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fatlazyless · 01-28-2014, 06:06 AM

Rand's Hardware on Main St in Plymouth has a good selection; both the mini spikes or the spring-tire chain facsimiles, in about four different sizes, for different size shoes, all costing about 20-dollars /pair. The rubber stretchy shoe grip-ons can be a little tricky to get on correctly, especially when the temp is in the deep freeze but its best to take the extra 60-seconds to stretch the rubber stretchies correctly onto your walking shoes once you get to the problem icy-snowy area.

I like the spring-tire chain facsimiles best because they have more spring in contact with the snow-ice and are more comfortable than the mini-spikes, and are more comfy to walk on.

In Waterville Valley, walking the one mile long WVAIA Mad River Trail can be a challenge when it comes to crossing one large creek that drains down from the Mt Tecumseh ski area. A 60' (aprox) Forest Service bridge constructed with engineered lumber that was washed away by Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011 has been replaced with seven large, stepping stone boulders, so crossing the 2-3' deep creek now means taking big long steps from one boulder top to the next, and they do get covered with ice and snow! Missing a step, or sliding off the top of an icy-snowy boulder-step and into the creek could be a cold, wet miss-step, so's the spring-tire chain facsimile shoe cleats definitely help to get it done, but it is still a bit of a scary creek crossing......every time! Without the tire chain shoe grippers ..... for me ..... it would be a no-go!

A winter photo of the creek and seven big boulders here would be nice! ...... but you can google "WVAIA Mad River Trail" for a link to an article on reconstructing the trail with summer photos including the seven boulder creek crossing! "Some of these stones weighed approximately 3000-lbs each."

01-28-2014, 06:06 AM	#6
fatlazyless Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 8,748 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 300 Thanked 1,007 Times in 735 Posts	...... up the creek without crampons??? Rand's Hardware on Main St in Plymouth has a good selection; both the mini spikes or the spring-tire chain facsimiles, in about four different sizes, for different size shoes, all costing about 20-dollars /pair. The rubber stretchy shoe grip-ons can be a little tricky to get on correctly, especially when the temp is in the deep freeze but its best to take the extra 60-seconds to stretch the rubber stretchies correctly onto your walking shoes once you get to the problem icy-snowy area. I like the spring-tire chain facsimiles best because they have more spring in contact with the snow-ice and are more comfortable than the mini-spikes, and are more comfy to walk on. In Waterville Valley, walking the one mile long WVAIA Mad River Trail can be a challenge when it comes to crossing one large creek that drains down from the Mt Tecumseh ski area. A 60' (aprox) Forest Service bridge constructed with engineered lumber that was washed away by Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011 has been replaced with seven large, stepping stone boulders, so crossing the 2-3' deep creek now means taking big long steps from one boulder top to the next, and they do get covered with ice and snow! Missing a step, or sliding off the top of an icy-snowy boulder-step and into the creek could be a cold, wet miss-step, so's the spring-tire chain facsimile shoe cleats definitely help to get it done, but it is still a bit of a scary creek crossing......every time! Without the tire chain shoe grippers ..... for me ..... it would be a no-go! A winter photo of the creek and seven big boulders here would be nice! ...... but you can google "WVAIA Mad River Trail" for a link to an article on reconstructing the trail with summer photos including the seven boulder creek crossing! "Some of these stones weighed approximately 3000-lbs each." __________________ ... down and out, liv'n that Walmart side of the lake! Last edited by fatlazyless; 01-28-2014 at 06:37 AM.