First Day Out at Erropolis. Great City of the North.

The ice is in!

After what seems like a ridiculously long period of warm weather this sudden cold snap is making serious progress in the ice making department.  Winter is  definately here and Mike and I went north on Friday to ride Lake Umbagog, one of our favorite riding areas.  It's a pretty long ride from here, appoximately 75 miles but it's a beautiful place to ride.  Often blessed with steady winds,  great ice and zero cell phone coverage it's a great place to get away from it all.

The town of Errol is by my standards pretty damn awesome.  It's small and in the winter almost a ghost town apart from the snowmobilers and ice fisherman that come through during the winter months.  There's LL Cote if you're looking for a sled rental, cold weather gear or an AK47 and the Errol General Store for kickass sandwiches, coffee or just about anything else you need.  Oh, and if you speak french it will help you fit in.

There's a small motel in town if you venture all the way up here and want to stay the night and a place that rents cabins right at the launch area.  If you have to drive from farther away than we do then it's not a day trip.  It's only 74 miles from North Conway but it's a LOOOONG 74 miles.  No highways just a twisty 2 lane road all pot hole speckled and frost heaved.

 Sometimes I think that maybe this could be a great snowkite destination and possibly bring a little more income to the area during the lean months.  Lake Umbagog is just down the road and there are several other big lakes nearby but the distance from any large population areas, lack of cell phone and zero night life probably makes it unlikely.

All qualities that I love about Errol.

Mike and I drove up and made it to Umbagog in about an hour and half.  The parking lot has been shoveled and the ice looked really good.  I brought my trusty Mille Lacs Ice Chopper to chop some test holes but since there were several snowmobile tracks on the ice so we threw caution to the wind and just started to set up.

The breeze was light and variable with an occasional gust of maybe 12-15 mph but not too often.  The trees weren't hardly twitching.  4" of soft snow on the surface.  I was going to try my new 19m Charger for the light winds but I left it in the van and was too lazy to go get it so I rigged the 15m.  Mike was flying his new 12m Peter Lynn Synergy.

I want to fly the Chargers again and give a more detailed report but for now I'm going to hold off until I can give more detail.  I will say the Charger is unlike anything I've flown up till now and I think it's going to be a perfect fit for how I like to ride.

We flew for 4 hours and my top speed was 48.6mph.  Not earth shattering but really good given the amount of wind and surface conditions. 

After flying Mike and I hit the general store on the way out and grabbed some sandwiches.  It was a pretty mellow ride home with no moose or any near misses with wildlife.  The Odyssey handled 13 Mile Woods (a brutal stretch of road along the way) like a champ.

Molly and I are heading up there tomorrow. The wind reports are mixed some say 10-15mph others say 20-30mph.  We've got Chargers to handle any of it so we'll fly those and I'll give a detailed report of the day and my thoughts on the Chargers.

Until then, if you're in Errol keep out of trouble.  They have ways of handling evildoers up there.  It helps to have a guide with local knowledge.  We rely on Mat Morrissette in these parts.