On saturday morning I headed out from the Heartwellville parking lot somewhere around 10:00. I headed east on Rt 9. The trail to the dam was groomed overnight and was in fantastic shape. Getting past the dam, the trail was still in very good shape, with lots of very hard snow. I got to the intersection in Readsboro that can take you to the power plant (WM4) and hoped to head right and over to the powerlines, but nobody had been that way since the snowfall, and I didn't want to go alone on unbroken trail, so I stayed on 9 all the way to the Whitingham high school. There were a couple tiny water bars between WM4 and Sedawga pond, but they were minor and easy to see. Overall there was a lot of snow with no snirt and no rocks at all. Shortly before getting to the high school intersection (WM1?), the trail started to show very clear signs of having been groomed. At the high school intersection, I took 8 south. This was my very first time riding this trail, and it was a real treat. The trail was nicely groomed, and had almost no traffic. I rode the trail all the way to the power lines at the MA border, and loved every minute of it. I followed the powerlines to the "Y" in the lines, and stayed right to head back to VT. I was the only one who had travelled this section, but since I was so close to WM4 at this point, I figured I'd try to get back there through the unridden trail. Unfortunately, one of the last road crossings on the power lines proved to be too much for me. The snowbank was at least 3' high and almost completely vertical. This combined with the fact that it was as hard as cement, and the road was icy made it too difficult to get the sled over. Rather than exhaust myself trying (then have to ride alone on unbroken trail), I decided to turn around and go home the way I'd come. That was ok though, because it gave me another chance to ride 8 all groomed. Back on 9, I was on virgin groomed trail for a few miles before I met up with the groomer. A great ride overall.

On sunday morning I decided to try heading up to the Glastenbury fire tower. I wasn't terribly familiar with the route, but I figured that I set out early enough to have enough time to explore. I turned off of Airport Rd onto 7A (The glastenbury loop) at BN8, and took the second right off of that trail. I wasn't sure if this trail would get me to the Mountain, but it at least had been travelled so I gave it a try. Unfortunately, this wound up being the same goat trail I rode last year, and the trail really sucks. This is really only fun for people who like doing real back-woods riding. With ice all over the trees, I faced a constant barrage of branches and limbs in my face for most of the ride. By the end of the ride my hand guards looked like I dropped them on a disk sander, and I lost one of the plastic pins that holds my windshield on. I stayed on this trail all the way until I came to BN69 in the middle of the woods. This intersection showed that the other direction was much more heavily travelled, but at that point I really just wanted to get off of these goat trails. As luck would have it, just before I left toward Kelly Stand, a large group of riders came up the trail. They said they were heading to the fire tower, so I decided to follow along. This section of trail was MUCH better than the junk I was just on. After a couple miles of riding, we came to a bigger intersection, BN 66. This trail was groomed! It was beautifully smooth, and a really fun trail. It was still very narrow compared to Woodford trails, but thanks to some sleds towing skids, it was in wonderful shape. We followed this to BN62, where we made the right turn toward the tower. The trail right to the tower was groomed, though still a bit bumpy toward the top. The trees up that high were still covered with a healthy dose of snow, and the scenery was beautiful. The ride down and back to the glastenbury loop was groomed most of the way and in very nice shape.

I can't wait to get up into that area again and do some more exploring on those small groomed trails. There seemed to be 1 or 2 routes that were groomed but don't show up on the VAST map, so I'm looking forward to spending some time seeing where they go!

Hopefully today's rain won't cause much damage, because there is a LOT of snow in woodford right now, with no snirt, no rocks, and no open corners.

I love reading your reports. The trails down on 8 are very nice. Narrow, but smooth and low traffic

Same here..Always check out Jim85IROC's trail reports before heading to Woodford to ride..

I'm glad people like them. It gives me an excuse to write them.