In the past week or so: My XP’s brakes caught fire, the home oil furnace blew up, and had the muffler began to fall off my car. Only if I could play the country record backward and get it all back! I hadn’t been on a sled in almost a week-and-a-half, so I figured it was just time to dust off the Formula S this evening and scratch the itch.
The heavily traveled Indian Lake inner village trails had been groomed, but still bared some scars from the busy weekend. Conditions ranged from fairly smooth to low studders and slight rollers. Sabael trail was in similar condition. Ski Hut trail was its usual excellent ride. C8 spur out to Adirondack Mountain Sports was somewhat choppy. C8 past Adirondack Mountain Sports got really rough. After about a mile of that, I accepted that it was not going to be one of my better rides on that trail, so I turned tail and headed back to town.
Ride Video:
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Beginning to 1:07 – Swamp Trail/C8; 1:07 to End – Ski Hut trail.
The spur over to Benton Road was halfway decent, but S84/Blue Mountain trail was just bloody awful: an endless sea of washboard moguls. I didn’t even make it to the Cedar River bridge before giving up on that one. I’m not sure how much further I would have bothered with the XP: It was that bad! I think “8 Miles from Hell” is a fair and accurate moniker for that trail of tears!
42nd and Broadway was a solid B+ ride by the old landfill. Lake Adirondack was smooth and flat. I pushed the 12,000+ miler Formula S to over 60mph. That’s no cheap feat! Little Canada between Lone Birch and One Stop was a nice race along the power lines. After I topped off for fuel at the One Stop, I doubled dipped back onto Little Canada and Ski Hut trail before heading back to the compound.
After seeing what seemed to be hundreds of snowmobiles around town the past weekend, it was almost eerie to be the only person riding the trails Monday evening. On my way back home, I did find a couple of kids riding. Although the trails weren’t in great shape, temperatures in the upper-20s and scattered flurries were perfect for night riding. The overall base was good. I only clipped rocks a couple of times.
Based on what I saw around town this evening, I would assume that Moose River Plains is a wreck, especially between Cedar River Headquarters and Silver Run where the rollers reign supreme.
I wasn’t expecting greatness on a Monday night. I just needed a ride, ANY RIDE! Now that I’m back on the saddle, I’m awaiting for my XP to be repaired and ready for the back 9 of winter!
Midweek Snowmobiling Outlook:
It’s going to take the groomers multiple passes to repair the weekend damage and that’s going to take time! Then, of course, we’ve got the potential snow event for Tuesday night, Wednesday and Thursday that could help us out quite a bit. The later in the week you come up, the better you will be.
