New Website for White Mountain Ridge Runners
November 15, 2007
By Larry Gomes
Since 1998, I have spent the majority of my volunteer time helping out the Groveton Trailblazers club. I had help from many GTB members as well as members from several other clubs.
We accomplished a great deal including building a popular web site that attracted many new members, establishing new trails, rebuilding bridges and installing one of the best trail sign systems in the State of NH.
But last year, another club came calling and I decided to answer that call. The White Mountain Ridge Runners (a neighboring club to Groveton Trailblazers) was facing some significant challenges and they were very short on volunteers.
WMRR Challenges
Many of their bridges (of which there are dozens) have reached their end of life. Their grooming equipment is old. Continuous logging over the past few years have caused their trails to be rerouted again and again. The establishment of over 40 miles of new ATV trails intersecting with existing snowmobile trails had created a critical need for better signing. A new winter parking area in Jericho Lake Park promises to bring more daily riders into the area.
All of these problems are hitting at a time when the club's resources are at an all time low due to back-to-back warm winters.
WMRR Future Is Bright
The good news is that the White Mountain Ridge Runners have the potential to have one of the finest trail systems in Coos County. Many of their trails follow logging roads that are wide and provide good visibility. Because of the extensive logging in the area, a majority of their trails have breathtaking views. The newly established ATV trails can be used in the winter for ungroomed trail riding, providing a new riding experience. In addition, most of their trails are on State or Federal land so the work done improving these trails will not be lost.
The list of issues to be addressed is long, but the White Mountain Ridge Runners has a core group of volunteers ready to tackle these challenges. So far with help from the Paris Road Sno-Stompers and members from the Groveton club, 4 critical bridges have been rebuilt and over 130 sign posts have been installed on the WMRR trail system.
You Can Help
We hope you will consider joining with us to create another great trail system that can add to the attraction of riding in Coos County.
To help with communications, we are building a new website for the club and we hope you will come back often to see how we are doing. We plan to add two webcams in the near future and we will be keeping the site up-to-date with the trail conditions and news stories of interest starting in December of 2007.
If you would like to help the WMRR club,
please send email to larry@twolakeslodge.com
or call 508-366-1172 to discuss how you assist.