‘3 Old Guys’ Return to MN from Long-Distance Snowmobile Trip to Alaska

Traveling over 5,000 miles through the harsh conditions of winter on snowmobiles isn’t a trip for the faint of heart, yet it was a task that three friends – Rob Hallstrom of Park Rapids, Paul Dick of Grand Rapids, and Rex Hibbert of Soda Springs, Idaho – embarked upon this past winter, as they traveled from Dick’s home in Grand Rapids all the way to Fairbanks, Alaska.

“We’ve done a lot of long-distance snowmobiling in the past, and of course, we talked about, ‘How would you top that?'” explained Hallstrom, “And Alaska kinda came up and that’s what kinda got us going to Alaska, I guess.”

“We put it together, took about a year or two to get it put together. We got our snow machines and built them all up,” said Dick, “and it all came to head on March 6th.”

When the journey for “The 3 Old Guys” first began in Dick’s garage, things seemed to be going smoothly. But of course, as anyone who’s ever gone on a road trip knows, technical difficulties can sprout up at any moment.

“We had a few different snowmobile problems along the way, which is to be expected, you know, we put a lot of miles on some pretty extreme terrain,” said Hallstrom.

“We had a couple fires which is kinda uncommon,” added Dick. “But we were there, we crossed the border so we were happy.”

Despite a few bumps in the road, the story of this incredibly journey spread, leading over 38,000 people to follow the gang’s official Facebook page tracking their progress.

“I can’t believe it. You know, Rob put that on the Facebook just so family and friends could kind of follow us,” said Dick. “And then all the interest from people all over the country, I’m just amazed that there was that much interest in it.”

Now with their return home, only one question remains for ‘The 3 Old Guys’: what’s next?

“That’s a good question,” said Hallstrom with a laugh. “We’re certainly not going to try to top this trip because I don’t think we’d live through it if we did!”

“We’re just sitting on the back burner here, we better take and tend to our netting a while, you know? I think when I was gone, my wife bought a heavy-duty chain, she’s gonna keep me chained to the porch for a while,” joked Dick.

Once the three men returned from Alaska, a meet-and-greet was held in Grand Rapids, where the public had an opportunity to chat with the trio about their adventure in the north.