Darrin Jr and I launched in Speculator today. Snow conditions started soft, which eased any bumps.
Here is a summary of the conditions encountered:
Perkins Clearing: Great riding for the most part. Southerly exposures on Mud Lake Road showing some dirt. Carpenter Hill Road was mind blowing!
Big Brook: Pretty good ride, just a few bald spots. No significant water holes.
Fawn Lake: Very good ride.
LP 1/Page Street, Speculator interior trails: Passable, but getting skanky. Anything near a parking lot or road was dirt and water.
Speculator “River” Trail: Passable, but will be done if the river goes up another 6-12 inches.
Lake Pleasant – Sacandaga Lake – Oxbow Lake: Well traveled. Increasingly slushy as day went on, but no deep slush on the main drags.
Fish Mountain Trail: Groomed flat, but rocks starting to poke through in the woods. Several skanky stretches.
Spy Lake Trail: Flat, but rocks poking through in places. Getting skanky on exposed hills and tight turns. Jack’s Hill going bald. Trail won’t be passable much longer without incurring considerable sled abuse.
Powley Road: Great ride from top to bottom! Only one thin spot, no bald spots yet. Snow is really deep off trail.
S88/Piseco Lodge trail: Passable, but lumpy. Some large rocks poking through.
C4/Sheriff Lake: Fairly rough first couple miles, then improved toward Route 8.
C4A toward Evergreen Lake: CLOSED!
C4 though Morehouse: Good snow coverage, a few rocks poking through. Fairly lumpy until Rec Hall. Then pretty good riding after Rec Hall to Erb Road. Some rollers from Erb Road to Harryville, then pretty good again to Herkimer County Line.
C4C/Mosquito Hill: CLOSED! No tracks.
C4/Jones Road: Ungroomed. Had to skirt around several fallen trees. Did not press on to Gray-Wilmurt Road, which was nothing but dirt.
Oxbow Inn: Great lunch! 🙂
Bottom line:
We continue in slow-death mode here in ilsnow land. We’re inching to the point where you’ll need to dump directly onto Perkins Clearing, Old Route 30 or Powley Road for any appreciable riding in the Speculator area. Cold weather will staunch the daytime bleeding on Wednesday, but that could also make it difficult for enough loose material to work into the tunnel for cooling (and make the bumps hard!), until temperatures moderate somewhat by Thursday afternoon.
Weekend weather looks pretty miserable at this point…
I’ve got another ride or two left, but I’ll be phoning it in for winter pretty soon:
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.
