Vintage Snowmobile Racing New Hampshire Style

Too long since I have contributed to my blog and part of the reason for that is a mild (or major) addiction to an old friend, racing early 70's snowmobiles. Having been heavily involved in such foolishness in the early 70's, when I was in my twenties, I got away from it while going through normal diversions in the form of raising a family, earning a living in the music business and theoretically maturing into adulthood.

Part of that transition covering almost forty years was a move to Pittsburg, New Hampshire (one of the snowmobile capitals of the East), and getting involved in the largest snowmobile club in the East, The Pittsburg Ridge Runners, with its membership reaching its apex at over 4400 strong. My involvement in the club started in 1985 as a member and evolved into eventually serving as Secretary which led to an eight year stretch as vice president. this club was huge in scope with a budget approaching $500,000. a year, with up to sixteen paid groomer drivers to man our fleet of Piston Bully behemoths to keep our 250 mile system smooth on an average of once every twenty four hours. This little club had grown into a small corporation with growing pains keeping up with financing it all, as most other clubs in the state did during a phenomenal spurt in growth over the last couple of decades. No longer could we keep it all together with state "grant in aid", spaghetti suppers, poker runs, steak feeds, raffles etc. Our club had totally outpaced our ability to finance what membership had come to expect of our system.

During the summer of 2007 one of our members, Kevin Lassonde, had suggested that several of the key people in the club meet and discuss the possibility of staging a single Vintage Snowmobile Race in order to test the level of interest people might have in supporting the club financially. We were looking for something different to stimulate interest and possibly raise some cash from something new. The meeting took place at Powder Horn Lodge, with host Steve Kiley, his wife Bonnie, Kevin Lassonde, Keith Landry of A Path Less Traveled, and myself. the meeting covered the myriad of details involved in such a new venture, such as finding a location with sufficient area for a track and parking for lots of vehicles with trailers, investigating permits that might be necessary, talking to Fish and Game officials for permits to allow Vintage Machines to operate in the immediate area without having to register, cost and availability of insurance, touching base with local law enforcement, cost and where to advertise, approaching possible sponsors for start up and banner ads, and trying to guess how many people would show to compete and pay to watch. the more we talked the more insurmountable the list seemed to become.

It was decided to try one race, the weekend after New Year's eve, a traditionally dead weekend in the area, in an effort to help out local businesses build some traffic. All our tasks that were worrisome had been met with nothing but positive support from everyone we approached. We also received an inquiry from Harry Brown, of Diamond Pond area, who on his own had spoken to the Colebrook Ski Bees, to test the idea of making it a two event series, instead of a single venue. That idea also brought the two clubs together in an alliance that proved to be a great partnership with financial and brotherhood benefits that no one anticipated.

That first venue in Pittsburg saw a modest 26 pre '73 single and twin machines show up to compete on a -6 degree morning in a track set up in a mammoth gravel pit with spirited competition with nothing but smiles from competitors and 500 spectators, vowing to make the next race bigger and better. Race two, Colebrook, a balmy +6 degrees, 48 competitors and a crowd that got larger and really into watching the action on a unique track behind Northern Tire. Colebrook was also the home of our first major sponsor, local businessman Guy Laperle of LaPerle's IGA/ Pharmacy. Wow! We were off and running with start up money to get us going and the clubs raised a substantial amount of needed funding.

Season Two: Pittsburg race same location, enhanced track design, refined parking, better sound system, 100 machines to compete, refined rules. The committee had learned how to run these venues more efficiently at every step along the way, and word had gotten out that racing almost forty year old machines around an anything but oval track with no studs in stock condition was relatively inexpensive fun that anyone could get into with a little ingenuity.

Colebrook: 48 competitors in the initial race now had 100 machines compete, on a well prepared track with a larger crowd, partially due to the Easter Seals Ride In happening at the Balsams Grand Hotel, Wilderness Ski Area that same weekend. We were starting to think we had a viable new alternative to help defray funding of the three largest clubs in the state and had found levels of dedication between the clubs that no one thought could happen.

The summer between season one and two brought us the involvement of club and event number three in Errol, The Umbagog Snowmobile Club, and there amazing trail master Lorraine Turner, who singled handed secured permission for a race location, which involved her personally running an excavator to "re-arrange" a massive gravel bank to help the land owner and build a track that was phenomenal in design with high banks and an amphitheater feel to it, making watching the event a real treat. We had our now dedicated following of 100 competitors show to compete for trophies of the day and also decide series points championships that were very close. This venue turned out to be very special in design with separate parking for competitors on a ridge looking down at the action, separate access roads in to spectator parking, vendors displaying snowmobiles and related products, refreshments, advertising banners.

As I mentioned earlier in this blog entry I had been involved in racing this type of machine when they were new and got out of it with the passage of time and the distractions of time and family. I did manage to acquire a 1973 Rupp Nitro 295 twin cylinder machine that had made me "fall off the wagon" with racing withdrawal and I campaigned in the series with enough success to be tied for the points championship coming into this last event of the 09 series. I was lucky enough to win the 295 twin class in Pittsburg and also win the 340 twin class at the same event on the 295 which turned out to be one of the most exciting moments in my 61 years around these rapid relics.
Our series utilizes a LeMans type start, where competitors run to there machines, plug in their safety tether cords, pull start their machines and head for turn one. This diminishes the threat of large pile ups in turn one because the odds of all the dozen or so machines at the line rarely start all at once, stretching the field out from the beginning. I the 340 twin final I was eighth off the line and having a good view of the crowd working their way through turn one I held back, knowing a twenty five lap race is not won on the first lap. Working my way through the field slowly and watching machines bow out with the attrition that comes with age, I found myself in fourth place and moving well as traffic cleaned snow off the inside of the corners. Recognizing that my rubber track had a slight advantage by slowing down and staying way inside as most slid to the outside, suddenly came to the realization I was in third, then second with my friend Kevin Lassonde in front on a Polaris 340 SS. He and I battled back and forth with lots of lead changes in the final laps and with me in the lead with two laps to go I had a lapper spin in front of me, forcing me to react to avoid contact and I laid the Nitro on its left side, seeing Kevin working around me off the track to avoid contact with the pile up. In an instant the thought of losing this great contest crossed my mind but then I came to the realization that my machine was still running, my tether not coming unhooked in the fray. Quickly pushing the machine back upright I took off like a man possessed, knowing it was the last lap. With a hundred yard to the finish I caught my good buddy, passed him and won the second event of the day, feeling like I just took the Indy 500.

The popularity of the Great North Woods Vintage Race Series continues to grow along with the immense feeling of satisfaction and brotherhood between the three clubs who did it all, not sure of the outcome, but took a chance and found something new to enhance the North Country scene. We have since done a non series vintage event at the Wilderness Ski Area in April that was well attended and was an experiment with additional classes and a track that was set along the bottom of the slopes that was a great grand finale for a successful season.

http://www.thegreatnorthwoodssnowmobilerace.com/

Sometime The Animals Find Find Us!

The Great North Woods is famous for frequent encounters with the local animal population, which are unpredictable in time and place. Most sought after are a glimpse of the elusive "Bull Moose" that visitors to the area spend massive amounts of time and effort to make contact. It is, however, not uncommon for people to spend days or weeks in the area looking high and low and never see anything, just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

People like myself who spend lots of time in the woods and on the water eventually have encounters worthy of note and this post will deal with at least two of these. Both of these happened when I was actively "not looking" to see animals, and of course they showed up!

The first encounter involved a kayak trip up East Inlet with a client from Pennsylvania whose name was David and had never been in a kayak and wasn't quite sure he had the "finesse" to handle the boat and his very expensive camera he had along to try and capture a photo of the elusive "carnivorous" pitcher plant known to be found in that area. The pitcher plant is very similar to a "Venus fly trap" that induces an insect to climb into its "pitcher" looking for sweet smelling nectar and becomes trapped, not being able to get out and is consumed by enzymes secreted by the plant.

It was mid morning and the water was calm, only to be disturbed by a family of loons, two adults and two rapidly maturing chicks. Paddling the pond into its transition area changing to a shallow marsh we noticed another large diving bird in the distance who was obviously fishing with purpose and persistence. Catching our attention we noticed this large hunting "submarine" was getting closer to us with every successive dive, until my novice kayaker overcame his fears and grabbed his camera and started to get some great shots of this large brown cormorant of substantial size bearing down on his 12 foot floating, plastic island of security. Snap, snap, snap he fired his camera in rapid fire mode and the large bird dove out of sight and was gone for what seemed like a long time only to emerge from the water on the opposite side of David's kayak in full flight and landed on the tail of his boat like he owned it.

David had no idea what had just happened and was waiting for the bird to come in front of him for another barrage of photos. "Where is he" David asked, to which I responded "right behind you on your boat"! "Your kidding" he said, and I told him again " He's right behind you". Comfortable to be out of the water momentarily the bird starts preening, not the least bit concerned about his proximity to his human companions. He stayed on board s for several minutes during which time David verbalized his wish that the bird had landed on his bow instead of stern. About 30 seconds after that request the bird drops in the water and pops back out onto the bow and sits there as David blows through a roll of film, the bird gets bored, drops over the side and swims off to resume his fishing expedition.

This was a rare encounter that both of us will remember for a long time not to be repeated soon!

My second event worthy of some "band width" happened in early November while returning home coming up my driveway I noticed a deer walking across the yard heading for an outbuilding on the other end of the property.

Seizing the opportunity for a pic I grabbed my camera and slowly walked to the corner of my garage and peeked around the corner and sure enough this beautiful, healthy looking deer was grazing on some tall grass and I took a photo and decided to see if I could get a little closer. Boldly stepping around the corner of the garage I slowly walked toward the animal which was intent on grazing and did not seem too concerned, although did pic up his head and look right at me and then continued eating.

Delighted with my second shot I moved further forward, shot again and again and again, moved closer while starting to calmly re-assure the animal with soft words and slow movements. His head came up, gave me a real good look and I froze in place. He continued! I continued! After about 17 shots I was looking him straight in the eye about fifteen feet away and wondering if it was possible to get any closer. Talking quietly, moving slowly he was ten feet away and was just as curious about me as I was about him. He was a very healthy "button buck" of good size who was anything but camera shy.

I took a total of 19 shots of that beautiful animal, the last of which made me feel very connected to him, somehow allowing me closer than "instinct" normally dictates.

Sometimes the animals find you!

Summer Touring by Kayak

The Great North Woods is an amazing resource for winter snowmobiling and is probably most famous for that season and activity. Summer, however, brings out the wildlife that is "hunkering down" in survival mode in the winter months, and allows the visitor to this area a chance to really see some rare scenes of natural beauty.
Northern most New Hampshire is the birthplace of the majestic Connecticut River which meanders all the way down through New England to New York Sound. It's amazing to think that at its point of origin, Fourth Connecticut Lake, you can find a spot where you can actually have one foot on each shoreline of the river as its exits this aquifer. This spot is very close to the Canadian Border is the home of good quantities of bald eagles, moose, deer, coyote's, bear, fisher cats and a rainbow of bird species.
One of the most pleasant ways to "take it all in" is in the cockpit of a kayak exploring the many waterways that traverse this area, as they flow south adding total volume to the Connecticut River aquifer. The four Connecticut Lakes, Lake Francis, Back Lake, Scott Bog, East Inlet, Perry Stream, Indian Stream, Hall Stream are some of the highlights that are readily, and easily taken advantage of in a kayak. The marine explorer can take the easy paddle on the large lakes and have a great experience seeing loons, herons, osprey and occasional glimpses of moose and deer at the water's edge. The larger lakes give you the advantage of seeing the beautiful framing of the Crystal Mountain Range on the horizon.
For the more adventurous paddlers, who don't mind a little work, the rewards are phenomenal natural encounters when you travel up some of the smaller "feeders" of this system, such as East Inlet.
This area is located in the northeast section of Pittsburg and the pond that feeds into Second Connecticut Lake, is famous for being a great spot to see all sorts of animals who reside there. The small pond is easily paddled north reaching the "transition area" where it slowly transforms into a convoluted marsh with endless enticing coves leading to nowhere. The persistent paddler can find the well hidden channel which entices you north through seemingly endless turns and cut-backs that is reminiscent of the everglades. This channel is protected from the wind by dense growth extending high above the water and at many points out over the water, threatening to choke off any forward progress. Persistence through these "pinches" in the channel is rewarded by gorgeous pools, and continuous challenges in maneuvering through tight corners to the next obstacle. At one point its necessary to crowd the shore to "sneak" around the tip of a fallen tree that has left only one boat width to paddle through. Continuing north we reach a long, wide stretch of the channel that leads us into a small pool, which is bordered on the right side by a massive piece of ledge covered with many shades of moss, lichens and growth, and is nothing short of camera food. At the base of this ledge, if you look carefully, you will find a natural spring coming right out of the ledge whose water is so cold that its difficult to keep your hand in it!
Onward the channel is becoming detectably quicker, and an occasional rock must be paddled around, leading us to a sound of rushing water that presents a "fork" in the channel, the top of each tip of the fork is blocked by a formidable beaver dam of impressive width and height. Most people would stop here and turn around, but we paddle up to it, climb onto the dam and one by one pull each kayak over the top into a great pool above. Lining up for a photo we notice a totally ugly dead tree in the background with a very large eagles nest perched atop its peak.
Forging forward again we see lots of evidence of the beavers efforts and finally the great beaver den. Onward again turn, turn, turn and are confronted by a downed tree completely blocking our advance. Again, most people would turn back here but we can see potential for getting beyond this and climb up top and move enough branches to go under it.
Moving again we are moved by the feeling that we are seeing territory that few people bother to reach and are charged to move as far up as we can. Now we reach a narrowing caused by growth, which eliminates the possibility of paddling, so we stow paddles and duck down and reach branches and pull through, hand over hand, finally reaching another pool. we charge on excited by our progress and reach another large tree blocking us and quickly portage around it. Onward we charge with an almost military purpose to our progress. Pools, pinches, hand over hand through the thick growth, finally we reach a point where we can see no obvious progress, and with approaching twilight, we decide to take a wave point to celebrate our achievement, and reverse direction.
Feeling a sense of accomplishment we come through the now familiar obstacles quickly and reach the first fallen tree, passing under it with ease. Progress is rapid now, reaching the beaver dam, which gives us all an opportunity for a little fun paddling quickly and sliding down its face. One by one we back up, paddle quickly to gain momentum, carefully aim our approach and launch over this massive piece of engineering, laughing as we went.
Down we come going through the endless turns at a pace that is almost hypnotic, finally reaching the marsh which is totally different in appearance in the approaching twilight. Crossing the pond we are treated to an eerie goodbye, from a mother loon with a baby that is almost her size fishing in the late day.
This is just a brief description of one possible "off the beaten path" tour by kayak in this area. The possibilities are endless, with a little determination you can reward yourself with seeing some amazing sites. Try it, you'll like it! ..............Pathfinder

Wolves in Pittsburg?

Somehow in my Odyssey over the last 21 years in Pittsburg I was asked to be the secretary of the states largest club, The Pittsburg Ridge Runners, and with more than a little apprehension, decided to help out, even though it wasn't the kind of position that people would fight each other to acquire. This was back in 1999, and to my surprise it was a great experience and got me to absorb a lot about how the club and the sport operated, and how complex it all was. Nothing like having to take notes and give a report at a meeting makes you pay attention and grow in understanding to a higher degree than before.
This position led me to run for Vice President of the club the following year, a position I have maintained since 2000, much to the chagrin of many individuals and organizations that I have asked hard questions of, in print!
The mundane workings of a huge club, whose membership exceeded 4400 members and has to deal with a budget approaching a half million dollars sometimes is ignored like the plague on the second Thursday of the month, when meetings are held. Who in their right mind would want to hear how bad things are, with irate lease holders threatening to punch holes in a system exceeding 200miles, having to pacify the whims of several hundred landowners, always seeming to have to many projects with too few dollars, not enough volunteers to get things done.............
blah,blah,blah. Its no wonder we have too few people at meetings, its just not a whole lot of fun, or even very interesting.
Once upon a time, however, I had been contacted by an amazing member of the National Wildlife Federation, based in Vermont, who rented snowmobiles from me in order to study the possibility of wolves re integrating into the northern reaches of New Hampshire. She would go out for two or three days at a time and snowmobile into areas as far as she dared, then snowshoe into extremely remote areas that she would envision wolves having everything they needed and look........and look........and look for any signs of wolf tracks, remnants of wild game kills, dens, fur, bones. She was relentless in her quest to answer the perpetual questions that some of the locals had spoken of for years. Wolves were out there, and she wanted to prove it!
Part of this quest was talking with me, as an officer in the snowmobile club, and suggesting we consider allowing her to attend a meeting and give a presentation on how to tell the difference between a wolf and a coyote. She wanted to talk to the groomer drivers who were out there in the middle of the night, and make sure that they could identify a wolf if they saw one. She wanted to increase her powers of observation by educating many "local pairs of eyes".
Recognizing that this could be a way to make meetings more tolerable to members we agreed to give her permission to "do her thing". This decision was one of the best things the club has ever done, with the resulting evening a memorable night to remember. We had mentioned this event at the prior months meeting and had almost double the number of usual suspects in attendance, who all ended up in an totally enjoyable trance for as long as that woman, whose name was Margaret Struhsacker, spoke and would have stayed till midnight if she went that long. It was fascinating to hear someone take the time to explain the differences in size between wolves and coyotes, along with handling real skulls of both animals for comparison, hearing about the shape differences of the rear legs of both animals, seeing, feeling and handling real pelts of both animals, seeing and handling plaster casts of both foot prints and noting the obvious huge size of a wolf track, and listening to someone who clearly understood a great deal about the plight of wolves in their struggle with the onslaught of civilization. Her presentation was backed up with a powerful Powerpoint program that showed some of the problems around the country, impacting the surviving packs in Yellowstone, Canada, along the border. Her message was powerful! Her ammunition was hard to ignore! She had a group of snowmobile club people hypnotized with compelling facts that we indeed had, at the very least "transient" wolves coming through our area. She gave us phone numbers and e -mail addresses to contact her with reports of sightings, so she could drop everything, hurry up here and document what was seen to add to her expanding files of evidence. The session was followed by a question and answer segment that people asked her questions about wolves and large cats that have also been sighted in the area. Her knowledge of all things wild was very impressive, and she complemented our sincere curiosity about her obsession with endangered treasures in our "very special part" of New Hampshire.
This was a great meeting, that has been talked about many times by lots of different people since it happened, even non members of the club wanted to know if it would happen again.
Today I was pondering what to write about in my blog and upon checking my e-mail found a message form Margaret informing me the she had taken a job with the National Resources Defense Council as a wolf specialist starting right away in the Northern Rockies. E-mailing her my congrats, I re-counted the night she gave the presentation and how well she was received and was appreciated and she communicated her desire to do it again.
I, myself, have seen a wolf in the area between Pittsburg and Maine many years ago in very deep snow, while following huge tracks through deep powder. coming up over a small hill, there he was, looking at me displaying a full side view from about 50 feet away. He was on a snowmobile track and after another 200 feet he found a set of his tracks leading off trail and was gone! I will never forget that encounter even though it was in the mid 80's. I have also talked to several local residents in their late eighties who tell me of seeing "large cats with long tales and light brown fur" not once but twice in the area of East Inlet.
I feel another non-boring club meeting in the works, and couldn't be more excited about the prospect.
What are your thoughts on the existence of wolves and big cats among us in New England....................?

A View From The Ridge!

Discovery of "The Great North Woods" of New Hampshire happened to me around 1984, during a "hell raising" snowmobile excursion with several buddies from the "Land of the Bay State". I had been riding snowmobiles since 1964 and thought that I rode a lot in the hills of north central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. The first experience with riding in an area of this size was humbling, to say the least, having been use to long rides of 15 or 20 miles in Mass. , the 360 square miles of the Pittsburg area initially seemed a little intimidating. Slow exploration of the system, coupled with long breakfast conversations with retired loggers and the encouraging tips on linking areas together, quickly had me hooked on the friendliness of the people and the genuine beauty and excitement this "gem" had to offer.
That first year I came back two or three times. The next year five or six times. The total "addiction" grew over the next few years into every weekend there was snow I just had to be there. These constant "gypsy" excursions started out heading up Friday nights, riding Saturday and Sunday morning and heading home Sunday afternoon. Soon this led to heading up Thursday noon which allowed an extra full day of "just being there". Over the next eleven years I was a paying guest at Timberland Lodge, on pristine, First Connecticut Lake.
As this blog evolves, I will convey some of the many memorable experiences I have seen and been in the middle of, some good and some bad!
Feel free to add your impressions, I know there are many people who share the same affinity for the area for many reasons............What's yours?