I don't feel like I've got my money's worth on these trips until it's been articulated in short story form with a first hand account and each person's unique perspective.
Nice job #7, and way to get the reports started. I'll leave Day 2 to #5 since the B52 site was his destination. I'll pick up day-3 if my febel mind can remember any details...ha!
#10
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I'll be looking back for ya on the White stuff. :-) Keep the rubber side down! #10
We drove from rainy Massachusetts to the Forks in Maine. It was 95 to 201 all the way. We had a couple of stops at the Red Robin in Augusta and the Autoparts store in Skowhegan. Still raining, oh no. GPS said we were getting within 30 miles of our destination and it was colder yet still raining. Thoughts of last year's debacle in Jonquiere kept running through our minds. #10 gave weather reports every 20 minutes from his handheld droid. Within 5 miles of the Northern Outdoors it turned to wet snow. We arrived at 4pm and were ready to gather information from the beer drinking boys at the bar.
We asked around and got bad reports from others who tried to ride earlier in the day. They said the rain had frozen to their shields and they quit out of frustration.
Looking out the big windows of the place suggested a recent turn for the better. We decided to take the short ride to Jackman for dinner and an evening jaunt about the area. #10 lead us most of the way. He was pretty comfortable in front from riding the area years ago. Jackman was directly north, but he took us north and east. The snow was heavy loose powder on top of packed trails. The Simon and Garfunkel song "Slip Sliding Away" rang through my brain as the realization that this was pretty damn good conditions compared to the way I was feeling 2 hours prior.
We saw some Moose on the way to Jackman. Wow, Moose on the first night about 30 minutes into the ride. We followed one for a while before he turned off. We took turns going to the front of the pack to get a good look. I started the tripdometer on my dashboard for the trip. As we passed 40 miles, 55 miles and 70 miles I began to wonder if Jackman was at all nearby? We stopped at a dealership for a tail light bulb, but they were closed. There was a lady there, but she had no intentions of selling anything that night.
At the dealership they had snowmobile shelves and hundreds of snowmobiles on the racks. I guess people must call up and say, "get my machine ready", much like a boat marina. Someday that could be me.
We found a small restaurant and gas at the 80 mile mark. The waitress said for us to hurry up and order because they were closing. It must have been 9pm when we arrived. We ate and got some information from the only other couple still there. We decided to take the shortest ride home which was directly south down ITS 89. Conditions were still great. It was getting cold with strong winds and still snowing as we blasted through the city and back into the dark woods.
It was about 50 miles back to the Northern Outdoors a few miles south of the Forks. No wipeouts or close calls to mention. We felt like we achieved some good riding of 132 miles for a night ride. Back to the cabin by 11:30pm and one hell of a start to a great week of riding. Got hit by a couple beers and off to bed.
3 more days of ride reports to come from #2, #5 and #10.
