Moose River Plains:
Crazy Cal stopped at my workplace on Saturday, desperate to have somebody ride with him through Moose River Plains. Since I hadn’t had a “real ride” yet this year, I reluctantly agreed to ride Saturday evening.
There was enough skank along the side of the road to make it from the Brown’s Farm parking lot to the trailhead.
The conditions were about what I had expected with temperatures in the mid-30s, weekend traffic and low snow conditions: Thin and chippy.
We were clipping the carbides pretty regularly. The roughest/bumpiest part of the ride was between Cedar River Headquarters and Silver Run.
Limekiln Road had a decent shelf to ride on. The trail from Ole Barn to downtown Inlet was groomed and the shelf on Gilbert Road was probably the best stretch we hit all evening.
We stopped at Screamen Eagle for wings. If you like them prepared with crispy skin, this is definitely the place to get your wings:
Our favorites are the Peanut Butter Panic wings. But I wanted to try the Garlic wings this time. So we ordered a plate of each and shared. The garlic wings were good enough for me to order again at a future stop.
On the way back, the stretch between Silver Run and Headquarters seemed even rougher (which always seems to the way on the return trip). Although there had been a fair amount of traffic on Saturday, it had died down significantly by the evening. We saw maybe 12-13 sleds the whole evening and we were the only snowmobilers at Screamen Eagle whilst we were there.
Conditions were mediocre at best. But hey, I got out there for the first time this year. Now, I await better game…
Sunday:
The rain came and temperatures did get into the 40s. Everything is waterlogged, but there is still a thin remnant base that will freeze up on Monday as the cold air rushes back in. So, we’re not really starting back from square one. With all of that sleet in the snow pack, I knew we weren’t going to lose it all.
Midweek Outlook:
January 11 UPDATE: Lake effect snows hit the Route 28 corridor, so you should be greeted with at least 6-12 inches of new snow as you traverse Moose River Plains into Inlet/Old Forge.
The Route 8 corridor got very little snow on Monday, so Perkins Clearing and Powley Road will have to get their snow Tuesday into Tuesday night as a strong clipper moves through the area.
The western Adirondacks could get back on the board pretty quickly with a lake effect snow-event for Monday, a clipper-type system for Tuesday and more lake-effect snow Tuesday night into Wednesday.
The NAM shows fairly robust snow accumulation totaling a foot-plus for the western Adirondacks for the combined events through Wednesday:
If this the ends up being close to correct, Moose River Plains and Perking Clearing would be put back into play quickly this week.
Unfortunately, the narrow woods trails around Indian Lake and Speculator would still need much more snow to make for good riding. But at least we’d be taking another step in the right direction.
If you’re looking to ride this week, I’d say the smartest play would be to see what kind of snow we get by Wednesday morning. This would also allow the wet spots to drain and freeze up a bit as well.
Here is one of my favorite all-in-one webcam resources to “spy” the snow in the Adirondacks:
http://hamiltoncountychoppers.com/hcc/SnowCam.html
It looks as though we may be over the hump of our early winter blues. So, what ever snow we get this week will be sticking around for a while.
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
