The lake effect snow guns came through, about as well as you can hope for around here.
I picked up almost 2 inches of snow at my house by Friday morning, but Indian Lake hamlet easily had 4+ inches of fresh snow when I drove over for errands.
Based on the webcams in the western Adirondacks, I would say that Moose River Plains probably got over 6 inches, easy. However, this new snow has no body and will blow away & settle very quickly. Your skis will hit whatever is under the new snow quite hard: ice, rocks, frozen mud, etc.
Here is a baseline for what the trails looked like around Indian Lake before the new snow:
And that was one of the better spots on the main drag.
Weekend Outlook:
Slim pickings: I’d say Perkins Clearing Road (from the south end) and Moose River Plains would be your “best” options. Running your sleds on the Speculator/Indian Lake local trails would be as close to sled abuse as you could get away with. Beware of icy/frozen dirt conditions under the new fluff.
Saturday night will bring a witches’ brew of snow, sleet and freezing rain. Morning rain on Sunday will diminish to showers and drizzle by afternoon. Hopefully, we’ll get enough snow in the mixture to sop up the the rain somewhat and solidify into concrete base when the freeze returns to town Sunday night.
Next week:
Cold is the word! There’s a good likelihood the western Adirondacks will get blessed with significant lake effect snows as well. That probably won’t do much for the immediate Indian Lake and Speculator area trails, but would freshen up Moose River Plains and Perkins Clearing nicely.
A word about lakes:
The lakes have made ice this week with the persistent cold. The smaller lakes are probably OK to ride. But give it time before you try to ride the bigger/deeper lakes. Piseco Lake was reported open in spots last weekend. With early season conditions, you need to think long and hard about whether you want to take the risk.
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
