Frost Bytes Day 4 01/25/2022... Goat Path

Chip Nasty has really embraced his new moniker

Last night we had grand night, quite literally, as we celebrated Hedgehog Phil’s birthday. An excellent dinner was served in our designated dungeon wine room, I believe they kept us isolated so as not to disturb the rest of the dining guests. For dessert Phil even got a chocolate lava cake with a couple candles burning in it! The staff at the Common Man Lodge was very accommodating, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

After dinner, most of the crew retired to the horse shoe bar, and many Double Doubles were downed to celebrate the birthday on the trail. Plus we had the extra advantage of not having a “hard” departure time, so we could un-wind a bit more than normal and last call was at 10pm, when they shut down the bar.

After our local ride yesterday on the thinly snow covered trails in New Hampshire, the decision was made to trailer to Rangeley, Maine. We will now be launching from the Saddle Back Inn. We will actually be here for 2 nights, as we will do a local trail ride tomorrow.

This morning we had breakfast with Tom, again. We lingered around, loaded sleds and everybody was on the road by about 10:30 am. We had about 130 miles to drive to Rangeley. Beautiful ride through some mountain ranges, and a very bumpy 30-45 mile ride along a river, hence today’s title Goat Path. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you the trails we rode sleds on yesterday were smoother than the roads we drove today. And it was a paved road. All together we have now driven approximately 1050 miles in truck and 90 miles by sled! Not our best, not our worse.

Just when I thought it was going to be a slow news day, Action Dan came to the rescue. After we unloaded our sleds at the Saddle Back, unpacked our bags, and got ready to head about a mile down the road to Sarge’s Sports Pub and Grub for our late lunch early dinner (the lodge doesn’t offer dining/drinking) we were asked to park our trucks and trailers around back out of the way. 4 out of the five trucks were able to easily back our trailers into the wide open parking lot. Not Action Dan. We drove around back before departing for the restaurant, to see what the hold up was. Action has his truck and trailer off the compacted, snowplowed parking lot, and stuck in the snow filled drainage ravine. Of course we were ready to help him out, but not until after a few pictures, of course. A few more chuckles amongst the growing spectator gallery, and Ole Man Ron backed his GMC up to the “Bumble Bee” Ram and gave him a quick tug, and then proceeded to drag him to the end of the parking lot with Action helpless behind the wheel of Bumble Bee.

Bumble Bee’s do not belong in the snow

Dinner has been had, some pizza’s, some wings, and some French Onion Soups and Clam Chowder soups, and the group is relaxing around a couple tables having a cold one.

That’s about it for today, tune in tomorrow to see how we do.

Bye for now…

Stick

French Onion Soup

Sarge’s Pub & Grub

Frost Bytes Day 3 01/24/2022... Less Than Perfect, Always Could Be Worse

Boys being boys in the hotel lobby

The trails today we a little bit of snow, a little bit of granite. We managed to get about 90 miles on the sleds though. I’ve been asked in the comments about the snow here, quite frankly, they need some snow. But we’ll come back to that later.

This morning started in the small cafe with a diner counter to belly up to. I’m pretty sure the old dude cooking was named Tom. He had a tattoo on his forearm that said “TOM” that looked like he got on $1.00 Letter Day at the Tattoo Shop… I’ve never understood getting your own name tatted on your body… kinda like having “NiCK” tattooed on your arm when your name is Nick. Anyway, back on topic, breakfast was included with our room charge and the choices were french toast with diced potatoes or a breakfast sandwich with diced potatoes. It did the job and the conversation with Tom was worth the price of admission.

After breakfast, we had to run down the road about a mile to the local hardware to get our New Hampshire trail permits ($149 American for us out of staters) The people here in Plymouth have been very friendly and strike up conversation with us pretty readily, especially when they see our Michigan license plates. 6 guys went first with 2 trucks while the other 6 unloaded their sleds, and the process reversed when the trucks returned. We were on the trails, I think, by about 10:30am.

I’m not going to dwell on the trails, they just need snow. We still rode, took our breaks, shot the snot with each other and the comradery we have more than made up for the trails we rode. The trails are thin, lots of rocks exposed, tree limbs and one stretch through a field we literally rode on grass for several hundred yards. One thing that was very noticeable, however, was when crossing roads, most passenger vehicles stop and allow our group to cross the road unencumbered. Very thoughtful and very appreciated.

I guess there was some excitement on the trail. When we departed just about all of us needed fuel, and instead of riding down the asphalt road about a half mile to the nearest gas station, we chose to ride the trail to the first gas station. The first gas station wound up being about 15 miles down the trail, and I think most of us rolled in with zero bars on our electronic fuel gauges, and the bright orange gas pump lit up on our dashes. But we made it.

Birthday Day Boy

We returned to the Common Man Lodge around 4:30pm, parked our trail hardened sleds and proceeded to shower and quench our thirst at the 10 person elongated bar top in the restaurant/bar. We have a birthday to celebrate, Hedgehog Phil is celebrating the big 60 today! Happy Birthday Phil!

Due to the low snow conditions, we are contemplating trailering to tomorrow night’s destination. Reports are that the trails are not much better going east. We will have a few adult beverages, come up with a plan, and you will find in due time. However, those same reports also are telling us that there is plenty of snow in Maine, we just need to fast forward to there.

Anywho, that’s about all I’ve got for today.

Bye for now,

Stick

Frost Bytes Day 2; 01/23/2022... Fun Filled First Night, NFG's Are Fitting In Just Fine

This morning we had a 9am wheels up call time. Ole man Ron pulled out about 8:45 am to pick up his wingman Chip Nasty (Nasty has a place about 25 miles away that he stayed at last night), and the rest of us departed about on time. We had the complimentary Continental Breakfast in the hotel lobby (Note To Self: no more fake scrambled eggs for me). But lets pick up where we left off…

Last night after I logged off, the Crew showed up at the Texas RoadHouse, Rob & I already had a 2 top table for ourselves in the bar area. The restaurant was not going to accommodate a group of 12, because as I stated last, they were packed. Ole Man Ron, Nasty and Rimel took the first booth available, and soon after the horseshoe bar opened up completely and the rest of the crew jumped at those seats. Except Ski Doo Matt and his partner Brian, who got miscommunicated and went to the neighboring Buffalo Wild Wings, which will lead to our next chapter in our saga.

Ski Doo Matt and his long lost twin

After their dinner at the BW3, SkiDoo Matt and Brian hitched a ride to the Roadhouse with a gentleman they had just met at that bar. Somehow, SkiDoo Matt believed that the kind gentleman they had just met was his long lost twin brother. As you will see in the picture, I kinda see the resemblance, but I think he better get a DNA test before he invites him to Thanksgiving Dinner. Somewhere in their conversation I heard they knew who their father was, but they werent’ sure who their mother was…? Anyway the twins hung with us at the bar until closing time, and alot of laughs were shared.

Speaking of closing time, 10pm, my wingman Rob said to me this morning “wow, we had a late night last night, we closed the bar! What time did we get in…1am!?” I calmly stated “No, the bar closed at 10, the bartender let us finish our drinks, and we were in the room around 10:45.” There were a couple other foggy heads this morning, probably from the “double doubles” Grey Goose and waters that started flying after dinner!

We had about 390 miles by road to get to The Common Man Lodge in Plymouth NH today. Dry roads and mostly sunny skies prevailed. Other than a bit of salt dust, the rigs are still fairly clean! Our ride in was really quite beautiful, lots of mountainous terrain, a combination of interstate highway, state highways, and local 2 lane roads. We traversed many small towns, and beautiful country, a very enjoyable ride overall. The crew did split up on our ride today, I prefer using my cruise control and maintaining a consistent speed, Action Dan prefers his foot and the variable speeds that leads to, and Hedgehog and SkiDoo Matt are afraid the bar may run out of Miller Lite before they arrive, and they run hot.

We all arrived within a 1/2 hour of each, parked our trucks out of the way, as they will be here for the next 10 days, and began the last preparations of our saddlebag gear. The Common Man Lodge is a pretty cool place and we have taken some good pictures to give you an idea of what it entails. The service has been very warm and hospitable, and the other snowmobilers have returned from their day ride and are congregated in the Tavern, the Tampa Bay Bucs and LA Rams are on the big screen (not looking good for my Bucs currently LA 27/TB 13 at this time) and I have a tasty Coors Light for lubrication.

Dinner is at 6:30pm for our group of 12, and from the plates I’ve seen coming out of the kitchen, it looks to be a fine evening!

It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but I am expecting a 9am skis up launch in the morning… we shall see.

Thank you to my 6 followers (ironically I had 6 comments on last nights blog, lol) that left a comment on yesterdays Frost Bytes, we do appreciate the feedback!

Tune in tomorrow and until then, GO BUCS!!

Bye for now,

Stick

This was on my floor board this morning, those that know, know.

In case any body is wondering what an NFG is… New “Effing” Guys, always read to the bottom of my posts, it’s where the lessons are learned.

FrostBytes 2022... Rona Can't Keep Us Off The Trail... The East Coast Tour

Craig, Rob, Kevin, Action Dan, Ron, Kelly

Yes, the Darkside Adventures Team was truly dark in 2021. To bring you back up to speed, the last time we were live was February 2020. The Rona virus was just starting, and within weeks of our return to the states… well you know, you lived thru it (hopefully).

The Michigan and part of the Indiana contingent of the Darkside Team did do a Loop the Yoop in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for about a week in February of 2021, but a full fledged Team effort was delayed… until now.

Due to continuing restrictions in Canada and our weariness of what the scene was going to be, our faithful Leader Craig put together a 10 day ride on the East Coast of the good ole USA. We departed today, Saturday January 22, 2022, and we are currently outside HorseHeads, NY. We are headed to Plymouth, New Hampshire, where we will park our trucks and trailers for the duration of our saddlebag ride.

While the tried and true Team Members are here, Fearless Leader Craig, Bullet Catcher “Action” Dan, Stick, the old man Ron Nicks, Yamaha Kevin, Chip Nasty, Hedgehog Phil, Rimel, and Ski Doo Matt, we also have a couple newbies on this run. We will get to their introductions later, if they make it past day 3.

We are excited to ride the East Coast, obviously it is new territory for most of us, me anyway. I hate to admit this, but I never really looked at the North American map very closely on our previous trips to Quebec and New Brunswick. I see now how close we were to the U.S. border, Maine in particular, on those prior trips! You should check it out for yourself, just don’t belittle your writer for my lack of geography.

Yamaha Kevin and his tasty breakfast sandwich

The Michigan crew met at Craig’s shop in Fenton, MI, and after a tasty breakfast sandwich prepared by Fearless Leader himself (bacon, egg, cheese on a English muffin) and a quick run back to my house down the road for a forgotten item, we were on the road by 9am, not to far off our scheduled 8am departure time! I believe the Indiana crew got a bit of an earlier start than we did, as when I called Hedgehog around 7:45 am to check on them, they were apparently misdirected in the cornfields of Indiana… I think Ski Doo Matt had his GPS programmed for the nearest Miller Lite dealer, instead of New York!

Shockingly, we had an uneventful ride from Michigan, thru Ohio, part of Pennsylvania, and into New York, about 590 miles, and we arrived around 5pm. The most shocking part to me was, for years I insist upon leaving Base with a clean, freshly waxed truck and trailer… and it never fails… we drive on wet, snowy, salty roads and the black truck looks gray/brown after just 30 miles. Not today… my buddy RS would be happy, we arrived with mostly clean trucks, as the roads were dry and the sun even poked out a couple times. The Indiana crew beat us in by about 45 minutes, and Chip Nasty already had our room keys for us! I love it when things go smooth ( I am aware I probably just jinxed myself).

My new wing man ( this is my third for those keeping track) and I are sitting at the Texas Roadhouse, across from the Fairfield by Marriott that is our lodging for tonight, enjoying a delightfully cold tall Coors Light draft in the bar area, while I type this effing blog for my 6 followers ( I used to have 8, but they keep dropping like flys on me). The rest of the crew, there is 12 riders on this tour, are pre-gaming in the hotel room. Apparently our dinner time is 7pm, hope it works out, cus this place is packed right now. The Titans vs. Bengals game is on, and I’m ready to get off this writing gig for the night.

It feels good to be back, I will even admit it feels good to be back doing this stupid blog that I bitch about all the time, and I am really looking forward to 10 days on the trail with these guys… it’s been too long, and they’re a good bunch of guys.

Tune in tomorrow night and see how Day 2 on the Road goes.

Bye for now, and “GO BUCS”

Stick

Rob and Stick