Update 3/16/13: Indian Lake/Speculator picked up 3-6 inches of white gold yesterday! I’m sure the back side of Perkins Clearing and Moose River Plains got over 6 inches. Winter ain’t dead yet, boys and girls!
With the new inch of snow we got since it turned cold and the new white paint falling from the sky this afternoon, I was inspired to run a Die-hard. I didn’t feel like banging up the XP, so I stole Junior’s Formula S. The heavily traveled inner village trails were loaded with low studders, but not really all that bad. Icy base underneath with a few bald spots. Bear Trap Swamp had frozen back up nicely, with just a few shallow water spots when I passed through.
I tried C8 out past Adirondack Mountain Sports. After a mile of constant hard studderchop, I quickly gave up on that. The steep hill had whopping moguls and some stones in the depressions.
I knew that S84/Blue Mountain trail was going to be a torture chamber. So I figured the best way to make a ride out of this would be to make a run down to Perkins via Indian Lake. The Sabael trail had low studders, but wasn’t terrible. The usual water spots between Pashley Road and Route 30 had mostly drained. The “brook” that cuts under the trail a short distance past Pashley Road had opened up, but the logs stacked in the brook made for a safe crossing. There was only one particularly bad washout that you don’t want to hit at speed.
Snowmobile Ride Video:
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On Indian Lake, I stayed fairly close to the western shoreline to grab the minimal new snow that hadn’t been blown away by the wind. Even so, I was coasting over a patchwork of glare ice and minimal powder at about 40MPH. At Campsite 11, I checked the slides for snow. To my pleasant surprise, the skid frame was holding decent snow! So I pressed on and the snow cover got better enroute to the Indian Lake State Boat Launch.
Crossing through the campsites was the usual washboard hell. Since I was on the Formula S, I was relegated to rolling through the humps at 10MPH and praying that I wouldn’t break something. I noticed there was at least 2-3 inches of fresh powder on top of the old crust.
Lewey Lake was a nice crossing. The 2 Miles from Hell (C8 between Lewey Lake and Perkins Clearing Road) had low studders and a few rollers, but it really wasn’t all that bad! I’m sure the new snow cushioned it somewhat. But if I can make it through the 2 Miles from Hell on the Formula S without thinking about organ donation, that’s a WIN in my book! There is one deep, but fairly narrow washout in the middle of the trail that you do not want to jam your ski into!
The trail along Route 30 to the Mason Lake parking lot was in pretty nice shape. S82/Old Indian Lake Road was a beautiful ride down into Perkins Clearing, aside from a few washouts. LOVE THAT RIDE! Just make sure to stay a safe distance away from the guardrails on Route 30!
Perkins Clearing Road was pretty good, ranging from almost flat to small studders for the most part. The bigger hills had some rollers and the south end was pretty thin. I saw a pack of sleds coming up from C4/Melody Lodge. For giggles, I made the run down to Speculator. That trail was BONY to say the least! I saw lots of spots that were probably bare after Tuesday’s rain. I can’t imagine that trail was passable before today’s snow. After a couple of miles down that trail, I saw the tracks turn around. Those guys didn’t come up from Speculator after all. Since I wasn’t gunning for Speculator village anyway, I followed their example and headed back up top.
S41/Hatchery Brook was the prize I was looking for and it didn’t disappoint me. Aside from a few nearly bald spots, it was a great ride down into the Tree Farm! I stopped near the junction with Wolf Hill Road to take a breather. Wellsnowrider (from the ilsnow.com bulletin board) was coming back up from the Tree Farm and recognized me. Then his wife caught up. We chatted for about a half hour and toward the tail end of that time, the snow started to come down like CRAZY! It was a bonafide snow squall.
After Wellsnowrider and his wife took off, I contemplated a run down Wolf Hill Road. But I had a little less gas in the tank than I was comfortable with, so I decided to make the run back home and call it a ride. By the time I got back up to Perkins Clearing, the snow had let up substantially. Then the sun broke through the clouds on the 2 Miles from Hell.
Smooth sailing back to the compound, right? WRONG!! I got back onto Indian Lake with no problem. Then the snow got heavier and heavier. By the time I got past Timberlock, I was in the midst of a full blown whiteout. It got to the point where I was losing the shoreline, so I got off the lake between Watch Point and Campsite 11 to let the squall go by. I was afraid if somebody was coming at me, I would see the headlights just before the collision. After waiting 10-15 minutes, the squall let up. But I ended up stopping 2 more times before I got up to Sabael. Seems like I was running into the tail end of the same squall a few times.
After I got back to town, I hit up Ski Hut Trail, Little Canada and 42nd and Broadway before calling it a day. They were all nice riding! Lake Adirondack still had patchy glare ice and Routes 28&30 were just black and wet when I got back to town. But just before I rolled back to the compound before dark, Indian Lake village got it’s own nasty snow squall that coated everything in a hurry! I suppose in the end, it was good for me to head directly back home when I did or else I might have been running Indian Lake in the dark with snow squalls blowing through. I certainly wasn’t hunting for snow on the lakes late this afternoon.
I haven’t heard anything about Moose River Plains. With the fresh snow, you can certainly make it to Inlet although it will get scratchy the closer to Inlet you get past the Big-T and especially the Red River-T. That snow on Moose River Plains gets “used up” with the traffic it gets and quite honestly, there are other places I’d much rather ride. You’ll just have to try it and see if you like it.
It was really quiet today. I only saw a handful of sleds out there this afternoon. Most people are done with winter, I suppose.
Weekend Snowmobiling Outlook:
I think there is enough fresh snow and cold weather for the groomers to come out on Saturday and make things pretty good for the weekend. Whether or not they do, we’re far better off than we were at this point last year because we were finished by then! If you want to do some crazy 200 mile ride on Saturday, you’re going to endure some pain to do that. If you got some carbides you want to finish off, go for it! But if you pick your spots and are willing to play the lakes (AT YOUR OWN RISK, OF COURSE!), you can have a really good time this weekend. Just be aware there will be some slush near the shorelines, so you don’t want to hang near the shore any longer than you need to. Be sure to stay away from inlets and outlets.
There will be some trails that will make you think it’s mid-winter and other trails that will remind you that spring is not as far away as we’d like. Be on the lookout for places where the water is starting to eat away at the trail base from the sides and underneath. This will be boondocker’s heaven as you’ll be able to go anywhere you can fit your skis between the trees and you’ll have a nice layer of fresh snow to make it look like winter. 🙂
Be sure to check the rider reports on the ilsnow.com bulletin board for the latest!
