I was able to spring the 4-TEC from Lemon Tree today after its annual pre-season service.
Figured since I was trucking my sled, I might as well haul it to a place to ride. Perkins Clearing had groomers stationed at both ends. But Perkins Clearing Road appeared to have most of the snow plowed off, even the north end.
So I decided to truck it to the Brown’s Farm near the end of Cedar River Road to start my riding season. And the beast was ready to go!
There’s nothing like hearing your sled idling for the first ride of the season. I was feeling really pumped at this point.
On we go!
The three-quarter mile of road was pretty painful on the carbides, but the inch of fresh snow kept it friendly for the heat exchangers. Trail S88 from the end of Cedar River Road to Headquarters was flat, but quite scratchy.
Conditions improved past Cedar River Headquarters and I saw Indian Lake Park and Rec tag-teaming the trail on their way back home. There was still some carbide scratching until I scaled the long hill. Then it looked like this:
The base was at its best on top of the hill. But as I descended elevation into the S-turns and over to Silver Run, I was scratching carbide again.
Past Silver Run
It was mostly flat riding, but very scratchy at times…although there was better base through the flats enroute to the Big-T. At this point, I decided not to bother scratching carbide all the way to Inlet.
So I would hit the 6.2 mile Big-T dead-ender and call it good. That was a pretty good ride with not much carbide scratch.
On my way back to the Brown’s Farm, I overtook the Inlet groomer before Silver Run. So I can tell you that Moose River Plains was groomed from end to end today.
Bottom Line
It was a low-key 43 mile ride, just to get my riding legs underneath me. Dang, it felt great! 🙂
If you don’t mind sacrificing some carbide on the Altar of Dagon, this ride checks off most of the boxes for a good early season ride. But the base is really thin and would really benefit from a 6-12 inch dump of good packing snow. Unfortunately, that is not on the docket for this week.
Snow cover ranges from 6-12 inches in Indian Lake to over a foot into Moose River Plains, which is probably the only thing worth riding around Indian Lake at the moment.
Lakes are frozen over, but I would NOT recommend riding them yet.
Outlook:
Tuesday will be mild-ish, but we’ll likely get some lake-effect snows Tuesday night as another shot of cold air comes down the pike.
Wednesday and Thursday will be cold enough to keep things firm. But unfortunately, we’ll be on the warm side of an upcoming storm Friday night into Saturday, with temperatures edging into the 40s along with annoying RAIN.
Seasonably colder air is expected to return later in the weekend, setting up the possibility of a Christmas snow or mixed precipitation event.
After Christmas? Cold!
The GEFS ensembles show nearly bottomless cold across North America after Christmas right through the end of 2017:
Canadian Clippers and lake-effect snows are a near-lock under this regime. Hopefully we can get the Christmas event to pan out for us and get a widespread snow event to emerge from the weeds by the New Year.
That’s it for now. If you get out and ride this week, you’ll probably encounter very little snowmobile traffic.
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!
