Haydays 2016: 10 Things You Must Do At This Historic Event

Are you planning to be at the 50th annual Haydays Grass Drags & Swap Meet near North Branch, Minnesota, this weekend? If so, you’ll be joining tens of thousands of other snowmobile enthusiasts in the ultimate motorhead weekend of fun. The weather forecast looks great, and the event grounds are being prepared for a truly memorable weekend.

To get you psyched for the event, we offer this – 10 things you must do at Haydays this weekend, even if some of this stuff normally falls outside of your normal list of activities. Hopefully we’ll see you there!

Haydays grass drags
Another must at Haydays: Wear good shoes, because you’ll put on a lot of miles at the massive facility.

Even if you don’t want to buy anybody else’s used crap, you must… walk at least four full aisles of the swap meet, just to see all of the odd stuff that’s for sale. Beyond that, sometimes the people watching in the swap meet is rather interesting as well – particularly first thing in the morning when some of the party-animal swappers are still trying to recover from the activities the night before.

Even if you don’t care who wins a single race, you must… make it to the fence and watch a couple of rounds of the highly competitive snowmobile grass drag racing, particularly when the outlaw sleds are spitting and sputtering at the starting line. Their rate of acceleration on the 500-foot clay track truly is amazing.

Even if you don’t care about any brand other than your own, you must… visit all four of the snowmobile manufacturer booths. Aside from checking out the sleds to see more closely what your friends (who will obviously be behind you on the trail) will be riding this winter, you can also check out the other powersports equipment. Motorcycles, UTVs, PWC, ATVs, three-wheeled vehicles claiming to be motorcycles and more will be on display.

Arctic Cat
You never know what you’ll see at a snowmobile manufacturer’s booth, like the new snow bike unveiling at the Arctic Cat booth last year.

Even if you don’t want to buy a magazine subscription, you must… stop by the Snow Goer booth, heckle the staff, sign up for the Get Up & Go Sweepstakes and try new Ski-Doo, a Triton two-place trailer, $500 Dennis Kirk gift certificates and much more. It’s tied to the 50th anniversary of the start of Snow Goer magazine, which we’ll also be celebrating. We’ll be at our normal spot, near the grass drag track’s finish line.

Even if you aren’t in need of new riding gear, you must… visit some of the big dealer display booths. There are always great deals tucked in some of the bins up in various locations, whether that’s gloves, T-shirts, balaclavas, goggles, etc. And you may be drawn in by some of the riding gear deals as well and realize, in fact, you are in need of new riding gear.

Even if you don’t understand what’s going on, you must… see some of the Terracross races. The way the modified little side-by-side trade paint and scrap for positions on the tight and rough track is quite entertaining.

Even if you think that freestyle tricks are rather played out, you must… check out on of the presentations anyway, just to see the athleticism of some of these young daredevils. And, if you’re still around at 5 p.m. Saturday, you must see Levi LaVallee’s 200 foot jump. It’s an amazing distance in the air when seen live.

Even if you only run your sled in stock condition, you must… see some of the equipment at the various performance shop booths. And, even if you’re not a mountain rider, you must see some of the fascinating deep-snow machines on display at many of those performance shop booths.

Bikeman Performance
Performance shops feature cool sleds and bolt on equipment to drool over.

Even if you like to eat healthy, you must… give yourself a one-day waiver and eat like a slob at Haydays. From pepper-and-onion-covered sausages to deep fried whatever, various tempting beverages to donuts and other treats, there’s a lot more to inhale at Haydays other than dust.

Even if you don’t collect vintage sleds, you must… visit Haydays famous Memory Lane display to see all of the cool old sleds. And, after seeing some of the interesting old brands on display and so well displayed, you could be struck by vintage fever and end up back out in the swap meet you visited at the start of this list!

 

fly-booth

 

 

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