Snowmobiling 2011- See the 430 mile Winnisquam to Pittsburg, NH trip below!

The tunnel by Balsam's Resort up on the way to Dixville Peak and Pittsburg, NH.  63 miles one way, the way we like to go. That's starting from the Nash Stream Parking Lot in Groveton, NH. This kind of reminds me of the James Bond movie with the gun barrel intro...

Our main destination on our day trips- Ryan and Max having lunch at the Buck Rub Pub in Pittsburg, NH. Check out the woodstove! The spaghetti and meatballs are great. Then it's 63 miles back to the car. 130 miles total for the day! Max's sled better make it this time...

OK, first thing to do just before you go on a long, arduous trip is to stay up till 1am and take your sled apart. Right? That way you're completely sure that nothing is going to go wrong! 

Fueling up at Staffords in Laconia. One of our 4 fuel stops. Julie's and Ryan's sleds could go about 120 miles on their 10.6 gallon tanks. Ryan also carried a special 4 gallon Ski-Doo tank for emergencies. We never used this spare fuel. Ed's fuel injected SDI 600 could go about 200 miles on a full tank. We tried to fuel up every 60-80 miles. Deep snow on the way back also cuts your fuel range.

One of the many bridges on the off road vehicle trails. Mountain bikers, ATV's and snowmobilers use these trails. The main trails, Corridor Trails, run throughout the state from the Mass to the Canadian border. In many places these trails are double wide, 20 feet, and groomed velvety smooth. The Corridors are the super highways, the Interstate roads for snowmobile travel. About $40 is collected for every snowmobile registration sold for the clubs to groom, plus the registration fee for the state. This grooming money is not from the state's general fund. 

We make a quick pit stop to patch Julie's windshield with some shrinkwrap tape after she has a minor spinout and cracks the clear windshield. We have a snack here and check our fuel.

One of the many groomers we saw on the trip. The snow was great overall on the entire trip. You could tell the middle part of the state did have less snow though. Snow was not an issue at all on the trip. Last year we wanted to do this trip. but never had the snow cover to attempt it.

The bike path/snowmobile trail through Franconia Notch State Park. One of the most scenic areas (I'm bias)  in our state and the trail runs right down the middle of it. Incredible views. We pass Cannon Mtn. Ski Area here.

That's lunch in the underpass at Cannon Mountain. The Tram Lodge is closed Tu-Th so we were out of luck for a planned lunch there. It was snowing hard enough that this tunnel gave us good snow/wind protection. Ed also took his only phone call on the trip here. That's also amazing... Julie's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on gluten free bread were great.

When Julie's full face helmet electric defrosted shield started fogging, Ed gave her his power cord. So Ed was being very careful with fogging his shield. Just when it started getting dark, and those icy halos were appearing on his shield, a green and black object appeared on the horizon. Yes- it was an Arctic Cat dealership, and they had defroster cables. The guys at Jericho Motorsports were great. We recommend they highly (as long as they don't start selling boats!). They cared and stayed open late for us. They keep a clean showroom and have a good technician. Thanks guys !!!!

So we make it to the Tall Timbers Lodge in Pittsburg at 8pm. Later than we had thought, but in time for our 8pm dinner reservation. Nice. The snow and wind had slowed us down some. Filet Oscar, crusted salmon and pepper encrusted steak was our order. This facility is the best in the North Country. Be sure to make a reservation. Your cell phone will not work here, that's a good thing actually. They do have Wi-Fi and a credit card telephone booth. Yes, this was our table next to the fireplace. And that is a beer there.

Wednesday, 02-02-11. Snowing all night. We get out the door after breakfast at 9:30am. What's the rush? It's the only non-Dunkin Donuts breakfast Ed's had this year. We knew it was going to be a long day in the storm. We saw 10-14 inches on the trails. Ryan never made a wrong turn navigating. We gassed up at Young's Store in Pittsburg and then took a different route south, Corridor 5. This travels the Connecticut River Valley right on the Vermont border. It was a great choice as it was in fantastic shape. Not a bad section the entire way south.

Dixville Peak by the Balsams Resort. Always lots of snow and wind up here. it's a great high speed, switchback, hill climb. One of the trip highlights for sure.

Another bridge by Lancaster, NH. This one was a suspension bridge that swayed as you rode it. We took the time to get lunch at Scorpio's Pizza in Lancaster. We didn't have the time but we did it anyways. We were supercharged afterwards. You have to eat and drink or you'll loose your edge. We all got pretty good at breaking small pieces of energy bars up and getting them into our mouths with our full face helmets on. Chewing was hard though.

OK, back at our garage at 9:30pm Wednesday 2/2, 2011. Great adventure. Julie did it without any real snowmobiling experience, but her expert alpine skiing ability was what really helped her ride well. She has worked full time for the Billy Kidd Performance Center at Steamboat Ski Area coaching upper level skiers. The conditioning, balance and reaction time helped her learn quickly. Julie's the newest addition to Winnisquam Marine's sales staff and runs our marketing department. The sleds ran great. Never ran out of fuel or oil. Ed had a check engine light that went away on restart. Didn't forget anything. Never went off the trail. Ran out of cash at Scorpio's Pizza and didn't have an ATM card (they don't take credit cards). Probably saw 12 other sleds the entire time on this midweek trip. Wasn't too cold. 8-15F on the trails.