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Early Winter 2015 31 I showed up on a beautiful and brisk Friday afternoon in late February and was greeted with a generous hello from Renee Howard one of the ladies that would be riding that day. I unloaded and headed around back to an expansive meadow to await the arrival of the rest of the gang. As I was chatting with everyone sleds rolled in every few minutes from every direction in twos threes and fours. Everyone was excited to ride because the trails were in pristine condition there was a total of 15 sledheads for the ride. Once we had waited long enough Jim Marchland we will call him the Leader of the Pack because he led the entire day called it and we all revved up and headed out. We ventured through several landowners backyards and then started to climb in elevation through woods and up into the mountains. Our first stop was a mountain meadow with incredible views where someone who knows someone in the gang has a camper parked and they stay there in the summer months. We stopped for a few and then asked everyone to line up for a photo see in the centerspread. Then we were off again anytime we stopped there was explanation of the trail network recent construction updates as well as discussion about future trail and bridge work. Of course in the Vermont fashion I probably wouldnt have heard about this gang a secret except that I played summer softball with one of the local riders Keith Williams and he contacted me about writing about the gang for the magazine. The Gang started as a core group of Poultney Valley Snow Devils in 2007 and consisted of Jim Marchland Gary and Mark Brayton Ed Preseau Bob and Larry Loomis and Tim Jones. It has grown over the years with sometimes as many a 26 people showing up with a core group of 12. Usually the gang rides the same route roughly which varies from 40- 65 miles we rode 65 miles the day I went. They have been doing this for so long that no one really coordinates the ride people just show up. As we continued up into the mountains we stopped at a few intersections so everyone could catch up and then we headed up to Gary and Sue Braytons camp. What a blast As we pulled in everyone jumped off their sleds and headed into the camp. It was interesting how everyone seemed to take on a role to get settled. A few worked to get the woodstove going a couple others set up the food. I couldnt believe all the food that materialized from out of peoples sleds. There was a feast with cheese pepperoni and crackers a veggie platter he rey aired ang le to right eith illiams obbie ughes im archland im ones Neil aley Al ackson ary reseau d reseau enee oward ark rayton ob oomis ary rayton ick alker. ark rayton. aiting for the rest of the gang to catch up