Graves Yamaha Pro AMA Superbike Racing Rider Josh Herrin and his younger brother Zach ventured to Idaho and Western Wyoming in January to ride snowmobiles. Josh and Zach Herrin have grown up racing Yamaha Sport Bikes excelling in the highest adrenaline powersports segment a GearHead can pursue. But there’s not much snow in SoCal or Georgia. So, the idea of finding some deep powder and switching gears from pavement to powder in the off-season was an opportunity the Herrin’s couldn’t pass up.

180 miles per hour on an R6 around a twisty track is common ground for Josh Herrin. Could riding a sled be near the rush? The first day Jared Burt, GearHead.com CEO hauled Josh Herrin, Zach Herrin and a couple friends to the Big Hole Mountain Range in South East Idaho for a warm-up ride. Test day on the track is critical to prepare for an AMA Sportbike race. Josh warmed up quickly to the 2012 Yamaha Nytro MTX 162 in short order. By the end of the day, Josh and Zach were racing back and forth on the winding mountain trails at 70-80 MPH. A taste of mountain riding wetted their appetites as they found a few meadows and hills to rip around on.

After getting stuck in the powder half a dozen times, Zach’s patience had run out stating, “I hate the powder.” Jared noted that, “After 10 minutes of riding, Josh got comfortable on the sled and couldn’t keep it under 75 MPH on the trail. I was going for a cruise, Josh wanted to win.” After 5 hours of trails and a taste of the mountains, they were ready for a new challenge with even more powder.

“Its different in the trails but in the fresh powder whenever you turn the bars and it doesn’t go the way you want it to turn, that’s what threw me off the whole day when I was riding.  I couldn’t make myself do until the end of the day when I got used to it. But when I did it was a whole lot of fun.”       – Josh Herrin

Troy Johnson with Lincoln County Customs in Alpine, WY went on the ride to give some pointers, “They caught on to what they had to do really quickly. Josh had the right idea of the technique he needed really quickly.” They enjoyed the off-trail riding a lot more as they figured out how to counter steer, jump and hill climb on the sleds. “My back wasn’t so sore after Day 2 because they learned how to keep the sled from trenching. It was a lot of fun riding with guys so passionate and down to earth,” says Troy.

Josh and Zach really started to love mountain snowmobiling as their ability to ride grew quickly on the easy to navigate Yamaha Nytro MTX 162 snowmobiles. Josh left Alpine saying, “I like coming up and doing this stuff in the off-season. Its still good for me; its training basically. If I can do this another couple times before the end of the season that would be really cool. Next year, when I come up, hopefully I’ll do a little bit better.” Josh and Zach have committed to making this an annual trip to improve their snowmobiling skills.