Mike, Jan, Zeb and I thank all of the folks who made the First Annual Tug Hill Snow Kite Rally a huge success. Those to thank include Bob Diehl trail coordinator for Lewis County, Anne from the Chamber of Commerce, Jackie for keeping registration organized, Steve Hanna landowner and you, the Snowkiters who came and tore the place up!

Brian and Heather at Windzup were the inspiration for this land based snowkite event. Without their guidance we would not have gotten far. We had over 75 riders and well over 300 spectators. Next year expect us to go to another level.

At the 11th hour we had fresh snow fall on a old base to have enough surface to ride which is highly atypical of this area of NY. The Tug Hill rises to over 2000 feet elevation and creates a Lake Effect Snow Maker off lake Ontario. They have had close to 200 inches so far this season but several wet systems from the Gulf of Mexico brought rain in January and late December taking with it all of the snow. Now it is cold and they are getting the snow pattern back.

With this kind of elevation the Tug Hill is nearly always windy providing the other element we need for snowkiting. Wind was gusting to 50 on Friday. Strong 25-35 Saturday morning to steady 10-15 by sunset. Sunday we had incredibly smooth 10-15.

Starting with two ridable sites we increased to having permission to ride on three additional locations for the future. Bob Diehl will be organizing a mapping system so that riders will know where to park and ride. Contact Anne at the Chamber of Commerce for current riding locations and where to stay and eat while in beautiful Lowville.

Get back up there and get your snowkite on but be sure not to ride on fields without landowner permission. This is a rural area with a code of conduct that we need to respect. If you poach a property and upset a landowner expect to be flogged without mercy from this community.

Thanks again to everyone who participated

Kelly

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