Krysten: Powersports enthusiast… no, Powersports addict!

Self-proclaimed powersports addict and our newest Chicks and Machines collaborator

Hi all! My name is Krysten and I am a powersports addict. Well, I love anything to do with motors and riding! ATV‘s, snowmobiles, motorcycles – and all the riding, fixing and wrenching that goes along with these passions

I ride it, I break it, I fix it -> rinse and repeat haha.

I live in north-central Saskatchewan Canada on an acreage with my husband and 2 cats. 🐱🐱

We are very lucky in that we live very close to the provincial forest with endless trails and can go riding basically anywhere we want, in any season, right from our garage!

Saskatchewan has a ton of great riding areas for offroading/riding in summer and winter. Saskatchewan is jokingly known as the province where you can see your dog run away for days, but where we live is actually less wide-open farmland and more boreal forest. We are lucky here in that we can ride our ATV’s and snowmobiles virtually anywhere we want as long as it is not on privately-owned land.

I grew up in a mixture of city (up to age 12) and country life (from age 12 to current) but ever since I was a child I have LOVED the outdoors, getting dirty, riding quads and sleds starting on my Grandpa’s acreage and then getting my own machines when I got older. I was always that “tomboy” who would much rather be outside exploring and getting dirty or in the garage helping my dad work on something.

I credit my Dad and Grandpa for fostering my lifelong powersports passion.

Once I got married this continued with my husband as he is also very passionate about the same things! He jokes that it’s not really a “good thing” as we need to have two of everything as I need to ride my own machines so it costs us twice as much to go have fun, haha. I love that we share the same hobbies and passion and it means I always have a ready-made riding buddy!

The risk-taking accountant?

For my “day job” I am a Senior Manager with an accounting firm and I work primarily with Agriculture clients. Most of my co-workers think I am (more than) a little bit crazy with what I love to do in my spare time! I truly enjoy my career and riding is my outlet – I call it my throttle therapy!

My employer is very flexible with days off and holidays, so this has helped me when planning longer riding trips on the ATV’s, snowmobiles and motorcycles. Of course my busiest time of the year is during the prime snowmobiling riding season here, but we are lucky where we live in that we are a very short trip from the garage away from a ride, or our other prime riding areas are within a 2-3 hour drive.

My first love: ATV riding

I first got into ATV riding in spring of 2011 when my husband and I bought our first ATV, a 2011 Polaris Sportsman 850. I started off riding on the back with him, and we went on some pretty awesome mud rides! Well, it did not take long for me to get the riding bug and I wanted to drive (and of course he didn’t want to be my passenger on the back of the ATV). The debate was between purchasing a side by side or me getting my own quad.

So, in fall of 2012 we purchased my first ATV, a 2012 CanAm Renegade 1000, which I am still riding to this day. Over the years there have been many modifications, some due to breaking parts and others to improve performance. Currently I run 32″ Assassinator mud tires, this machine is built for the mud and muskeg – AKA built for the fun!

The majority of our riding is done close(ish) to home in Saskatchewan, we are always on the hunt for the mud/skeg. We are lucky to be able to ride right from the house and there are many many kilometers of forest, sand and dirt trails, hills, mud, just about anything a person can ask for!

We do on occasion head further West into the Rocky Mountains with the ATV’s. It is very different for us “flatlanders” to ride the high elevations and steep ups and downs! You definitely can’t beat the scenery though.

ATV riding definitely has a special place in my heart❤ , it was my first powersports passion and I could not imagine life without it. We have explored so many places that would not have been possible without the ATV’s, and made so many friends through the ATV riding community!

For snowmobiling we are again lucky to be able to ride right from the garage into a vast provincial-owned area that is a good mix of trails (not groomed), fields, sloughs, lakes and hills. It is an awesome playground to have right there! We also will trailer up and head north or east a couple hours where there tends to be the best snow to be found in SK! This winter we are planning to head out west to BC to meet up with friends and go ride. For us this is about a 10-14 hour journey.

Snowmobiling is a huge passion of mine, nothing is better than that feeling of floating in the deep powder and getting to explore the beautiful backcountry where few get to go!

Learning to ride on 2 wheels

My other summer ride is a 1984 Honda Shadow 500 motorcycle, obviously an on-road machine. I just recently got my motorcycle learner’s license so this is a new passion for me! We rebuilt this bike from the ground up, as we bought it secondhand with a lot of issues (not running, laid down, etc). This was a huge undertaking and I am very proud of the work we did to get it to awesome running condition and even made some big customizations on it. I look forward to getting many more miles on come next summer.

Powersports enthusiast

Thanks for letting me tell you a little bit about my history with powersports. It is a huge passion and part of my life all year-round.

I look forward to the opportunity to tell you more about the adventures we’ve had riding in SK and in the mountains, and sharing some of my expertise!

Much love,

Krysten