Earlier this year I  had plans on the possibility of renting a snow sled at least once this year. So I called around to a few places and asked for their rates and what was expected as far as insurances and any other things that would be required of me. I wanted a complete price quote so I would not be blind sided with an unexpected total when I got there.

Well, let’s just say when I hung up from the last phone call, I had pretty much written off going snow sledding this year. The price quotes were crazy. It would have been cheaper to keep my old sled that I had to let go a few years ago.

But as it was, just 4 days ago. My cousin called me and asked me if I was ready to go sledding with the “gang” (every year at this time a group of us would get together for at least one big ride). He informed me that one of the guy’s daughter wasn’t going to be able to make the trip this year due to her vacation planning with her work.  She had a chance to take a week off to go to Aruba or come to Maine to go sledding. For some reason, she chose Aruba.  And that the sled was there for me to use if I wanted to go. How could I say no?

We knew better then to just hit the trail and try to make the “big run” straight away. Only one of us had been out riding steadily all year. The rest of us would have been to lame to move about half way. So like every year, we made it a 3 day process.  The first day we about 50 miles. Spent pretty much all day doing that. We left on sleds around 9 AM and we were off the sleds around  8PM that night.  The trails were not the best of shape due to the lack of good snow and to many sleds and not enough trail grooming. There was a lot of ice and it was pretty rough. So we went on some trails that we thought would have had less traffic. (which we hoped would mean better riding)

The second day we were  a little lame and sore but headed out again. This time we  traveled around 90 miles. And it was snowing. I made for low visibility, so most of that riding was later in the day after the snow storm ended.  I love riding after dark any ways. It makes it so much easier to see  the headlights of on coming sleds. and no glare of the bright sun on the white snow.

We all felt pretty good after the two days of sledding. (which totaled about 140 miles) So we decided we were ready to hit the “Big Run”the next morning. That meant we needed to be getting out of bed no later then 5 AM and unloaded and on the sleds by 7AM.

I don’t have a map to show you or actual trip. (copyrights of the ITS trail map prevents me from it) But I can atleast tell you the towns that we went thru so you have some idea if you was to look at an ITS map yourself.

It was not the “Big Run” we was going for, but it was still a pretty good ride. The odometer told me that for that trip alone, we had put in 190 miles. (no wonder  I wanted to just roll off the sled instead of standing up and stepping off.) lol

So if I did my math right, Then I was able to get in 330 miles worth of sledding done in that 3 day span.

And unfortunetly, I was only able to get one good picture. It seems my camera didn’t like the wind chill on the sled.

Here is our group of sleds, including the ones in the back. (minus the three rental sleds closest to the camera on left side.)