Stan said:
These can be done on xc skis, I doubt they'd be much of a challenge even for a beginner bc skier.
(blink)
So, 2 years ago afka_bob and I skied in along the east side of the east branch. We were both on xc skis with wax and these real core "bc skiers" came skinning down this small hill on burly killer AT gear. You read that right. They were skinning down cause their skins wouldn't slide and the rolling terrain made it impractical to skin/de-skin. I could only imagine those guys setting up camp that night and paging through their back copies of Couloir trying to figure out how it was that we skied up hill with no skins. (guffaw)
The terms "bc" and "backcountry" as applied to skiing are really meaningless. Skiing deep into the Pemi on light nordic gear is certainly
more backcountry skiing the bump run called the Sherburne.
At this point, the only meaning of the word "backcountry" as it applies to ski gear that makes sense to me is how it is applied to describe a class of light nordic metal edged skis and the corresponding boots and bindings. Hit most manufacturers and retailers web sites and you'll see this is how they use the term. Burly gear gets labeled as "Telemark" and "AT" for the most part. There are exceptions, certainly.
In any event, I see dismissing destinations as not being worthy of even beginner bc skiers as a needlessly narrow perspective.
For the OP, I've put very, very short and crude listings of some of the trips possibilities in NH here:
http://home.comcast.net/~pinnah/DirtbagPinner/nh-trips/nh-trips.html
As Doug noted, the USFS has some great trails and resources. David Goodman's guide book has lots of great info in it. It's a great starting point but is more oriented to steeper pursuits. My standard suggestions for first bc ski is the Lincoln Woods trail. It's heavily travelled up to the Franconia Brook bridge and the river is stunning. The other trip is to Greeley Ponds from the south. Both trips are good place to work out logistics of dealing with bindings, food and clothing in the woods.
Lastly, if your interest is in steep bc skiing, then yes, Sherburne is one of the best first trips. Again, its heavily traveled and Pinkham offers an easy place to start/return. Regarding skinning up the Sherburne, it is definitely allowed. It is wide enough to allow for switch backs in most places and generally less traveled in the am so you can avoid the commuter traffic feeling on the Tuck Ravine trail. In fact, it is wide enough that when I took Dickie Hall's clinic many years ago, we were able to climb the Sherburne on wax (not skins). But do be warned, 90% of the people skiing the Sherburne are recent converts from downhill areas and they wrongly assume that there should be no skiers standing or climbing below them. It's not at all uncommon to see folks carrrying way to much speed on the descent on that trail. And they will likely assume that the cllimbing skier is at fault. While they would be wrong, it doesn't matter if you have broken ribs from the collision. If you ascend by the Sherburne, I would suggest getting to HoJos by 10 or 11 to minimize encounters with descenders.