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Powder hunt Andy Atkinson /Mail Tribune Jared Broadwater of Prospect launches off rocks on his snowmobile Monday near the Thousand Springs Sno-Park southwest of Crater Lake. Friday Mar 30, 2018 at 2:00 AM Mar 30, 2018 at 6:57 AM Mark Freeman Mail Tribune @MTwriterFreeman TOKATEE — The winter snowmobiling season has been so good that Jared Broadwater found plenty of time to get his commercial driver’s license. “I went to school to be a truck driver,” says Broadwater, 26, of Prospect. “That kind of says it all right there.” A dearth of snowstorms and hot, snow-eating weeks in between meant for a short and not-so-sweet snowmobiling season for winter snow-sports enthusiasts like Broadwater, who had to travel to the snow or anxiously wait for it to show up here. With a snowpack listed at barely over half of normal and low-elevation snow under 7 inches at bellwether sites such as Fish Lake and Diamond Lake, conditions have not been conducive to long, consistent and bump-free riding at regular snowmobiling haunts in the Southern Oregon Cascades. “We’re a sport where it’s either really good or it’s terrible,” Broadwater says. “There’s very little in between.” For clean riding, snowmobilers typically want to see at least a 6-foot base to make sure the rocks and stumps are covered, then a foot or two of fresh powder through which to carve. But that’s been a rarity this winter other than at higher elevations, Broadwater says. At places like the uber-popular Thousand Springs Sno-Park in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest off Highway 62 en route to Crater Lake National Park, riders like Broadwater have to start in snow barely over 6 inches and pick their way along trails into higher elevations to find snow depths that are play-worthy. “Our riding area is substantially smaller than last year,” Broadwater says. Once there, however, little windows of opportunities are white Christamases to Kale and Rebecca Frieze, who joined Broadwater Monday on a jaunt from Thousand Springs. Plenty of fresh powder fell at higher elevations last weekend, and the trail to higher elevations ran fine. While fir and pine seedlings stuck out of the snow like warning signs, many areas sported plenty of snow for their extreme tastes in adrenaline. The trio took turns hauling down the trail and launching off a rock with enough snow on top to hurtle them into the fresh powder below. “You can launch these things 150 feet,” Frieze says. “You can really get after it.” The virgin powder also created clean canvases for them to carve through, creating the tapestry snowmobilers crave. “You have to get it while it’s good,” Frieze says. “It’s pretty addicting for some of us.” That addiction has had Frieze burning a lot more gas hauling their snowmobiles than riding them, darting around all winter in search of ridable snow. “It’s the big powder hunt,” says Frieze, a former professional kayaker turned fishing guide. Mount Baker has been a regular destination for the Friezes, and they even ventured to Montana and Wyoming this winter for snowmobiling. “That’s where the real terrain is, for sure,” Frieze says. “We got lucky last year with a lot of snow. We didn’t have to go anywhere.” A young family means Broadwater can’t travel to the snow like others can. Broadwater logged just 600 miles on his snowmobile this year — 1,000 miles fewer than last year. “I just rode a lot less this year,” he says. “Coming off last year, that was really disappointing.” Broadwater is a trail groomer for the Rogue Snowmobilers club of Southern Oregon, whose members hope to return to Thousand Springs Sno-Park next weekend for their last hurrah of the 2017-18 season. With Rogue Valley temperatures forecast in the low 70s through Monday and no snowstorms in the forecast, Broadwater fears that last hurrah has already come. “I’m pretty sure our season is going to be over, as far as new snow goes,” he says. “I’m not counting on it.” Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman.