Update 1/18/17: Indian Lake to Speculator/Wells area along the Route 30 corridor and points east picked up one to one-and-a-half inches of snow, sleet and freezing rain mix.
Back into the western Adirondacks, like Inlet, Old Forge, etc there was much more freezing rain with little snow to show for it.
At least for my neck of the woods, we have a layer of mash for traction and to keep the heat exchangers happy. Just some recon, in-case you’re looking to sneak in a mid-weeker.
Report 1/13/17
Well, the thaw did what it was supposed to do: melt some snow and turn everything to hard pack or ice once the cold rolled back into town for Friday.
Temperatures got well into the 40s on Thursday, which was bad enough. But at least we scored less than a half-inch of rain out of the whole ordeal, which minimized damage somewhat.
Leftover snow pack around Indian Lake is upwards a foot-plus in protected areas. The exposed spots hold 6 inches or less with a few bald spots.
Here is a “big picture look” at the remnant snow pack:
It’s not pretty, but at least we’re still standing for now.
Weekend Outlook:
Lakes are glare ice now.
Snowmobile trails are very hard-packed and/or icy and that’s not going to change much this weekend. Perhaps the weekend traffic could churn the trail surface into a thin layer of loose granular in places, but turns would remain extremely icy.
There are some indications for light snow later Saturday night into Sunday morning, but I wouldn’t expect much help from that.
Bottom line:
I’m not going to tell you that snowmobile riding is impossible. In fact, I did see a snowmobile heading to the Route 30 One Stop on my way to work Friday morning.
But I can tell you that studded tracks and ice scratchers would be your best friend this weekend with no meaningful snow in sight. If you’re really careful and set reasonable expectations based on marginal/icy conditions, you can do OK. If you expect to rip off a 150-200 miler like you did last weekend without studs and/or ice scratchers, you’ll end up overheating your snowmobile, smoking your slides and perhaps smack into a tree.
I’ll let you decide on what you’d like to do. I got my kicks on Wednesday and will probably sit on the pine until we get the next snow or get desperate. Hopefully, the former rather than the later. 🙂
Extended Outlook
Despite the hard blow we took on Thursday that knocked winter to the canvas for a standing-eight count and little to be excited about for the next 1-2 weeks, I’m not punking out yet. There is good reason to believe that late January into February could bring us back to good for the second stanza of winter.
You can check out my Youtube video here:
Down but not out! ilsnow.com storm center 1/12/17
Purple Ribbon Ride
If you live in Progressive Motorsports Country, place the 9th Annual Purple Ribbon Cancer Ride on your schedule for February 11, 2017. It’s for a great cause and on a personal level, my mother is a 30+ year survivor of breast cancer. And she dealt with that while being a single mom providing for her three children.
So check out the flyer below for all of the appropriate details and go to purpleribboncancerride.com
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
This report is brought to you by Pilot Knob Marina in Lake George. Just get off Northway I-87 Exit 20, then follow NY Route 149 East until you hit the junction of NY Route 149 and Bay Road. Pilot Knob Marina features a wide selection of new and pre-owned Arctic Cat snowmobiles & ATVs. If you see Nick Barber, tell him that Darrin @ ilsnow.com sent ya!
