Reporting is generally not considered an extreme sport. On most days the only physically exhausting duty I engage in is making (repeatedly ignored) phone calls to Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign. But it’s not every day that you are tasked with covering Todd Palin — champion snowmobile racer, “first dude” of Alaska, oil field worker, commercial fisherman, former Alaska Independence Party member and spouse of the potential vice president of the United States.

Over the next 24 hours, Palin will be making five appearances in northern and western Minnesota, at which he is expected to push snowmobiles — the mini-tour is sponsored by Arctic Cat — along with wife Sarah’s presidential ticket and perhaps, if the mood strikes him, state secessionism. The itinerary is daunting: five towns, 750 miles, three sporting goods stores, one snowmobile factory and one hotel.

I am clearly not the target demographic for this whirlwind tour. For starters, my only experience hunting is a single raccoon expedition with my plumber some years ago that briefly resulted in us stalking the filthy beasts on former Minnesota House Speaker Steve Sviggum’s property. Second, I have never ridden on a snowmobile of any sort, let alone the beasts that Palin mounts on his death-defying, 1,000-mile runs through the Alaskan wilderness.

But I have prepared accordingly. My rental car is stocked with six Cliff Bars, two Fiber One Chewy Bars, 13 bottles of water, 48 pens, 16 AAA batteries, three reporters notebooks, a Sony digital recorder, a Sony camcorder, a Panasonic digital camera, two books on tape (The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler; Cuba Libre, by Elmore Leonard), 19 CDs, a Rand McNally road atlas and a box of J.P. Chenet Syrah-Cabernet Sauvignon wine (half empty). Even if I get thrown from the vehicle and break my arm I will not be thwarted in providing comprehensive coverage of this landmark political event.

First stop: the Gander Mountain store in Hermantown at 2 p.m.