My brother and I took a trip north this weekend not really expecting a lot... was really just hoping to do an early season shakedown to make sure the fleet is ready for the snows to come. We were blown away by the conditions we found both on the MMSC trail system as well as Gilmanton.
Leaving from Sunset Lake on Saturday we hit Mt. Mack, Straightback, and Major midday. The trails were truly midseason condition - excellent cover and solid snowpack. We blazed our way over to the summit marker of Straightback no problem, and getting to the stone hut on Major was a piece of cake. From the mountains we took D to E and out on the bay. Winni is not ready for long riding - from Major you can still see signs of major pressure ridges, and there is just not much snow for cooling. However, no problem getting into the bay and we had a delicious late lunch at Shibley's at The Pier. We took the B trail back through the Roberts' lot and 22W back to Hidden Valley.
Sunday we took 22W down and checked out the new connector to Crystal Lake, which is great - nice job GSA. Crystal Lake is nice and smoothly snow covered, unlike Winni or Sunset. From Crystal Lake we took 22W further and across 305 back to MMSC trails. 305 was about as good as I've seen it in the past few years. Back on 22 the conditions were excellent to the Roberts' trails and as always, within. We decided to blaze the Northern leg of the Blue M trail within the Roberts' system - from 22 to D. Absolute blast if you have the right machines. For those of you who have not ridden the blue trail, it's properly rated as difficult. As always, use caution!
We finished up taking D back past Major and Straightback to 22, and 22 back to Hidden Valley. In total we did about 76 miles and enjoyed every one of them. Here's to more snow and cold to come... see you next weekend!
- Kevin, MMSC "Web Guy"
