taking the ferry to Newfoundland, according to an updated posted Feb. 11 on the Facebook page.
This time around, the “3 Old Guys” are driving Arctic Cat 600 Riot snowmobiles, which Rob Hallstrom described as “sportier” than the sleds they drove to Churchill and Alaska.
As she did during their 2023 trek to Alaska, Hallstrom’s daughter, Kasie Plekkenpol, is posting regular social media updates on the trio’s latest adventure.
In a text message Thursday morning, Plekkenpol said the senior snowmobilers’ initial stop will be at the in St. Germain, Wisconsin, where they’ll be spending the weekend.
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“They are NOT being inducted, but one of the sleds from (the) Alaska trip will be on display, and they have many friends being inducted,” Plekkenpol said. “(It) should be a fun weekend with legends and history.”
‘Four Days to St. Paul’
Speaking of snowmobiles, I recently went down a YouTube rabbit hole on a trek that took me back to a colorful era in Northland snowmobile history.
Some background:
Beginning in 1966 or thereabouts and continuing until 1980, the Winnipeg to St. Paul I-500 snowmobile race was a big deal for those of us who grew up in northwest Minnesota and – to a lesser extent, perhaps – North Dakota.
I can remember kids bringing transistor radios to school to keep tabs on the most up-to-date results as the racers bounced their way along ditches and roads less traveled over the course of the four-day race. A friend and I even skipped school one day to catch the racers as they made their way down U.S. Highway 59 somewhere near Halma, Minnesota, en route to Thief River Falls, their stop on the first leg of the race.
One of the “celebrities” to participate in the race that year – I’m thinking it was 1978 – was Bob Lurtsema, the Minnesota Vikings defensive lineman affectionately known as “Benchwarmer Bob,” a nickname he embraced. I can’t say for sure, but I have it in my mind that he drove a Viking snowmobile.
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From what I could find on the internet, Lurtsema finished in 34th place, a very respectable showing for someone who wasn’t a professional racer.
A few days ago, a documentary about the 1971 Winnipeg to St. Paul I-500 popped up in my YouTube feed and it sucked me in. Titled features grainy video of that year’s race (along with one of the cheesiest theme songs I’ve ever heard), but provides an entertaining look at what the racers went through on machines that were downright primitive by today’s standards.
If snowmobiles and their colorful history are your thing, it’s definitely worth a look.
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