MISSED SOME SPOTS
As is the case with most places any sledder rides, once you get back to the truck and look at the trail map or any map of the area you just snowmobiled, you realize all the area you didn't ride and get to see. That is certainly the case when we got back to Eightmile Sno Park. We basically went as far as the Long Creek-Goat Peak Loop but didn't touch any of the area closer to Hart's Pass (farther west), which the locals tell us is spectacular riding, as is down off Highway 20 past where the road isn't plowed. Then there's all the riding out of Twisp. What we did was a drop in the bucket.
Part two of our Okanogan adventure was over near Conconully, which by road is quite a drive. By sled, you can leave Boulder Creek Sno Park, just north of Chewack River Guest Ranch, head east over Baldy Pass, go to Conconully for lunch and ride back. It's about a 75-mile roundtrip via sled. Or you can leave from the Loup Loup Sno Park and head to Conconully over Buck Pass and do the same thing for a different change of scenery. The biggest chunk of groomed trails in Okanogan County are in the Winthrop and Conconully area, which, as we mentioned before, is better known as the Methow Valley.
Although you can ride right from the snowmobile-friendly town of Conconully, we opted to head to one of two sno parks near the community and ride from there. Kerr Sno Park is four miles north of town and is very easy to find. You just take the main road through town headed north and stop where the sno park is.
However, if you opt to ride from town, the Mineral Hill Trail leaves from the west edge of Conconully, where Silver Street, Bernice Avenue and Lake Street all meet. The trail follows Mineral Hill Road and the trail map might show that it's ungroomed but it is groomed. You can ride sleds on city streets in Conconully, but sledders are asked to obey all the same rules that apply to automobile traffic and yield the right-of-way to motor vehicles.