WATCH: Airboat Rides Frozen Wyoming Lake
I grew up near the Everglades in the southwestern part of Florida. That means I've done some airboating.
Airboats are usually flat-bottomed with a big fan up on the back, allowing the boat to travel over anything. An airboat doesn't care if it's water, muck, marsh, dryland, or anything else.
But what about ice?
Imagine my surprise when I was invited to go airboating in Wyoming, in the winter, on a frozen lake.
Yeah, that sounds SO COOL!
You can take this airboat ride too. I'll explain how later in this article.
We skipped across the frozen waters of the Glendo reservoir. In those few areas where the lake was not frozen, we just kept on going. An airboat doesn't care.
The owner of the boat, Mike Cushman of 307 Airboat Adventures in Glendo Wyoming, even let me drive it. He must be crazy.
Come with us by watching the video below.
We had a blast, drifting and slip-sliding across the ice.
Airboats don't have breaks and just throttling back won't stop the boat anytime soon as it slides across the ice. So the only way to stop it is to do a 180 turn and step hard on the gas. Now that the fan is blowing in the opposite direction that the boat is going it can stop.
Easy controls. One stick. Forward is right back in left. Then there is the throttle on the floor. That's it.
WE GOT STUCK IN THE ICE! We stopped a couple of times. The boat itself is heavy, before adding in the engine and then the people, so it settled a bit into the ice. Add to that the vaper we are making is on the bottom of the boat and that makes a seal, sticking us in place. Mike got out, twice, to unstick us. That was unsettling.
At the end of the video, I interviewed the boat captain Mike Cushman about how he got started taking folks out for airboat ice adventures in Wyoming.
Special thanks to 307 Airboat Adventures in Glendo Wyoming. 307AirboatAdventures@Gmail.com
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