We trucked my sled over to Old Forge and rented a 600 ACE from RPM Snowmobile Rentals.
On the trip over, I had noticed that Trail 5 was looking really good along Route 28, so we headed over to Inlet to hit Moose River Plains. It was indeed good-to-great riding all the way over. Trails 6 & 7 were a bit sub-par from their usual standards, but not bad at all.
Most of the Inlet Loop trails were great riding, although the one that went “over the top” from 7th Lake was thin in spots with a couple of slight water hazards. The thaw had hit that trail hard.
Moose River Plains was good to excellent riding all the way back to Silver Run. There were some thin areas the first couple of miles in.
Darrin Jr thought that Red River dead-ender was great!
At Silver Run, we turned around and headed back toward Old Forge. We hit Daikers for lunch and it didn’t disappoint. The open fireplace is one of my favorite things there:
No sign of Team D&D, Jimmy Hoffa or Elvis. So we moved on after lunch. Trail 5 was getting fairly shredded by early afternoon with surprising bursts of moderate to heavy traffic.
We looped around the Old Forge trails and made the run up to Big Moose. Trails 1 and 2 heading that way were nice rides overall, but there were thin spots and a couple of loose rocks on the trail. The thaw had definitely taken a toll on those trails.
Then we were sure to hit Elsie’s Lookout and Pete’s Peak before looping around the Old Forge trails and hitting a few trails I don’t normally hit.
Town of Webb was able to push the ice chunks to the side and re-open Trail 1 by the North Street bridge. It’s icy and a bit rough, but easily passable now.
We made it back to RPM Snowmobile Rentals with 132 miles spun off. Aside from a few rough trails, it was one of the easier 132 miles I’ve spun off. I didn’t fully earn my stripes by doing C8 from Indian Lake village to Cedar River Headquarters. 😉
Any saddle time on a snowmobile is great. But this was a special ride. It’s amazing to see how far along my son has gone since his first ride on the trails after taking his safety course at age 10:
There’s nothing like riding with your kids. And yes, Darrin Jr will always be my kid, even though he can probably kick my tail without much effort. 🙂
Bottom line
Last week’s thaw hurt us, but we’re still ridin’!
I think my Old Forge binge-a-thon is done. So I’ll be doing local recon Thursday with a visit to my friendly neighbors to the south. 😉
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.
