Honestly, I had every intention of going to work this morning, until I woke up! That little voice in my head was telling me to ride, so I blew off work and set sail for Old Forge about 8AM.
The Indian Lake Village trails were groomed and really fun to ride. I ripped up Little Canada over to Lone Birch for kicks before gassing up at the Route 30 One Stop. C8 going out to Headquarters was in really good shape aside from a few water spots and corners scuffed down to dirt between Adirondack Mountain Sports and Deer Valley. It was probably one of the better rides I’ve had on that trail from wire-to-wire.
From Headquarters to Silver Run, Moose River Plains was bumpy on the Indian Lake side. Several miles in, I found out why: Indian Lake’s Kubuta groomer was dead on the side of the trail. Once I got past Silver Run, the Plains were great riding all the way to Inlet. The Big-T flats were a massive rush, WOW!
Ride Video:
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I went up 7th Lake Mountain to run the Inlet loop trails. All of that was great riding with the groomers hard at work. Ole Barn, Gilbert Road to Inlet village was the usual snirt highway, looking like cocoa powder. But the groomers were busy working that too. NOBODY had gone onto 4th Lake from Inlet. It just LOOKS dangerous out on the lake.
After a quick stop at Big Moose Yamaha to look around, I pressed on. Trail 5 out of Eagle Bay enroute to Old Forge was the usual snirt highway, but most of that was pretty flat and fast. Rondaxe Road had enough snow to get the job done, even as I was occasionally scraping carbide.
Once I got to Old Forge, I hit Trail 9, Doe Pond Trail and Trail 2 up to Stillwater Road. Almost all of that was super riding! Then I took a chance with C7/Railroad tracks and headed up to Beaver River. There was some light chop and several places where rail was showing up flush with the snow pack, but good enough to cruise at 40-50mph comfortably. After I got past the Norridgewock, C7 was freshly groomed and flat out AWESOME! After several miles of that, I realized that I was a long way from Kansas by myself and doubled back to the Norridgewock for lunch. I ran into Dick and Joy Eliezer from Lake Pleasant and chatted with them for a while (NO, THEY DID NOT USE THE LAKES TO RIDE FROM SPECULATOR TO OLD FORGE!!) Then some Town of Webb police and ENCON showed up for lunch. Good thing I was 100 percent legal! 😉
After I doubled back toward Old Forge on C7, I hit Trail 1 which was chewed up a little bit with heavy traffic. Pipeline was a good ride. After that I hit Trail 7 and climbed up to the Elsie lookout. After that, I ran Trail 6 down to Thendara. You need to be really careful if you use the railroad bridge to cross Route 28, because you can really mess up your sled in a hurry. It’s better to use the bypass roadsides. I continued on Trail 6 toward McKeever a short way into Trackside territory. The rail bed was a bit bumpy. At this point, I was down to less than a quarter tank, so I turned around and took the sidewalk trail over to Old Forge for gas. I’m definitely intrigued enough about Trackside to try it another day though.
On the return trip home, I zipped up Pete’s Peak via Trail 4/Upper Hollywood. That was well traveled and worn to dirt in a few spots, but nothing awful. Great view from the top and met a couple of Old Forge residents up there. The snow on Trail 5 was getting really tired on the way home with loose snirt and some dirt spots. But some of flats were still a rush!
After hitting the Inlet loop trails again, I headed for home. The Inlet side of Moose River Plains was still fun, although I did scrape carbide a few times. The Indian Lake side from Silver Run back to Cedar River Headquarters was nothing but studders and rollers. I basically stood up on the runner boards and surfed the waves all the way through. The Kubuta groomer was still dead on the side of the trail when I went through there before 5PM.
C8 back to Indian Lake was a nice evening stroll. The final miles between Deer Valley and the Adirondack Mountain Sports had soft studders, but nothing that ruined my ride. I got back to the compound with nearly 170 miles for the day. That little voice in my head never lets me down. I chose WISELY!
Bottom Line:
If you can withstand about 7 miles of bumps between Cedar River Headquarters and Silver Run, you’ll encounter more than enough great riding to justify blowing off work for a midweek run from Indian Lake to Old Forge. If the Town of Indian Lake can get their Moose River Plains groomer fixed, all the better! Well, what are you waiting for?
Weekend Outlook:
The Thaw is a virtual certainty for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Expect spring-time riding conditions over the weekend. As long as we don’t get a ton of rain, we’ll live to ride another day. The present 18-24+ inch snow pack is not going to completely melt away. One possible silver lining: Once the snow and slush is melted off the lakes they’ll be able to make ice once it gets cold again.
