No family home this evening, so I capitalized with another ride on the new 4-TEC to break her in. Indian Lake village trails were holding up pretty well. Bear Trap Swamp had areas of standing water, but nothing deep or flowing to seriously erode the trail going through it.
C8 out to Headquarters overall was a C/C+ ride. The trail has areas of studders and occasional smooth stretches. Only once in a while, the bumps would be considered whoppers out to Cedar River. There was only one spot that was under water for a stretch, but the water was pretty shallow. Once I climbed the hill from Cedar River, the trail became quite rough for about half mile. Then it improved dramatically and become a nice ride for the 2 miles remaining to Headquarters. Looked like I was the third track on that trail all day.
S88 from Headquarters back to the tail end of Cedar River Road was awesome: a firm base with about 2-3 inches of wet snow on it. A fun ride for sure, but you can easily slide where you don’t want to go if you ride it too fast.
Headquarters to the S-turns featured the usual long wave, low amplitude rollers. The rollers became more pronounced and frequent from the S-turns to Silver Run.
Silver Run to the Big-T was by no means perfectly smooth. But it offered a much better cruise than what I had left behind. It was rainy and foggy, so it wasn’t about getting from one side of the flats to another in a big hurry.
Seeing that absolutely nobody was out this evening near my vicinity, I thought it was a smart idea to turn tail and head back toward Indian Lake. When I got back to Headquarters, I ran S88 to the end of Cedar River Road and back. I just HAD to hit that again. Who knows whether I’ll make it back there this season? 😉
Got back to Indian Lake well after dark, but had enough in me to take the victory lap through 42nd and Broadway, Little Canada and Ski Hut trail. All were great. Ski Hut trail was perhaps amongst the best I’ve ever seen it. The back side of Benton Road was very slippery with water on top of ice.
My token lake for the evening was Lake Adirondack. I stuck to the well packed down drag strip and even that felt a bit soft. Needless to say, I didn’t let off the gas until I got to the other side.
Rolled back to the compound around 10PM with over 80 miles. My gear kept me mostly dry, but I seriously need to upgrade my mittens and boots because they are shot!
Here are some pictures I shot along the way this evening:
Weekend Outlook:
Too bad we couldn’t continue the mid-winter magic into the last weekend of March, but what a run we’ve had! Snow pack is still easily 1-3 FEET in the woods and the trails still hold a great base. If you want to get your last licks this weekend, go for it! Saturday will be a great mashed potato day, but without the rain that pelted me all Friday evening.
The needle is pointing more toward a significant late winter/early spring snow event for overnight Saturday night into Sunday morning. With temperatures hovering around 32*F for the meat of the storm, forecasting snowfall amounts will be tricky. But the way the second half of this winter has gone, I’d be betting we’ll score some snow with this and gives the diehards a little boost going into April.
The lakes have over 2 feet of ice on them, but you’d be wise to stay away from the inlets and outlets. Your best bet is to stay on the well-packed drag strips to avoid the worst slush. If you feel it getting soft under you, don’t let off the gas cause getting stuck in slush really SUCKS!
Darrin @ ilsnow.com
