Vol V #1 January 5, 2003

Here it is, winter number five for the IROC club and we are still going strong. You'll have to believe me that season four was a good one as we are still waiting for Pete to send in the newsletters for last year. But let us forget about the past and concentrate on the future.

We finally got the sleds in to our new mechanic Bruce (actually Jeff found him last year) and he got them all tuned up and ready to go. Jeff and Pete were hoping for a quick ride through Old Forge over the Christmas break but that fell apart when the sleds weren't quite ready in time. It seems we were waiting for some parts to come in. In any case, Jeff and I picked them up right after the holiday break and the club was set to make our first trip to Old Forge this past weekend. Then Mother Nature stepped in, dumped some rain and messed up conditions pretty good. The hotel Pete called for rooms actually told him to stay away. This was independently confirmed by Pete's woman friend Stephanie (again, you need last year's newsletters) so the trip was put on hold.

In the meantime we were supposed to get a whole bunch of snow here in Massachusetts so I went out Friday afternoon to do some scoping of the local trails. The closet trail head I found was in Winchendon, less than an hour from either mine or Jeff's house. On Friday night it was decided the first club outing, sans Pete, would be in Massachusetts.

It's kind of funny how dependent on Pete Jeff and I have become. The night before we left I remembered we should have a tow rope just in case (remember we have Arctic power - this was just in case we ran across a hapless Polaris). So it was off to the Walmart for a quick purchase. Funny how these things come in twos but on the way to Walmart I started to wonder if we had any oil (Pete always takes care of that too). As it turns out we had enough oil around so that didn't end up being the problem I expected.

I could feel the excitement in the air when I woke on Sunday morning. Our first ride of the season was just a few hours away. After a quick breakfast at home I headed off to Jeff's house. Then we headed up to Lake Denison State Park in Winchendon. The parking lot was crowded but we found room and unloaded the sleds. And then we were off...

We started riding north on the ITS 71 corridor trail towards New Hampshire. The trail was wide and well groomed. But the nice trail started to go away as we got out of the park and conditions got fairly bumpy. That's when we decided to turn around. Actually we turned around at a dilapidated old train station a little further up the trail (wherever that was). Since going north was out we did an about face and headed for the corridor trail south to Rutland. Just when I was thinking the southerly trail was fantastic we hit a dead end. It turns out we were on the trail to the groomer barn. No wonder it was so good. Oh well. On our second attempt to ride the corridor trail south we managed to find it and headed off. Trail conditions were terrible. Very bumpy. Too bumpy for comfort. Jeff called it "Tug Hill Junior." We got as far as Route 2 then turned around and retreated to the confines of the park. We spent the rest of the day riding around and exploring inside the park. Trails were in great shape but you have to watch out for the low hanging branches. As we were riding around the park, Jeff pointed out the old gas gauge was pointing towards empty so we headed out for a final ride down to the groomer barn, packed up the sleds and headed for home. Not a bad day, breakfast and dinner at home with a nice ride in the middle. What a way to start the season.

For anyone who cares, our ride today was courtesy of the Coldbrook Snowmobile Club. The trail system goes from NH north of Winchendon to the Rutland area just outside of Worcester. Riding in the park was excellent. Outside the park the trails were really bumpy. Some were so narrow you couldn't imagine they were ever groomed. I figure the rest must be groomed as soon as the visitors leave on Sunday night. I can't imagine ever making the ride from Winchendon to Rutland and I doubt I'd ever try but another trip to the park will definitely be in order. Pleny of nice well groomed trails to ride there.

On a related note, Pete and Rob went to Old Forge this afternoon planning a Sunday night and Monday ride. I expect we will hear from them soon.