Looking for Free places to take kids to use sleds, tubes etc
 

Does anyone know where I can take my grandchildren to slide down hills with their tubes etc., in the Lakes Region? I know Gunstock has tubing for a cost. I'm talking free. Thanks. Bill

Gilford Outing Club
 

I beleive the Gilford Outing Club is free.

Information:

http://03249.com/web/hutwriteup.htm

Attachment 3333

Here is a story about the Sledding Hill

http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll...WS02/711239939

Tubing, sledding hills
 

There use to be a good number of tubing, sledding hills. My family even had one used by the public. Unfortunately, our litigation crazy society have reduced this to almost null. Our insurance company told us to shut down the hill. :(

There use to be a long hill at the Laconia Country Club. No longer. There was a beautiful sledding hill at Memorial Park in Laconia. That is gone. :(

I would be surprised if there is a hill for winter use for free. :confused:

It Is A Shame...
 

although at the same time there are so many lawyers out there look'in to make a living... 'What?'...

Oh, and I'm an old antique, that took any of my lumps and bruises along the way, Skiing, snowmobiling, swimming, Hockey, Football, Baseball Softball, Tennis and you just name it, I was right there enjoy'in it... And Golf... The only balls that I hit all day, were my own when I stepped on a broken rake in a sand trap, and the handle promptly came up and rang my bells... I never even thought of suing anyone...
I always thaught that this was an experience in Life to help me learn from, so as I could get to be an antique in the first place!

Ya, it's a whole 'nother world today! :) :) :) :)
Terry

About 35 miles from the big Meredith intersection, in the town of Waterville Valley, I stumbled across a FREE sledding hill while cross country skiing. Located in Waterville Valley just beyond the little golf course and the 18 tennis courts is the old Snow's Mountain ski area. It has a chairlift which is totally closed in the winter and families, kids and dogs use the bottom of what used to be the main slope for sledding. www.nelsap.org/nh/waterville.html Believe this old ski area is on land owned by the big WV ski area that's located about two miles away.

The photography shot taken from two miles out & up, from the summit of the big ski area, sort of shows the lower wide, gradual slope area that gets used by sledders.

When I was there today, there was about ten kids & adults, & one black labrador dog, on saucers and plastic slidies, who would walk maybe 100 yards or less up the old main ski slope. It's a wide, exhibition, in front of the old lodge type of a slope with natural snowfall.....no grooming...no manufactored snow....just what falls from the sky snow...plus it faces west and gets blasted with the late afternoon winter sun.

You can park your car in the large dirt parking lot just past the new Waterville Academy classroom building on the far side of the chair lift and make the brief walk back to the sledding slope. While the chairlift is closed in the winter, it is open occasionally in the summer for mountain bikers.
........

Something else www.watervillevalley.org/wvnh_icearena.html to do for 5-bucks in Waterville Valley inside their refrigerated & heated ice arena.
........

Saturday night fireworks

Every Saturday 7:30-pm in January & February: about 15 minutes of professionally orchestrated pyrotechnics, somewhat upclose & personal, above Corcoran's Pond, just outside the Ice Arena.

........

Cross country skiing 'no fee zones'

Two small sections within the Waterville Valley cross country skiing system have been designated 'no fee zones' by the property owner: the US Forest Service-White Mountain National Forest for the permittee, the Waterville Valley ski operator.

If you go to the very north end of town, to the Depot Camp parking lot, which requires a WMNF parking sticker; the two cross country skiing no fee zones: about 3/4 mile of the Tripoli Rd, and 2.8 miles of the Livermore Rd, both start from the Depot Camp parking lot.

The Forest Service has a three-section info kiosk-bulletin board at the corner of the parking lot next to the parking fee tube, and the entrance to the Livermore Rd - trail. It has a large trail map that shows the two no fee zones shaded in light blue if you have any questions.

Otherwise, using the Waterville Valley cross country ski trails costs about $16/day.

Interesting to read that about Snow's. You can't help but notice those slopes when you ski WV - must be a fun sled hill!

So why is it that there are so few sledding hills, or cross country ski trails for that matter, and yet there are snowmobile trails everywhere?

While I'm not totally opposed to snowmobiles (in principle), its very hard to enjoy the winter without meeting one if you want to ski xc. What I would most like to see is separate trail systems, ....but while there are hundreds of free snowmobile trails, I don't know of any free xc ski trails.

I would imagine snowmobilers would like xc skiiers to have their own trails, so they didn't have to worry about coming around a corner at speed and hitting one, and I know many xc skiiers would like to enjoy the peace and quiet of the woods without worrying about being hit.

Reminds me of Rodney King - "can't we all just get along?"

Free Trails?
 

I am an outdoorsman. If it happens outdoors then i do it including xcrountry skiing and snowshoeing as well as a big snowmobiler and have 4 of them for me and my friends and family when they visit. The snowmobile trails are not free. I paid $63.00 each for not being a NH resident (although i live here many months and pay taxes, that is another post for another time) plus a club fee of $30.00.
The local clubs provide a grooming service for the trails. If it was not for the local clubs then the trails would not be groomed for the FREE use of the other outdoor activities. I agree with you that there should be seperate trails and that there should be a group of clubs taht can maintain them.

Waterville Valley cross country has been the second largest size area in NH, behind Jackson XC, for years and years.
It seems like every year there are fewer and fewer cross country skiers out on the WV trails. This past MLK weekend the trails had real nice conditions with almost no skiers on the trails.

It costs about $16/day at WVxc, and the 3 1/2 miles of xc in the no fee zone always get skiers for the obvious reason that it is a good long 2.8 mile hill and is free. If you want to go onto the 70km pay trails, you have that option after trying out the freebie trail. Like....no kidding!

What helped to kill people's interest in xc skiing is probably the skating style of skiing. Skating requires that you be a super-duper olympic athlete to do it, while the tradional nordic style was much easier; it's basically like walking or running. The human anatomy is not designed for skate skiing while it is designed for the nordic style.

The nordic style was very user friendly to a new beginner. You could put on a pair of skis and go, while skate skiing is a lot more difficult and strenuous and for most people not very user friendly.

Like, why do a sport that you do not enjoy? And, that's skate skiing! And, that's why the trails are so empty! (except for the WV freebie trail, because it's free and you park your car right there.) Plus, there's still a number of nordic style skiers who have stuck with traditional nordic.

It would not be in the best interest of XC skier's wallets to have separate trails. As FFL said, Waterville charges money to XC ski the majority of available terrain. That's because it takes equipment and costs money to groom/maintain XC trails.

Snowmobilers pay for these trails via registration and club memberships fees. XC skiiers use them for free. XC skiiers could join together to create a club and cut and maintain their own trails but it wouldn't be free. It would cost money and your cross country skis would be full of stickers!

I believe Shedwannabe IS opposed to snowmobiling judging from his/her past posts. And as I've stated, I do and enjoy both. And I don't understand your "can't we all just get along" statement. 99% of the time when I pass a XC skiier on snowmobile trails smiles and friendly waves are exchanged and we both continue on our way.

Sledding and tubing
 

If we can convince the resorts that have tubing parks to put in a sledding park then we will have a place to sled. Problem is, sleds are hard and can be dangerous projectiles. Hench the litigation. Tubes on the other hand are soft and is less of a threat. Or so the lawyers say.....................

Yesterday at about 11-am, there was 22 different cars, I counted, at the Depot Camp-Waterville Valley-WMNF parking lot with local folks using the 'no-fee-zone' 2.8 mile Livermore Rd cross country ski trail. 22 cars on a Wednesday is like a big crowd for these here woods.

The first 3/10 mile on the Livermore Rd is almost flat and gets double-tracked by cross country skiers tracing over the previous skier's tracks. The last 2.5 miles goes up and along the Livermore Rd as it somewhat borders the Mad River and climbs through a mixed hardwood-softwood forest in the WMNF. The last 2.5 mile get professionally groomed and double tracked by a WV Piston-Bully $100,000(?) snow groomer.

The price to ski the 2.8 mile Livermore Rd is 'no fee' except for a WMNF parking sticker to park there.

It's like getting 2009 Mercedes xc-skiing at a 1999 Ford Escort price. (No offense to old reliable Ford cars.) There are no signs whatsoever to indicate it is a no fee zone. Surrounding the 2.8 mile no fee zone, all the contiguous WV ski trails are very clearly marked and noticed that a $16 pass is required. The cross country trail map posted next to the parking $3.00 fee tube on the Forest Service info board indicates the two "no fee zones'; Tripoli Rd & Livermore Rd if you you have any doubts.

Yesterday, there was 22 different cars, most all with New Hampshire plates and there was lots of people in their 40's-50's & 60's (& one 70-something lady) with some still using 'made in Norway', real wood xc skis made in the 1970's with those three-pin, wire hold-down bindings. It was a retro-1970's blue wax type of a snow day with 2010 corduroy, double-tracked grooming courtesy the WV PistenBully sno-groomer. .. :)

I know alot of people who go to Inter-Lakes high school in Meredith and use the hill behind the school. Not a long hill but steep and short.