Three State Reciprocal Snowmobile Weekends Planned
 

Taken from NH Fish And Game Facebook page

Three State Reciprocal Snowmobile Weekend on January 25-27! All snowmobiles legally registered in NH can ride in ME and VT and vice versa (all state laws must be adhered to). Read more: http://<wbr>www.wildlife.state.nh.us/<wbr>Newsroom/News_2012/Q4/<wbr>Sno-mo_Recip_Wkend_121413.html

It's a great idea but it has it's draw backs. The riders I talked to all from NH that ventured over to Maine said never again.
They said that because there are only a limited amount of trails between the states, by mid morning they were bad, hurt your back bad.
But if you trailer over from one state to the other and get away from the border crossings then it should be a lot better.
We did the free weekend in Canada and it was the same. Trails got trashed worse then normal.

Maine
 

If you want to sled in Maine, drive your trailer over and hit the good trails away from the border that weekend. Last year, the Maine border clubs didn't groom as a silent boycott to the weekend. The Maine sledders that came to NH were treated to pristine conditions with the Northern clubs grooming extra to keep the trails in as good of shape as possible. Too bad the Maine clubs didn't do the same.

Hopefully, we'll have snow in the lakes region this year and we can showcase the awesome local trails.

I seriously doubt that is correct. First of all there is an obligation to all snowmobilers, second why would Maine do that when it would be a chance to pull more riders into the state.
I think who ever told you this was making it up. And for what it is worth the info I got was from one person who owns in Clarksville, is that the NH side was just as bad as the Maine side.
If you think about it it does make total sense, there are only 3 trails crossing the border into Maine, one near Pittsburg, one near Berlin and one further south. Trails that almost never get used are now all the sudden going to be flooded with riders going in both directions, not to mention that there was very little snow to work with last year.

I was wrong about the grooming in Maine. For whatever reason the trail coming into Maine on the Saturday of last years event was not groomed, this could have been due to a broken groomer of other reasons but I doubt it was to boycott the event. Or it could even have been because some decided to follow the groomers around which in that case you all know what happens.
I also heard from the same riders that as mentioned earlier after mid morning all trails were junk because of the traffic with many sporting 3-4 foot bumps.
Also anyone partaking this year beware as of now parts of the trail has been detoured due to logging and a lot of it is on plowed roads. Remember altered trails can be bad even when groomed to perfection. From the Rangley trail report.

BR, You sound like you're familiar with Maine sledding trails. Where would you suggest to sled in Maine that weekend if you wanted to avoid the rush?

Was talking to a fellow in Tilton last week. He said Long lake or Silver lake was awesome last week.

You're thoughts?

We ride the area around Moosehead lake on out to Millinocket and over to Eustis. Out side of this area I really cannot tell you with any confidence how the riding is.
I do know we stay away from Rangley only because it is a main destination and therefor the trails take more of a beating then the more outlying trails do.
The problem with the 3 state weekend is there are only 3 trails that cross the border into Maine. That means that EVERY sled that comes and goes has to go on these 3 trails. Once your over the border things branch out some.

We love Maine, we have ridden NH and VT and in our opinion no other New England state comes even close to the quality of riding and diversity that the state of Maine has. We can spend a week riding back country trails that have never seen another sled on them or climb skidder trails to the top of mountains.
The one drawback to where we ride is that it takes us 4.5 hours to get to our camp, but it is worth every minute of it in the end.
I hope this helps.
BR

BR,

Thanks for the input. Definetly helps. Looks like the Greenville area for us.

Is the loop around Moosehead lake doable in a day? We're (my 15 year old son and I) looking for a 200 mile day.

RF63

Oh absolutely do-able and the last time we did it I believe it was only between 160 and 170 miles. There is, snow permitting some really awesome riding just north and east of Greenville. You ride up into the hills and the snow just keeps getting deeper and deeper. We've gotten ourselves stuck up there on more then one occasion. You also have the B-52 crash site that you have to check out while you are there.
Kokadjo has excellent food as does N.E Carry. We stay away from Pittston Farms just because it has gotten sooo expensive. Rockwood is also a great destination for food at the Birches, but while your in Greenville you have to check out the Black Frog.
If you need any more info feel free to send me a private message.

Anyone heading north this W/E
 

The conditions if possible are worse then last year was.
I cannot say for sure but we met someone in Maine this past weekend that said all the in town trails in Pittsburg are down to dirt.
I can say that the Moosehead area was hit hard with the warm-up and there is little or no base left on the in town trails around Rockwood, the Forks and Greenville and because of this the repair shops are busy.
On top of that their are multiple logging operations that put miles of trails onto plowed roads.
Although we did not ride that way I can only expect Rangley has similar conditions.
The northern side of Moosehead lake on over to Kokadjo is in decent shape and offers the best riding, there is riding out there but any trails going through the woods are going to be rough and down to dirt.
The trails that are good are good while the ones that are bad are bad.
Hard to believe a couple of weeks ago we had over 3 feet of snow to play in.
Sorry for the bad news but if you believe some of the reports and drive there to find these conditions your not going to be happy.
Ride safe, keep the rubber side down. ;)

That a rosy picture! I bought a sled in March 2011 and have ridden it once so far. Unbelievable.

Hey BR, I have friends going to Jackman this weekend. Any idea if they are a little better off?

We drove through twin mountain, gorham and north conway this weekend and people were out. Trails looked like mud, must be taking a beating.

Yes
 

If your going to go anywhere in that area Jackman is the place you want to be.
Tell them that the best riding we found was north and east, south is very bony but passable.
Lots of off trail riding if your adventurous and I recommend a GPS as getting lost can be dangerous out there.
We managed over 400 miles in 2 days but we encountered a lot of rough, thin trails doing it.
I so hope things change soon.

With all this cold weather the next foot of snow will make conditions quite nice. Let's hope it is soon.

I couldn't agree more. I do not see anything in the forecast for the next week though, except for this cold, which is pushing the storm away.
Our next trip to Maine would be in 2 weeks and we may not even bother to go if we do not get snow before then. :(
One of the biggest problems I see at this point is that many of the trails, especially those through the wooded sections, lost all of their base. So at this time it is just snow on dirt. We need a storm then a warm-up then a cold snap to get things going again.
If I remember correctly one of the regulars said earlier that he saw a similar winter as far as snowfall, as we had last year, it looks like he may have been the only one who was correct. :(
We still have all of February but after that we start seeing warming temps and longer days which start the snow melting. So in reality we only have one more month. :cool:

Fyi
 

They had great riding conditions over to the north side of Mooshead and the general Jackman area. Sadly, I'm sure its a lot different today.:emb:

It is
 

Anyone wanting to ride is looking at a long drive. I've been in touch with people in the Jackman area and it isn't looking good at all. The ice base did survive but not much else is left to ride on. Wooded sections will be even worse as they tend to get much less snow.
This winter is definitely a lot worse then last one was as far as the snow sticking around. At least last year we didn't have the warm-ups with rain that we have had this year.
A lot of businesses are loosing a lot of money the last 2 years.