Ridin’ Rich Lupia at Upstatesnow.com wanted the ilsnow.com tour of the Speculator area. I blew off work and embarked on the trip with a temperature of -3*F, and it didn’t get a whole lot warmer than that during the day.
The Indian Lake village trails were groomed, but the low snow was not enough to cover the terrain bumps. Sabael Trail was pretty bumpy most of the way through with some bony spots, but I made it through without much incident. Indian Lake was one sweet ride with about half-foot of wind packed powder. I didn’t see too many spots blown down to ice.
Indian Lake/Lewey Lake Campsites was actually an enjoyable ride. The low snow and relatively low traffic this winter has kept that from becoming the complete snocross mogul-fest it usually is by now. Be careful by the Lewey Lake beach, because the wind has swept all of the snow off it…leaving nothing but glare ice around those posts used to keep automobiles away from the beach in the summer.
Lewey Lake had deeper powder than Indian Lake, just splendid riding! 2 Miles from Hell was the usual rough and tumble stuff on the lower half: bumpy, snirty and icy in places. There was one spot in particular with a dangerous icy side slope. The top part closer to Perkins Clearing was in better shape.
The trail alongside of Route 30 down to the Mason Lake parking lot was in good shape. I made it down to the parking lot just after 10AM and waited for Rich to arrive.
From there, we worked our way down Perkins Clearing Road from the north end. The conditions down to HM6 were fantastic! But we could tell it was very icy under the several inches of fresh powder. It would be very easy for someone to blow a turn if he’s not paying attention and slowing down well before reaching the turns.
It didn’t take long for Rich to give his thumbs-up for Perkins Clearing:
Heading up Jessup River Road, it wasn’t quite as smooth, but the fresh powder was cushioning any small bumps nicely. I took Rich past HM116 to show him how to get down to Fawn Lake, but we didn’t get down into the narrow woods trail where I was sure it would be rough. After showing Rich some of the backcountry stuff found in the back side of Perkins Clearing, we hit S41/Mud Lake Road.
Aside for some bumpiness around Mossy Vly and the usual thin spots approaching HM110, Mud Lake Road was just about mint as we were amongst the first people to ride it today. While stopped at HM110, we saw two Lake Pleasant groomers heading into Perkins Clearing to work their magic. The south end of Perkins Clearing Road was smooth, but also worn down to dirt and ice, especially on the turns and hill crests. Be sure to take it easy through that!
C4/Melody Lodge was somewhat chippy and snirty; lots of carbide clanking and some rocks you don’t want to hit at regular riding speed. The southerly exposures were bony, but there was enough “material” to make it through. LP3 was the usual nice pathway down into Speculator Village. The inner Speculator trails and the River trail were nice and flat!
Lake Pleasant was a nice crossing, aside from the ice heaves past the island. Page Street/LP1 was somewhat snirty through the woods, nice and flat along the road. The stretch down to Moffit’s Beach was thin and icy through the woods.
Sacandaga Lake was a beautiful crossing. Fish Mountain/Oxbow trail was groomed recently. It was a beautiful ride through the seasonal road parts. The portions through the woods were snirty and bony at times with a few big rocks sticking out. We took it easy through there and made it through to Oxbow Lake without any incident.
Oxbow Lake was a sweet crossing, possibly one of the best runs I’ve had on that lake. After seeing that the Oxbow Inn was closed for Tuesday, we decided to double back into Speculator for something to eat.
Rich has some friends that live on Sacandaga Lake and gave them a call to see if they were home. After a little trial and error, we found their house and gladly accepted their offer to stay for a while and warm up. When it’s this cold (at this point in the afternoon, probably not much warmer than 5*F), sometimes you don’t realize just how cold you are until you get inside a warm house!
After we chatted with Rich’s friends for a while and got sufficiently warmed up, we headed back to Speculator where we topped off with gas at the Mountain Market. LP4 was as smooth as a baby’s bottom, but the turns were nothing but ice with loose snow on them.
Time was running late, so I didn’t get to show Rich the Speculator Tree Farm. We headed back up to Mason Lake parking lot via C4/Perkins Clearing Road. It was a great ride back up to Rich’s truck and we saw the groomer coming back down Perkins Clearing. A perfect way to end Rich’s ride.
Rich had the fleeting idea for taking 2 Miles from Hell down to Lewey Lake and Indian Lake, just to say that he did. I told Rich if we we did that, he’d be on his own to load his sled back onto the trailer because I wasn’t going to traverse the 2 Miles from Hell an extra couple of times! Wiser heads prevailed and we went right to Mason Lot parking lot. 🙂
After we said goodbye, I headed for home. The Sabael trail was groomed today whilst I was gone, which made it somewhat better. But we really need more snow to cover the terrain bumps, it was still fairly rough.
I did the Indian Lake village loop to end the day. Little Canada between Route 30 One Stop and Sawmill Road was really thin. It was a better ride over to Lone Birch Motel. Lake Adirondack was a nice ride. 42nd and Broadway was fairly bumpy, as was the spur trail between Benton Road and C8. It appeared as the groomer headed out C8 toward Adirondack Mountain Sports today. So I’m assuming that the groomer made the run out toward Cedar River Headquarters. It was getting darker and colder by the minute, so in lieu of heading out C8 to see what that trail was like, I headed back to the compound with 110 miles spun off for the day.
Bottom Line:
Was it all pristine mid-winter riding? Nope, but maximizing Perkins Clearing and the lakes was key to having a great day! Lake Pleasant/Speculator area groomers were out there, doing their best to keep the connecting narrow woods trails ride-able. Speculator does have better snow conditions than Indian Lake does right now, definitely more fresh snow down there.
This has been a tough winter, not only with the see-saw weather. The spate of serious snowmobile accidents really made me disconnect with riding and I was amazingly content to sit out 3 weeks with the marginal conditions we’ve had. But we got enough snow to spring the XP loose, I had a great ride with Rich and saw the breathtaking scenery that I can only see in the winter on a snowmobile. This is why I keep on riding. Sharing some of my favorite riding with a friend is as good as it gets. 🙂
Get up here midweek if you can. Or else you’ll be taking your chances with what the weather could do over the weekend.
It was too cold for me to bother taking movies, so I snapped some pictures just long enough to get my fingers cold:
RIDE SAFE, MAKE IT HOME ALIVE FOR THE NEXT RIDE. 🙂
Darrin @ ilsnow.com
