Update 2/9/15: It took the better part of three days, but Indian Lake picked up around 9 inches of snow while Speculator/Route 8 area picked up a bit over a foot.
Total snow pack is a robust 18-30 inches. The snow bowls in southwestern Hamilton County may hold over 3 feet of snow!
Ride Report 2/8/15: I have somewhat of a family tradition: After the weekend crowds have dispersed, I take the kids riding to pick on the leftovers.
It was too cold for Little Miss ilsnow, so it was just ilsnow jr with me this afternoon.
What I encountered surprised me a bit: Far be it from the leftover typical late weekend shred, the trail conditions were actually pretty darned good. Freshly groomed trails and relatively light traffic today made for a great ride! I think a lot of people rode closer to home.
The inner village trails were showing some snirt and corner scuff, but the bumps were low and soft. The periphery trails like S87/42nd and Broadway, S85/Ski Hut trail, and S86A/Little Canada were awesome! C8/Sabael trail was in good shape aside from some snirt and corner scuff.
For a longer ride, we took S84 out to Rock Lake Marsh. Aside from some light corner scuff, that was a smooth and plushy ride. Looked great at the marsh:
The only annoying thing about the ride with the constant freezing drizzle. In this picture, you can see the coating of ice on ilsnow jr’s jacket. It’s supposed to be deep blue:
You can see my helmet shield by the time we got back to town and stopped at the One Stop:
With my “Top Gun” helmet, I’m fine without a heated shield 99% of the time. This was the 1% of the time I would have loved to have one! At that rate of icing, the visor becomes useless and I have have to prop it up to see. Then my face gets cold and I get snow pellets bouncing on my eyes which was somewhat painful. Our jackets felt stiff and almost ready to shatter with the coating of ice on them.
After we melted the ice off the helmets and dried them out, the precipitation changed back to light snow and we took the fabled “victory lap around town” to double up on all the awesome stuff after dusk before calling it a ride.
Only spun off about 30 miles, but that wasn’t the name of the game. It was just to have fun family time, which is one of the awesome things about living here. No trailer miles, all fun. Can’t shake a stick at that!
Midweek Outlook:
I can’t say anything other than “GREAT!” We’re in mid-winter prime. The groomers should be able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, not like he was in terrible shape over the weekend. It might take a few passes of the groomer to iron out the rollers on the Indian Lake side of Moose River Plains. But I haven’t heard any reports from out there.
New snow as of Sunday PM was 4-5 inches around Indian Lake before the freezing drizzle. There could be another 3-6 inches of snow Sunday night through Monday. I’ll let you know what we finally get. Overall snow pack is greater than 2 feet “in the woods.”
Snocade 2015
Don’t forget our 2nd Annual Snocade, which gets underway next weekend and lasts through Presidents’ week. Check out all the details here.
With the cold air locked in place, keeping all of our snow, we’ve got 2 great rides coming up for Snocade 2015:
Guided Snowmobile Tour to Speculator: Tuesday, February 17; Meet 10AM at Town parking lot between Town garage and Little League ball field on Benton Road. Stopping at Acorn Pub and Eatery at Oak Mountain for lunch. Family friendly ride. Sponsored by the Indian Lake Chamber of Commerce. We may meet up with riders from the Adirondacks Speculator Regional Chamber of Commerce. Email me at ilsnowcom@gmail.com if interested. Note: Lake riding is required on this trip.
Guided Snowmobile Tour to Newcomb: Thursday, February 19; Meet 9AM at Town parking lot between Town garage and Little League ball field on Benton Road. Stopping at High Peaks Kitchen for lunch. Family friendly ride. Email me at ilsnowcom@gmail.com if interested.
You’re invited to join us for these rides. Group rides of larger sizes tend to be slower paced and that’s fine with me. I’m just looking to ride with some new people and have a little fun out there.
Have a good one. Look’s like winter has got plenty left in the tank!
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
