We stayed at a cool little hotel in a town that would not survive if it didnt have snowmobiles. We hit the trails right at sun up on sunday morning. All the trails were freshly groomed and we were cutting first tracks. It made it really easy to see what tracks crossed the trails over night. We headed up into Pittsburg, nh. Along the whole morning in Nh, there were fresh deer and moose tracks everywhere in the trails. Moose tracks were literally everywhere. Just south of Pittsburg we came across a huge bull moose standing on the side of the trail. He didnt seem to worried about us. I would taken a pic but since it was -8 degrees when I grabbed my phone it turned off due to the cold. Anyway we kept going and crossed back into Vt at Beecher Falls. I counted over 30 deer from our hotel that morning to the Vt border. I also saw many more tracks.
Once we crossed into Vt it was like a switch turned off. We maybe cut 3 fresh tracks. We also didnt see that many old tracks. We had breakfast in canaan and then headed through island pond. Beautiful riding but just no sign of any wild life. We continued down to Willoughby and Burke, then cut over towards Greensboro where we picked up the Lamoille valley rail trail that took us back to our door step.
This was a long story to get to my point, but I just couldnt believe how much wildlife sing I saw in Nh. Everywhere you looked there were old and/or new tracks. Something definitely happens once you cross that invisible line. The woods really didnt look any different the whole trip so I dont think I can say it wasnt good winter habitat. But when you ride 326 miles through the woods, and half of that was in Vt you would think you would at least see one deer. It just amazes me the difference. I was happy to see a fair amount of logging taking place in northern vt.
Anyway, thats my story and my scouting report along the trails.
I have heard they feed the deer alot in northern NH, but i dont think the area we were had that. I saw most of the deer up in the mountains where there was one hunting camp every 5-10 miles. Also the only access to these camps was the loggin road which is also the snowmobile trail.most of them had no sign of life as the snow had no tracks in them.
I could be wrong again but these deer werent down around the towns where im sure they are getting fed. I was surprised how far up in the mountains they were.
Heading back out tomorrow in Vt in the northeast kingdom.
