Bright sunshine and bright blue sky on Sunday afternoon means one thing: the traditional vulture run to pick at the weekend leftovers, after the crowds have left town!
Indian Lake village trails were holding up pretty well for a late weekend. There were shredder bumps for sure and the heavily traveled trails were snirty. But hey, we’ve all seen much worse. The exposed spots were getting scuffed down to dirt, but snow coverage on the trails is still nearly 100 percent. Bear Trap Swamp is starting to get messy on both ends with late winter melt water starting to seep into it. Lake Adirondack was fairly rough in spots.
Ski Hut trail, Little Canada and 42&Broadway were all in great shape. We were sure to double dip all those low traffic havens. Benton Road had great snow and ice coverage in the shade, but it’s getting baked in the sun.
The ride out the Lake Durant via S84 was the most interesting. There was rough studder chop past the Cedar River bridge, but years of experience tells me that I have to give it a chance up past the hill for a half mile to make a sound judgement whether to continue or just turn tail back to town. After the climb of the hillside with some scuffed corners, it was a different world once I got over the hump. The trail had some residual soft studders, but I could tell it had been groomed today.
We continued past Rock Lake, which was a bit more bumpy but still not a terrible ride. Once we crossed the junction with the Newcomb trail, S84 became a nice ride to the Lake Durant Campsites.
Lake Durant was a sweet crossing with the little traffic it endures. Little Miss ilsnow.com got cold from the lake crossing, so we crossed the highway and ran the Old Stage trail back toward the Ranger’s house. Overall, that was a pretty good ride with a few humps along the way.
Little Miss ilsnow was still cold, so I sat her in front of me the keep her behind the windshield. That made S84 a long ride back to Indian Lake with the bumps and not being able to stand up to see around the corners. Once we got back to town, she had warmed up and returned to her passenger seat while we ran Lake Adirondack and Little Canada to the One Stop.
After the traditional junk food and hot chocolate at the One Stop, we hit the Ski Hut trail on the way back to the compound. All told, only 25 miles but we had fun and that’s what counts. Not all rides need to be the mega-rides!
Midweek Outlook:
There is plenty of material on the trails for the groomers to piece Humpty Dumpty back together again for some high quality March riding. Don’t be deceived by the grubby snowbanks and roadside bare spots in town: there is still 1 to 2+ feet of snow in the woods. Wednesday’s possible snow event looks promising, certainly enough to give us another riding weekend and probably more. No Diehards or Fat Ladies yet for ilsnow land!
Darrin @ ilsnow.com
