Hunter Mountain Dancing
Posted on July 25, 2008
Last week we took a vacation with my parents to the Catskills. When Rachel and I went to Lake George a few years ago we climbed Crane Mountain. We enjoyed it so much we figured we’d climb another one this trip. This time we climbed Hunter Mountain (4,050 ft) & celebrated at the top. It was probably the most strenuous hike I’ve ever done (2,250 ft in 2.2 miles).
Spontaneous Disney
Posted on June 11, 2008
Rachel and I do pretty much everything last minute. This includes planning a trip to Europe only three weeks before, to scheduling our wedding a year and a half away and only beginning the planning during the last five months. I’m not sure whether this is good or bad but it’s worked for us so far so why stop now?
Last weekend we had made plans to go somewhere for our 1 year anniversary, but until friday at 5pm we had no clue where we were going. Using the last minute deals on travelocity (at the same time searching cheaptickets, expedia, orbitz and several others) we found a great deal for two nights and airfare to Orlando Florida. We still have tickets to Disney remaining from our last trip so it seemed like a great idea.
We had an awesome time! The last time we were at Disney World we bought a very neat wooden photo album. The only problem is the last time we went we didn’t take anywhere near enough photos to fill it. This trip definitely fixed that situation and we’ll have a new album to share soon.
one of the gardens and ponds at Epcot Center.
Then There Was Four (Snowmobiles)
Posted on March 31, 2008
We’ve managed to make it up north for three absolutely gorgeous weekends. This weekend was no exception. We went riding on Saturday and the sky was an incredibly clear blue without a cloud in sight. We took a ride up Little Blue Mountain and again the view was better than the last time. White Face Mountain was perfectly visible as well as some other mountains in the same range and beyond.
After a quick snack we headed off to Sevey’s Corner and beyond. Once we crossed route 3 the trails were even better. Freshly groomed with few sleds having been down them. Everything was going great until we were waiting for my uncle Wes and a few other sleds came by and told us we had a broken down sled. We went back a few miles and it wasn’t good. The supports holding his suspension up broke and his snowmobile was literally sitting on the ground. We towed it back to route 3 and my cousin Donald headed back to the truck while Uncle Jerry, Dad and I headed out to finish the days ride. Only four of the five sleds we ran with this season made it out alive.
Looking back this year we’ve had a fantastic season. We put on over 520 miles in three weekends. All the riding we did was on perfect trails. I’ve never seen better snow conditions than the past two weekends and the days we went out the sky was so blue it was amazing.
Snowmobile Tickets and Skylines
Posted on March 23, 2008
Today was bright and sunny too. They sky was so clear we had to go up Little Blue Mountain again. We did and there were actually other people at the top! Some guys were fiddling with a broken down 2007 Yamaha and I had to snicker. Give me a Polaris any day. Mine is a 2006 but my parents have a 1979, 1995 and 1997 which are all still running solid and they’ve never had to do much to any of them.
From the top of Little Blue we could see White Face Mountain crystal clear almost 70 miles away. The picture doesn’t come close to doing it justice but it’s the best I could do. Just the shear vastness of the space you can see up in the mountains like this is always impressive. I created the panorama to demonstrate.
We had our snacks on Little Blue and then headed down for some scenic riding. Along one of the main trails we hit a snowmobile traffic stop. Yes, on easter sunday the cops have nothing better to do than look for snowmobilers riding without insurance and with expired registrations. We were all valid and were just about to go when the cop noticed my insurance paper had expired a few weeks earlier. Great. I explained to him that it definately is still covered I just had forgotton to grab the new paperwork. “We have no way to tell” he said as he issued me a ticket. Awesome, now I have to deal with getting that dropped when I get home. This crap irritates me for lots of reasons but I’m not going to complain about it here.
After getting delayed by the traffic cops we headed on to horseshoe lake. The trail had been cleaned up since we were there a few days ago and it was a much better ride. It’s a good thing because I was tired of bouncing up and down on moguls.
The sun was a lot warmer today. It was just warm enough to melt some of the snow on the south side of the hills. The air was still cold however; that when the water ran down and started to drip it would freeze instantly creating some very neat ice formations.
Cheney Takes Visa
Posted on March 22, 2008
We got an earlier start today and were on the trails by 10am. After hearing that Easter dinner would be ready when we got back we had to make sure we put on the miles early and were back in time for the feast. We put on roughly 100 miles again and made it back by 6pm.
First stop today was Camp. Along the way we crossed the North branch of the Grass River as well as a branch of the Oswegatchie. The scenery was beautiful as were the trails. We certainly hit this trip perfect. In most sections there was several feet of hard packed snow and ice. Step off the hard packed groomed trail though and you were likely to sink up to your waist.
If you need a place to stay out on the trail just stop by Cheney’s Camp. Apparently they take visa or mastercard so you should be good to go. Fortunately no friends were shot in the face while filming this cabin.
The sleds were running great today and yesterday with the cold weather and hard packed trails. If you punched it you’d lift the skis right off the ground which makes for tricky cornering. We hit 75mph on a few of the straightaways without even pushing it.
The last stop of the day was The Pinecone at the southern end of Cranberry Lake in Wanakena. Once we got on the Setback Trail to Wanakena the trail got pretty rough. You can definately tell the difference between groomed trails and not. The setback trail was miles of moguels and switchbacks. Eventually it let you out in Wanakena and we were able to take a quick rest at The Pinecone before heading home.
It’s amazing the amount of scenery you can see up here while riding the snowmobiles. It would take you months on skis to see what we’ve seen in two days. That’s easily the best part of riding. You are in remote locations that are often unaccessable any other time of the year. 4-wheelers are not always allowed on the same trails which makes it difficult to cover a lot of the ground. I would love to take a snowmobile trip into remote sections of Canada. Maybe next year we’ll take a week and head up to the big country.