Great ride Friday

[nightrider]

Great ride Friday. Sledd, myself, and Dave headed out of Ossipee at 7:30. Picked up the RR track corridor 19. Tracks groomed perfectly all the way to McDonalds in Conway. Had a quick breakfast at McD's then to Redstone for gas. From there north thru Evans Notch and to the new bridge over the Wild River at 10:30. All trails flat. Reached Gorham at 11:30 and gassed up. Went along a trail of power lines for the first time not realizing how sharply crested the rollers were. Went way airborn the first one and managed to stay on the snow, for the most part, for the rest of them. A very fun section of trail and it was, of course, groomed perfectly. From there we did a side loop up Pine Mountain. Nice views and groomed trails. From there to Randolph with long straights of groomed RR bed. Thankfully there were no green jackets along that stretch. Down to Twin Mountain and Faybian's for lunch. The Tuckerman's pint was beyond delicious. Headed to Cannon Mountain and the bike path all groomed flat eventually to the rr tracks and Lincoln to gas up. Tracks all the way to Plymouth were groomed flat. This is where we made a wrong decision. We headed west into the Sandwich system which was marginal. We should have stayed on the tracks to Meredith and taken the lake to the castle trail and home. Instead, it was a long arduous ride thru Sandwich and the Ossipee Valley trails. The OVSC were groomed but twistty. We were spoiled at that point by the long straights we enjoyed for much of the ride. Dinner at the Songbird then back to the camp by 8 or so. All told it was a 243 mile fabulous day on the trails. Kudos for all the clubs for having wonderfully groomed trails.

[NHWakesurfer]

Sounds like a great ride thanks for sharing the details. Its great to hear about other trips to know what works and what doesn't.

Lets hope we can all get a few more rides in with the new snow on the way.

[secondcurve]

Great ride Friday. Sledd, myself, and Dave headed out of Ossipee at 7:30. Picked up the RR track corridor 19. Tracks groomed perfectly all the way to McDonalds in Conway. Had a quick breakfast at McD's then to Redstone for gas. From there north thru Evans Notch and to the new bridge over the Wild River at 10:30. All trails flat. Reached Gorham at 11:30 and gassed up. Went along a trail of power lines for the first time not realizing how sharply crested the rollers were. Went way airborn the first one and managed to stay on the snow, for the most part, for the rest of them. A very fun section of trail and it was, of course, groomed perfectly. From there we did a side loop up Pine Mountain. Nice views and groomed trails. From there to Randolph with long straights of groomed RR bed. Thankfully there were no green jackets along that stretch. Down to Twin Mountain and Faybian's for lunch. The Tuckerman's pint was beyond delicious. Headed to Cannon Mountain and the bike path all groomed flat eventually to the rr tracks and Lincoln to gas up. Tracks all the way to Plymouth were groomed flat. This is where we made a wrong decision. We headed west into the Sandwich system which was marginal. We should have stayed on the tracks to Meredith and taken the lake to the castle trail and home. Instead, it was a long arduous ride thru Sandwich and the Ossipee Valley trails. The OVSC were groomed but twistty. We were spoiled at that point by the long straights we enjoyed for much of the ride. Dinner at the Songbird then back to the camp by 8 or so. All told it was a 243 mile fabulous day on the trails. Kudos for all the clubs for having wonderfully groomed trails.

243 miles! Wow. You must have been sore on Saturday!

[Red apple]

Great trip! The Saturday before we did the the same trip but backwards. This weekend we did Sunday river for a overnight and another great ride. This is most likely the best year I can remember riding in the lakes region. The clubs locally and all over the areas we rode have done a GREAT job. It's great when they have donations jars and boxes located on the trails and gas stations as gives us just driving through a way to to say thanks.

[SAB1]

Wow that's a great ride night rider. Sometime we will have to hook up for a ride like that. I wouldn't even the trails to get to those spots.

[SAB1]

And my wife would never do that!

[Closetzguy]

Thanks for the details! Hope to get out for a ride on Saturday!

[ultrarider]

Can anybody tell me the names of the Snowmobile clubs heading North form Ossipee, and where I can get Trails maps for them? I only have the Ossipee snowmobile Club map. I'd like to try that ride that Nightrider did Friday sometime. Maybe next year
Thanks, ultrarider

[NHWakesurfer]

Ultra,

If you go to this site (Its the NH trail maps page) http://www.jimapco.com/maproom/snowmobile/nh/ and zoom in they list all the clubs for each coverage area and when you click on them it will bring you to each clubs website. Many of them can be ordered on their websites, several say where you can buy them at local stores and they have email/phone number listed if its not listed as to where the maps are to learn how to get them.

[Red apple]

For maps we use Garmin motorcycle GPS with backwoods snowmobile maps loaded on it. The cost if the maps is about $50.00 and well worth it.

[ultrarider]

After reading about the great ride Nightrider, had last Friday, I think it's time for me to invest into a GPS. Can anyone give me some advise, on what system is best for me. I am not a computer Geek, so I'd need one Simple to use (like a automobile TomTom). I talked to a Rep. from the Website backwoodsGPStrails.com last year about what he suggested, and he presonally thought a nuvi 500 or 550 is good, and least expensive. He did say you need one with a removable SD card though. He also said HK Power Sport in Laconia could set me completely up with the maps and all, ready to go. Any advise someone can offer me who's been using a GPS, and is knowledgeable on them would be great, I'll get one for next year.
Thanks,
ultrarider

[jmen24]

Go handheld, then you can put it on the boat, motorcycle, car, pocket, snowmobile, you get the idea. The car/motorcycle units are too one dimensional, IMO.

I use a Garmin Rino 650 currently, on that units color screen I can see topo maps in color and I lay a satellite image (Birds Eye Subscription) over the topo. Very cool feature for hunting, because you can actually see that while a particular route is less contoured than another, it may also be a swamp or a briar patch and a simple walk around will get you to the same point.

I get almost all my maps from http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/state/nh Almost all of them are free and verified. You can see from the menu what a particular map gives you for information and how it can be used. Example the Snowmobile Trails map is transparent, so you would load that map onto you MiniSD with a Topo of your choosing and activate both maps from the gps. Now you have snowmobile trails that overlay on the contour lines of a topo. Very cool!

I would recommend any of the Garmin handhelds, I have owned the Rino 530, Rino 650 (both are Weather and 2-way enabled) and have used a GPSMap 64s. The beauty is that I can take the unit out of my pocket and put it in the RAM mount on my bike, then put it in the car, head off with the canoe, all while using the same device with a 32GB MiniSD that has my street (nav) map, topo map with hiking trails overlay, and my inland waters map. All with the same device (and in the case of my 650, I can also call out on GMRS or FRS radio frequency, if an emergency arose). You simply select the map you want the unit to use from the maps menu in the unit. I do keep my hunting maps on a different card, because the satellite image files are huge.

Garmins Basecamp software keeps all your maps in one place on your PC and you could plug and play if you were inclined as well. That is also how you load your SD card(s).

[ultrarider]

Jmen24---
That was alot of info you just threw at me on Gps units. Thank you for all of that, but not being so Hi Tech savvy, I'm not sure I got all of it. I think a hand held is a good idea, as I could use it on the motorcycle, hiking, etc. I will keep the Garmin Rhino 650 in mind, when I seek out one, but from everything you just spelled out, I'm intimidated by the thing already. I hope the sales rep will be patient enough with me to explain it all in detail. I really just want to be able to punch in a destination in, and follow the trail as it goes.
ultrarider

[jmen24]

Jmen24---
That was alot of info you just threw at me on Gps units. Thank you for all of that, but not being so Hi Tech savvy, I'm not sure I got all of it. I think a hand held is a good idea, as I could use it on the motorcycle, hiking, etc. I will keep the Garmin Rhino 650 in mind, when I seek out one, but from everything you just spelled out, I'm intimidated by the thing already. I hope the sales rep will be patient enough with me to explain it all in detail. I really just want to be able to punch in a destination in, and follow the trail as it goes.
ultrarider

If you can navigate a cell phone or tablet, you can handle today's GPS units. It's not until you start playing with route tracking (the gps tracks where you have been) that things start getting more in depth. The computer software that you can download really makes things easy.

Make sure you go to a location that you can see the different models. The 650 adds weather (NWS forecasts and alerts) over the next model down in that lineup.

You don't have to go top of the line, to get good features. I would recommend sticking to units that allow you to change SD cards, that way you will only buy your maps once and you could switch to a more advanced model in 5 to 10 years. My last one lasted 6 and I am not that nice to my equipment, your mileage may vary.