1/4/2017 AM Damage report: All things considering, not terrible. We did get nearly a half-inch of rain, but with temperatures in the lower to middle 30s throughout Tuesday’s event we didn’t lose much snow.
Then we got between a half-inch and an inch of wet snow late Tuesday night. Conditions are very soggy at present, but we’ll live to see the weekend…
Ride Report 1/2/2017
Ride day! The morning started off cold near zero, but the day warmed up nicely.
Had a little issue of my track being frozen stuck with all of the slush and powder that iced up in my skid after the last ride. After picking all that crap out with a hammer and plastic tent stake, I was off!
The Indian Lake inner village trails were freshly groomed and nice riding on the way out.
Besides the beastly roughness passing by the former Arctic Cat dealership, Trail C8 out to Cedar River Headquarters was in decent shape. Not totally smooth by any means, but it was a suitable pathway out of town. The groomers have been able to fill in most of the water hazards, but a few still exist. There were one small stretch where the trail is shared by loggers that was a bit skunky.
Moose River Plains was in decent shape from end-to-end. The Inlet side was smoother, but had more scratchy corners. The last couple of miles to the Limekiln Gate were clanking the carbides pretty regularly.
Here were the Big-T flats early Monday afternoon, good enough to make a grown man cry:
Limekiln Road had a suitable riding shelf along the edges. Ole Barn to Eagle Bay via Gilbert Road was snirts-ville.
Headed up Uncas Road to Raquette Lake. There was enough snow along the margins to get by the pavement. The dirt road portion had ice/packed snow base. Then the seasonal road was freshly groomed and simply awesome, easily the best riding today!
I turned tail back toward Inlet via Browns Tract Road, which was in nice shape. Trail S81C to Eighth Lake was actually pretty decent, the best I’ve seen it!
Eighth Lake Campsites was a pretty good ride. I crossed Eighth and Seventh Lakes without incident, but there was a spot or two along the way that looked iffy to me. Let’s say that I didn’t stop to look back.
From Seventh Lake, I hit the Inlet loop trails to hit the EZ-Mart for gas, then back to the Ole Barn for a late lunch. Most of that was good riding.
Then it was back home. Moose River Plains seemed to have more traffic scuff marks, bumps and icy turns late in the day. Trail C8 from Headquarters back to Indian Lake was scuffed up and bumpy in places, which make for a bit longer ride as the sun was going down.
Indian Lake village trails were still in good shape when I got back to town. I looped around S87/42nd and Broadway, Adirondack Lake and S86/Little Canada on my way back to the compound. All of that was nice riding.
All in all, not the best ride and certainly not the worst. Just a good solid 110 mile ride for “par.” I didn’t even get to have a ride like this last winter, so I was happy with what I encountered and considered today to be a win.
Outlook
Unfortunately, that four letter word is in the forecast for Tuesday and Tuesday night (R-A-I-N) which rhymes with pain. Snow pack is presently 12-18+ inches throughout the central Adirondacks with the southwestern Adirondacks holding up to 2+ feet. Temperatures will peak in the lower to middle 30s during the rain. So I’ll be optimistic and believe that our snow pack will be able to absorb most of the rain.
No widespread big snows are likely this week. But lake-effect snows later Wednesday into Thursday could freshen things back up before the weekend.
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
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