First Snowshoe Double of the Season - Curly's (Part 2)

Curly's Record Run Snowshoe Race

Although not originally planned, I decided to run Curly's Record Run (results) on Sunday and complete my first snowshoe double of the season. JJ picked me up at 6am for the 3hr ride waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out to western Mass. Curly's would take place in the Pittsfield State Forest, in fact the start/finish was at the same exact location of the Turner Trail snowshoe race I did a few weeks ago (my favorite course to date). Curly's would be a totally different course but would include many of the same great elements of Turner.
Surprisingly (not), we were the first ones there but the lot filled up quickly. All told I think they had around 90 snowshoers, quite a large crowd for a race in the middle of nowhere. Heck, even the western Mass folk have to drive over an hour to get there :-)

First Snowshoe Double of the Season - Pooh Hill (Part 1)

Pooh Hill Snowshoe Scramble

On Saturday I headed up to King Pine Resort in Madison NH for the 3rd race of the Granite State Snowshoe Series (results). This race probably has one of the nicest locations for a snowshoe race anywhere in the Northeast. It's not often you get a scenic spot, a combination of groomed trails and snowshoe single track and most importantly indoor facilities (a real bonus in snowshoe racing). If you haven't done it you're definitely missing out on a beauty.

Last year this was the 1st race in the series and it was a doozy. 8.5k in length with a killer hill about 1/2 around the loop. A couple of things would make this years version a bit different. Pooh Hill was the 3rd race in the GSSS this year so most of us have worked out some of the kinks already (if that's possible in
snowshoeing). More importantly the infamous Pooh Hill was gone.