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Weekend Offering
Mar. 11th, 2007 08:54 pmNormally, I'm skiing this weekend, at a friend's condo in Ashland, NH, but she decided not to do it this year. Sad.
Regardless, I figured I'd salvage at least one of the days for something escapist. Friday night, my buddy Scott and I went to see 300 at the Cinemagic Stadium Seating Theatre in Merrimack, NH. 300 was pretty cool, even if some points of it were a little.... off. That's all I'll say. Go see it if you like lots of BUILT MEN and SWORDS.
I crashed at his place Friday night in Nashua, NH, which involved a trip to Long Horn Steakhouse (STEAK and BEER), and then a lot of hours playing with his Xbox 360 (Test Drive Unlimited makes my Gran Turismo and PS2 look like utter CRAP) and watching a lot of Robot Chicken and South Park on DVD. Crashed out around 2am.
Saturday, I was up at 7:45am to shower and hit ze road for Lincoln, NH, where I had a snowmobile tour booked! I've been trying to do a snowmobile trip since I still worked at EMC (third winter attempt!). Last year, New Hampshire ran out of frickin' SNOW before I could get up there in early March. I made it up to Lincoln by 10:10am, which gave me 45 minutes or so to bum around after I checked in. I got changed into my snow gear, and pretty much just hung out before they loaded us onto the little bus to take us to the sleds.
We were driven one exit north from Lincoln to where the sleds and the trails lived. We got 10 minutes of verbal instruction on how to start, stop, steer, and stay on a snowmobile (which sounded awfully like a Jetski, and somewhat like a motorcycle), and then they matched us to sleds (single sleds for one person or double-sleds for people going in pairs) and got us started up. We then puttered a minute or so away to a big flat circle in the snow, the staging area where we got to ride in circles to learn how to control the throttle, brake, steering, etc. After that, they separated us out into two groups (me and two other singles riders, a guy and his son, and then all the double sleds in the second group) and away we went. Each group had a guide, and all we had to do was follow him.
(At this point, I want to interject and say that, for some reason, it consistently amazes me how little training/verification of skill it actually requires to be allowed to do something like this. :) Maybe it's just a New Hampshire thing, but the requirements for renting a jetski and taking it MILES OUT into Lake Winnepesauke were similarly lax.)
So, our guide heads out, and I slot in behind him, not wanting to be stuck behind anyone puttering along, because one of the rules is NO PASSING (which is understandable.) The guide takes off, and we follow. He easily motors along for a minute or two, and then he picks up the pace. Soon, we're jaunting along as a surpringly quick pace, or what seems surprisingly quick since you're 2 feet away from the trees on your right side. In truth, we weren't doing any faster than 20mph, but that seems pretty quick when twisting and turning and going up and down hills in the woods.
Every 2 minutes, he'd stop to make sure we hadn't lost the other two members of our group, and after 15 to 30 seconds, they'd catch up, and away we'd go again. It's a pretty well-run tour, where you can't really get lost, but you're not being either forced to go too fast, or feeling like you're holding up anyone behind you. I was enjoying the ability to go faster than I thought we'd get to go, and the feeling of leaning into turns like I used to on my motorcycles was a nice feeling to have again.
We were headed up into Franconia Notch, pretty much paralleling Route 93, and we stopped for a 5 minute breather at Lafayette Campground. We chatted about various things, and got to know the guide a little, he seemed like a decent guy. When the group of 2-up riders showed up, we pulled out and let them have the resting space, and we kept going.
We kept on our trek, until we'd made it all the way up to, and passed, Cannon Mountain on Route 93. We stopped just after crossing a huge bridge up near the Old Man in the Mountain (d), and he led us in a line up a long 1/2 mile flat slightly curved and slightly inclined track of snow. Then he led us back over the same track, and he was really hauling butt pretty good. When we got back to the other side, he said, "OK, anyone who wants to see how fast their sled can go, you can go up and back that path as much as you want for the next little while!" That's pretty much all I needed to hear, and I headed out, throttle pinned open and rear of the sled fishtaililng in the snow. :)
I think I made between 7 and 8 trips back and forth that track. The fastest I could get the sled to go was about 75kph (46mph), and let me tell you, that felt as fast as it did on the Jetski this summer, which is FAST. :) When I made my final trip back, the other guys were all suited up and waiting for me, I pulled back into line and we headed back out for the return trip.
We made better time getting back, since we all had a better idea of the sled controls and speeds. We stopped for 5 minutes to rest at The Basin at the base of Cannon Mountain, which is really lovely in the snow. After that, we pretty much just hoofed it back to the meet-up spot, which gave us 15-20 minutes of relatively uninterrupted riding time, which I loved. The scenery was pretty, the weather (and my clothes) were really warm, so I just concentrated on staying relaxed on the sled, and goosed it around the corner a few times. To me, the snowmobile handled very much like a rear-wheel driven car. Too much throttle, and the back end tried to go place. A little throttle to get it to turn. Come off the throttle too quick, and the back end goes places as well as the weight goes forward. All in all, FUN. Definitely want to buy a sled if we ever move somewhere it's practical.
Everyone made it back in one piece (one woman passenger got dumped off the back by her husband, but survived) and everyone (except her) had smiles on their faces.
Anyone wants to go next winter, let me know!!
Regardless, I figured I'd salvage at least one of the days for something escapist. Friday night, my buddy Scott and I went to see 300 at the Cinemagic Stadium Seating Theatre in Merrimack, NH. 300 was pretty cool, even if some points of it were a little.... off. That's all I'll say. Go see it if you like lots of BUILT MEN and SWORDS.
I crashed at his place Friday night in Nashua, NH, which involved a trip to Long Horn Steakhouse (STEAK and BEER), and then a lot of hours playing with his Xbox 360 (Test Drive Unlimited makes my Gran Turismo and PS2 look like utter CRAP) and watching a lot of Robot Chicken and South Park on DVD. Crashed out around 2am.
Saturday, I was up at 7:45am to shower and hit ze road for Lincoln, NH, where I had a snowmobile tour booked! I've been trying to do a snowmobile trip since I still worked at EMC (third winter attempt!). Last year, New Hampshire ran out of frickin' SNOW before I could get up there in early March. I made it up to Lincoln by 10:10am, which gave me 45 minutes or so to bum around after I checked in. I got changed into my snow gear, and pretty much just hung out before they loaded us onto the little bus to take us to the sleds.
We were driven one exit north from Lincoln to where the sleds and the trails lived. We got 10 minutes of verbal instruction on how to start, stop, steer, and stay on a snowmobile (which sounded awfully like a Jetski, and somewhat like a motorcycle), and then they matched us to sleds (single sleds for one person or double-sleds for people going in pairs) and got us started up. We then puttered a minute or so away to a big flat circle in the snow, the staging area where we got to ride in circles to learn how to control the throttle, brake, steering, etc. After that, they separated us out into two groups (me and two other singles riders, a guy and his son, and then all the double sleds in the second group) and away we went. Each group had a guide, and all we had to do was follow him.
(At this point, I want to interject and say that, for some reason, it consistently amazes me how little training/verification of skill it actually requires to be allowed to do something like this. :) Maybe it's just a New Hampshire thing, but the requirements for renting a jetski and taking it MILES OUT into Lake Winnepesauke were similarly lax.)
So, our guide heads out, and I slot in behind him, not wanting to be stuck behind anyone puttering along, because one of the rules is NO PASSING (which is understandable.) The guide takes off, and we follow. He easily motors along for a minute or two, and then he picks up the pace. Soon, we're jaunting along as a surpringly quick pace, or what seems surprisingly quick since you're 2 feet away from the trees on your right side. In truth, we weren't doing any faster than 20mph, but that seems pretty quick when twisting and turning and going up and down hills in the woods.
Every 2 minutes, he'd stop to make sure we hadn't lost the other two members of our group, and after 15 to 30 seconds, they'd catch up, and away we'd go again. It's a pretty well-run tour, where you can't really get lost, but you're not being either forced to go too fast, or feeling like you're holding up anyone behind you. I was enjoying the ability to go faster than I thought we'd get to go, and the feeling of leaning into turns like I used to on my motorcycles was a nice feeling to have again.
We were headed up into Franconia Notch, pretty much paralleling Route 93, and we stopped for a 5 minute breather at Lafayette Campground. We chatted about various things, and got to know the guide a little, he seemed like a decent guy. When the group of 2-up riders showed up, we pulled out and let them have the resting space, and we kept going.
We kept on our trek, until we'd made it all the way up to, and passed, Cannon Mountain on Route 93. We stopped just after crossing a huge bridge up near the Old Man in the Mountain (d), and he led us in a line up a long 1/2 mile flat slightly curved and slightly inclined track of snow. Then he led us back over the same track, and he was really hauling butt pretty good. When we got back to the other side, he said, "OK, anyone who wants to see how fast their sled can go, you can go up and back that path as much as you want for the next little while!" That's pretty much all I needed to hear, and I headed out, throttle pinned open and rear of the sled fishtaililng in the snow. :)
I think I made between 7 and 8 trips back and forth that track. The fastest I could get the sled to go was about 75kph (46mph), and let me tell you, that felt as fast as it did on the Jetski this summer, which is FAST. :) When I made my final trip back, the other guys were all suited up and waiting for me, I pulled back into line and we headed back out for the return trip.
We made better time getting back, since we all had a better idea of the sled controls and speeds. We stopped for 5 minutes to rest at The Basin at the base of Cannon Mountain, which is really lovely in the snow. After that, we pretty much just hoofed it back to the meet-up spot, which gave us 15-20 minutes of relatively uninterrupted riding time, which I loved. The scenery was pretty, the weather (and my clothes) were really warm, so I just concentrated on staying relaxed on the sled, and goosed it around the corner a few times. To me, the snowmobile handled very much like a rear-wheel driven car. Too much throttle, and the back end tried to go place. A little throttle to get it to turn. Come off the throttle too quick, and the back end goes places as well as the weight goes forward. All in all, FUN. Definitely want to buy a sled if we ever move somewhere it's practical.
Everyone made it back in one piece (one woman passenger got dumped off the back by her husband, but survived) and everyone (except her) had smiles on their faces.
Anyone wants to go next winter, let me know!!
