When the grass was poking through the snow on Christmas day here, I was dreaming about this kind of ride. The kind of ride where the Adirondacks are pretty much my oyster.
Crazy Cal blew off work today and invited me to join him. Wait…maybe it was my day off and I invited Cal to blow off work. Either way, here it goes!
We started our ride from the compound just after 7AM and it was minus 2*F. Sounds warm compared to recent mornings, but it would have been nice to start the ride with a positive integer above zero.
C8 out to Cedar River Headquarters was nearly board flat and quite hard packed. Cal’s sled wasn’t getting quite enough cooling snow and overheated once along the way.
After waiting a few minutes, we pressed on and his sled would not overheat the rest of the day. Moose River Plains from Headquarters to Silver Run had plenty of the leftover long-wave, low amplitude rollers that it’s “famous” for. The Inlet side past Silver Hill was magnificent. The Big-T flats were especially awesome!
The Inlet loop trails enroute to the Ole Barn were nearly flawless, incredible riding through there. Ole Barn to Gilbert Road had the hint-o-snirt throughout but was groomed flat. Inlet village was the usual snirt and slick.
Sidewalk trail in Inlet was snirt and loose chop before the groomers got to it later in the day. Eagle Bay was snirt and chop. After Cal stopped at Big Moose Yamaha to look for a fuse for his back up 12V heated helmet shield adapter, we pressed on.
Trail 5 was snirt and shredder bumps. The applause from the carbides clapping on Rondaxe Road was nearly deafening, but at least the cocoa powder was enough to keep the sliders and heat exchangers happy. Past Rondaxe Road, Trail 5 became a pretty nice ride into Old Forge. After Cal struck out again looking for his fuse at Napa, we moved on with our plan to make a run over to Brantingham.
Trail 1 was actually in nice shape most of the way from bottom to top with little scratch. The 6.5 miles of “Brantingham Trail” was almost sinfully good! We were riding in a mini blizzard through there. Lots of powder swirling around the board flat trails. Can’t beat that…
C7B/Ten Mile Road was mostly flat, but surprisingly thin. The straights were a blast! The 4.5 miles of plowed logging road had enough fresh snow on it to permit an easy passage but the road was quite icy underneath. The couple of miles of C7B leading to Kovach’s was its usual nice narrow ride through the trees.
Partridgeville Road had enough snow coverage to make it down to Pine Tree Inn for lunch. It’s definitely a worthwhile stop and we got there just before the lunch rush!
On the return trip back to Old Forge, I lead Cal through C8G over to C8A/Confusion Flats to cut the road riding. As usual, that did not disappoint. It was a nice ride all the way through Stony Lake. The final mile or so to the junction with Ten Mile Road had a few lumps, but not too bad.
Once we got back to Old Forge, I took Cal over to Elsie Lookout via Trail 7, which was very nice. We eventually pecked our way out of Old Forge. Trails 3 and 9 were outstanding, as usual!
We dropped down to 4th Lake via Daikers to escape Trail 5. That lake rode fast with a wide and flat drag strip. Limeklin Road had enough snow on it to connect over to EZ Mart for gas, but the strong late winter sun was starting to eat at it.
Instead of just going back through the Plains to get home, we decided to loop through Raquette Lake-Long Lake-Newcomb and make a “mega ride” out of it.
The Inlet loop trails were again outstanding enroute to 7th Lake. 8th Lake Campsites were somewhat rough, but mercifully short. S81C off 8th Lake was its usual trail of tears. I just stood up and surfed the cheese grater. C8/Browns Tract Road was an outstanding ride into Raquette Lake.
The Raquette Lake crossing was a bit hairy with the wind blowing the snow into such a frenzy, it looked like misty fog. It would have been scary to have an oncoming sled appear out of the “fog”. It was also very windy on Forked Lake, but the wind was at our back.
North Point Road from Forked Lake into Long Lake had oodles of snow coverage. S80 through the power lines was a really nice ride. But then we got herded into a horribly bumpy goat path masquerading as a snowmobile trail. I managed to lead us back to the former Quackenbush’s Long View Lodge and down onto Long Lake.
Long Lake was another windswept crossing. Since I’m not that familiar with Long Lake, I had to hunt and peck a bit to make my way through the Route 30 crossing.
We ran the bumpy ice hill off Long Lake to hit Tarbell Road, which had decent snow coverage but was very scratchy. C7B was a great ride for most of the way over to Newcomb.
And then, the home stretch of this mega miler: C8B, 538/Newcomb trail, S84/Blue Mountain trail and S87/42nd and Broadway combined for a blissful ride back to Indian Lake!
The Snowarrior’s Tucker groomer was still broken down on 538/Newcomb trail this evening. It’s taped off well and there is a good divert around it. Snowarriors expect to have it up and going at some point tomorrow:
After a quick refuel at the One Stop for the next adventure, I got back to the compound with 228 miles for the day just before 7PM. Having that Newcomb trail opens up nice loop opportunities. I don’t know Long Lake well, so I’d like to take a ride over there and explore it for the day instead of just passing through on a big loop.
Bottom line:
Winter is large, in charge and going nowhere fast. Snow cover is mostly in the 18-30 inch range with the deeper spots upwards of 3+ feet deep. We had prime riding with very few garbage miles.
Come and get it! You can always work, but winter doesn’t last forever…
I’m pretty sure Cal did not regret blowing off work today. 😉
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
