Wednesday morning Lane Lindstrom and I left the Bone parking lot on two 600-class snowmobiles for a 120-mile ride to Alpine and back. Others were invited, but felt that the ride sounded like too many miles on groomed trails for their liking.
However, within a half-mile of the parking lot we turned off the trail and for the next 40 miles only rode 120 feet of groomed trails (we crossed it about 10 times). The rest of the time we went from ridge to valley and across sidehills. It was one of those rides where you were going up, down, sideways, or a combination of the three, the entire time.
With the exception of a few tight places through trees, you could see by the tracks that there were only two sleds. There were two distinct sets of tracks, each one picking its own parallel line across the landscape.
Another advantage of the ride was that with two people, we covered a lot more country at a fairly decent pace. We would have covered even more country if it weren't for a couple of incidences with Lane's sled getting stuck and one poor line down a steep canyon through the trees that ended in a nose-plant in a creek.
Obviously, if you're riding 120 miles in a day, there is going to be some trail miles-about 40. But that leave 80 miles of cross country in fresh powder snow.
What a perfect day.
SJ