Snowmobile Fanatics

Just returned from a 6 day ride that covered Aroostook County Maine and northwest New Brunswick. Total mileage 1,146. Trail conditions were a -1 to +10.

Sunday we drove to Houlton, ME unloaded and rode around town on ITS 83, 86, 87 and local trail 9. Trails weren't posted well as there seemed to be some vandalism. A local couple with their son came by and we followed them back to town. Even though they rode ACs they were all right people. Trails in the fields, sucked. The woods had plenty of snow and grooming was great where there was snow. Day 1 - 106 miles.

Monday we decided to head out to NB. The railbed north out of Houlton was groomed and fast.

ITS 83 North

We headed into NB thru Bridgewater on Trail 11 and rode up to Grand Falls on trails 12, 44, and 23.

Bridgewater

Aroostook, NB on the St. John River

Trail 44 St. John River

Trail 44 St. John River near Perth-Andover, NB

Most of the trails were RR beds along the St. John River. It was scenic and fast riding. Trail markings in NB were terrible at best. We'd often go many miles, tens of miles, thru a network of unsigned intersections, sometimes back tracking to try different trails until we'd find a marker on a tree in the woods. We ended up never finding the trail across the river into Limestone, ME and had to backtrack our entire route and then go up Maine to Caribou where we spent the night. It was the ride from HELL!. You could harvest spuds in the potatoe fields of Fort Fairfield and Presque Isle. I doubt I have any skegs left. The only good thing to say about the ride up the state was the signage was excellent. Day 2 - 263 miles in 14 hours.

Tuesday - well no good trip goes unpunished, or something like that. The motel in Caribou, ME had no heat and the shower was broke, so we called ahead to Ft. Kent, our destination for Wed. and they had a room for us Tuesday night so we checked OUT! Not willing to admit that NB got the best of us, we headed for Van Buren to cut across into NB and ride up to Clair where we'd cross into Ft. Kent. Or so we thought.......... Heading up the border trail of ITS 81 it was groomed perfection. Lots of snow. We came to a trail junction and there was the sled of my dreams, up in a tree!

A little further up the trail we came across a NB Provincial Trail 12. Duh, that's what we needed the night before so we could have avoided the potatoe field rock fiasco, and culminated the day with significantly fewer miles and more beers at the lodge. So we went to the customs office 2 miles further on, checked in and went back to take the infamous Trail 12. When we hit the main part of Trail 12N, it went right up alongside Highway 2. It's mostly 30 feet wide or more and has great steep grades and gradual turns.

Everything upthere was built for speed. We successfully negotiated our way up to Edmundston and across to Clair and over the border to Ft. Kent. We found a cozy home at the Track Down Kennels and Motel about 5 miles out of downtown Ft. Kent. Day 3 - 183 miles.

Day 4 - After a full night's sleep we decided to get going early and take a loop up into the wild part of NB. We crossed the border into Cair and ran up trails 41, 39, 12, and 17 out to the Moose Valley Lodge. It's basically a hunting lodge that has a restaurant and gas in the middle of nowhere.

Trail 17 was wicked! What a ride. Parts of it are 4 lanes wide , groomed, no ice, or rocks, and we hammered it. Saw 2 other sleds the entire way out. We got there too early to eat lunch so we continued out 17 to Kedgewick, down 28 to Saint-Quentin (lousy signage on the trails again) and across 19 to 12, down to Saint-Leonard and over the border to Van Buren. Once in the states we took 81 to Madawaska and 83/85 to Ft. Kent. It was the longest day of the week so far and the longest day-ride of my life - 291 miles. I threatened my riding partner that I'd ride around the field for a while till I hit 300 miles, but I just got out a couple beers and chilled instead.

Day 5 - We were going to take it easy today. A deadend run out to the Allagash wilderness and back. It's ITS 92 all the way to Quebec if you like. We just ran out about 75 miles, turned around, had lunch in Dickey, at the Dickey Trading Post, and headed back. Met the usual boneheads who have to gun it into every corner, even if the trail is only 6-feet wide and you are coming the other way. I could have reached out and punched the guy if I'd been thinking, instead of needing to change my shorts. Anyway, the trail was again great, lots of cover, groomed and very scenic. Mileage 150.

Day 6 - Well we needed to get home. That meant covering 1/2 the northern part of the state, Ft. Kent to Houlton, do it on a Friday, and at the beginning of the International Snowmobile Festival. With lousy snow cover in the southern 1/2 of the County. So the plan was, to get up at 5 am, go get breakfast and get out of town before dawn. Like a western movie. Breakfast in Ft. Kent is something out of a slightly bent Norman Rockwell. You ride up to the diner, Rock's, at around 6am, as you come in, you find about 30 of the same oldtimers as yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, only it's a full hour earlier and there's more of them. They all gather there, in that local establishment, have coffee and chatter away in a fluent mixture of french and english. As you come into the diner, everyone stops talking, sizes you up as "a snowmobiler" and then goes right back to it. It's funny to watch. It's not a bad thing, I'm not complaining, it's just part of america that most people don't get to experience. It's home town, small town america, in Maine.

OK, so back to the sledding part. We hit the trail, ITS 85 East to a cutacross to ITS 83 then down 83 all the way to Houlton. What a rush. Nobody rides the morning. They all hammer away all night or during the day, but if you get out in the morning, you get the trail to yourself for about 3 hours or more. The trails were groomed to St. Agatha, up and down hills, maroon sunrise, just rolling on the gas and the brake for about an hour, grinding away the miles. After that it's all powerline trail, big hills, very fast, airborne, man it was great. Just outside Caribou you get on the railroad beds again and they're groomed. First tracks almost all the way. Finally started coming on sledders at 9am, all going north, the opposite way. There was a 5 mile section of potatoe field, which still sucks, but after that we were payed off with a groomed bed from Mars Hill to Houlton. Day 6 - 153 miles 4.25 hours.

Sunrise at Long Lake

Long Lake

Houlton end of the line.

Drove home and was greeting the family at 3:30 pm.