The B-b-b-bodie Run

Neither gale-force winds nor drifting snow up to six feet deep kept the Bodie Bogies Snowmobile Club from its annual trek from the small fishing resort town of Bridgeport to Bodie, a picturesque ghost town 13 miles away in the Eastern Sierra.

In the past as many as 250 enthusiasts have participated in the event, but this year, with roads closed because of the largest storm of the winter, only 35 hard-core snowmobilers packed the1769087074gear for a recent weekend outing to snowbound Bodie.

Among them was Guy Rasmussen of Bridgeport, who said he wouldn’t miss the trip for anything: “It’s our 17th straight year for the trip.”

For the nine residents of Bodie, it was a rare off-season visit from the outside world. The town, which is a state historical park, gets as many as 100,000 visitors each summer. But winter is a different story. A dozen miles from the nearest plowed road, Bodie is all but inaccessible except to cross-country skiers and snowmobilers.

Dave Stewart, Bogie club president, noting the success of the day trip, said that the weather was actually balmy compared to some past treks. “It was minus 20 degrees in 1970. . . . Now that was cold!”