Update 1/6/17: My ride was good enough to try again after work.
Trail S84/Blue Mountain trail was even better than yesterday. Indian Lake Parks and Rec filled many of the remaining water holes up and groomed snow over them. But there are a few nasty ones that need some care to get through about a mile from the junction with the Newcomb trail.
Newcomb groomed their side of the trail today, meaning the trail is now a good ride from bottom to top. You can see what I mean here:
With temperatures crashing to near zero this evening, I didn’t have the ambition to make a run the Long Lake all by myself. I can say that if you hit Trail S84 thence Newcomb trail early this weekend, you’ll be in for a very good ride! 🙂
Ride Report 1/5/17
The snow guns were north of Indian Lake last night, so that’s where I pointed my snowmobile today.
Indian Lake village trails were icy hard and pretty flat with a half-inch to an inch of loose frozen granular snow and a skiff of powder for cooling.
Thankfully, it wasn’t warm enough, long enough earlier this week to melt the snow off the lakes, so Adirondack Lake was still a suitable crossing back to Trail S87/42nd and Broadway:
I hit up Trail S84 toward Blue Mountain. Aside from the stream crossings, it was a flat and nice ride with about 1-2 inches of fresh snow on top. The nastiest muck holes were about a mile from the junction with Trail 538/Newcomb. The groomers have worked to make it passable, but you need to really careful through there.
It’s a bit of a shame that the water/muck hazards are still out there because much of S84 looked like this:
Then I got to 538/Newcomb trail. The first 7 miles to the Essex County line was A+ riding! Board flat with a good 2+ inches of fresh powder on top and I was the second track on it, WOW! Indian Lake Snowarriors should rightly be proud of themselves for this masterpiece:
After I crossed the Essex County line, the 538/Newcomb trail was not anywhere near as good. It was fairly bumpy at times, but the fresh 2+ inches cushioned it somewhat. The Joseph Mountain climb had the usual small stream crossings.
Once I got to the T-intersection, Trail C8B toward Newcomb looked hard and very rough, so I didn’t bother going in that direction. So I went left to go over the Route 28N highway crossing to make a run at Long Lake.
Trail C7B had numerous wide and shallow stream crossings and was fairly rough for the first couple of miles. Then, the washouts diminished and the fresh snow got deeper and deeper. After several miles in, I was riding over 7-8 inches of fresh snow!
It got to the point where I took a wrong fork somewhere and hit a couple of dead ends. Without my GPS (which I left home) or “local muscle memory” I was certifiably lost in the maze of roads. There was that much snow to bury the tracks to the point I couldn’t tell which way to turn.
Here is looking back at my tracks:
With it getting after 3PM, I abandoned my plan to make it to Long Lake and doubled my way back toward home. I can’t vouch for snowmobiling conditions in Long Lake because I didn’t make it…but I can tell you they’ve got a lot of fresh snow up there.
On the way back, I hit S84 to hit the Old Stage Trail. Trail S84 had several significant water/muck hazards that the groomers have tried to make passable. After I crossed Route 28&30, the Lake Durant Campsite and Old Stage Trail stretch was a nice ride through the woods.
Then I zipped Lake Durant and headed for home.
After my customary victory lap around town, I got back to the compound with 82 miles spun off today. Overall, conditions were more hard and granular around town and more “pristine” as I gained latitude…went north. 😉
Weekend Outlook
What can I tell you? It’s another riding weekend here in ilsnow land…
Water/muck holes continue to be our main foe in the narrow woods trails. But the groomers are gradually closing them up. We really need it to stop raining once a week and have some bitter cold to close them up for good.
Even so…the riding I’ve encountered is better than anything I saw last winter. With my next trip, I’ll have more miles than I did all of last winter.
Speculator…I’m coming soon! Been too long…
Of course, check out snowmobile trail reports on the ilsnow.com forums.
And, if you’re in Indian Lake this weekend, join the Snowarriors at Byron Park on Saturday, January 7th starting 7pm:
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
This report is brought to you by Steet Ponte Auto Group. Many of the vehicles here in Indian Lake are bought from the Steet Ponte. Co-owner Joe Steet is a huge fan and booster of ilsnow.com. If you’re looking for a new truck, give Steet Ponte a good look.
