The lake-effect snow guns delivered the goods! Snow pack is now 6-12+ inches in the central Adirondacks, then increases to 12-18+ inches as you traverse Moose River Plains into the western Adirondacks or head toward Powley Road & Morehouse in the southwestern Adirondacks.
Moose River Plains has been groomed this week and reported to be good riding. Your best course of action would be to trailer to Brown’s Farm parking lot near the end of Cedar River Road and start there. Just remember the $5 per sled and get there early!
As for the Indian Lake village trails: Yes, there is enough snow to ride them if you are patient and careful. The swampy ground is still eating away the snow from underneath and we still need more snow to bury the large rocks. I still wouldn’t recommend trying to ride out to Cedar River Headquarters via C8, unless you’re into 18 mile punishment.
Speculator Area
UPDATE 12/17/16: The north end of Perkins Clearing Road has been opened to snowmobiling. Mud Lake Road is still closed.
Speculator Tree Farm/Old Route 30 were reported to be in good riding shape this week. Getting to them via the “River Trail” or LP4A will be a bit tricky without an established deep frozen base, but it can be done. The notable closing in the Tree Farm is Elm Lake Road most of the way to Outhouse Corners.
I would say that Old Route 30 doesn’t look too shabby:
DRAG of Speculator plans to pack and pan the village trails this weekend with their lighter grooming equipment. This doesn’t mean the trails will be smooth and fun, but it will set the base for the season. Please watch out for the usual early season hazards such as water hole, rocks and fallen trees.
Powley Road has plenty of snow to ride it, so that’s another option for you.
STAY OFF THE LAKES! Yes, we’ve had some bitter cold recently, but most of the lakes only froze over a week ago. The snow does a great job of hiding thin ice.
Weekend Outlook:
Another storm will bring more snows for Saturday, changing to rain for Saturday night, then back to snow Sunday morning. Rain may get heavy for a time late Saturday night into early Sunday, so conditions will be soggy for the second half of the weekend.
My suggestion would be to hit the trails this weekend (especially today or Saturday), because our two-week period of cold and snow has about reached its end.
Taking a look at next weekend, it looks pretty grizzly:
That’s a set-up for a potentially game-wrecking rain event near or shortly after Christmas. Unfortunately, this fits into the two-step forward, one giant step back outlook I had for December. We’ll just have to slog through this, then reset our sights for resurgence in 2017.
Boreas Ponds
The deadline for submitting your comments in regards to Boreas Ponds classification is December 30, 2016.
If you didn’t attend an APA meeting or send your comments in yet, I’ve got you covered!
It will literally take you as short as 30 seconds to a minute to do this:
Click here to find a pre-written letter that you can send to Governor Cuomo and the APA. Once you reach the page, scroll down a bit to find the letter. You just need to enter your full name, email address, street address, city, state and zipcode then hit “Send it.”
Do this NOW, before you get on your sled again! It’s an easy way to tell the State that we want snowmobiling on this new piece of State land that already has logging roads on it and that we all paid for.
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
This report is brought to you by Adirondacks Speculator Region Chamber of Commerce. Speculator has long been one of my favorite places to ride! There are lots of options, whether you want to ride around Speculator for the day, or launch a 250 mile mega-miler. Speculator is loaded with businesses eager to cater to snowmobilers. Look them up at the Speculator Chamber and grab a copy of their snowmobile trail map. Be sure to tell them that Darrin @ ilsnow.com sent you.
