Update 3/8/18
Indian Lake hunted, pecked and clawed our way to 4 inches of fresh snow as of Thursday morning.
Best ride would be to trailer to Browns Farm at the end of Cedar River Road thence ride into Moose River Plains and Inlet/Old Forge from there…that has been groomed this week. Perkins Clearing also another solid bet.
I will summon up my best motivation to scout out the Indian Lake village trails today.
For the second time in less than a week, a storm dumped big snow on places NOT in ilsnow land. We brought the horse to the pond twice, but it wouldn’t drink here.
Report 3/4/18
Indian Lake Snowarriors President Ed Lascala stopped by my work place Sunday morning. He had transported a group of 3 snowshoe hikers and their gear to the trailhead of Pillsbury Mountain by snowmobile to help them complete their quest to scale 100 Adirondack peaks this winter!
Ed had left one snowmobile at Sled Harbor and kept two other snowmobiles on his trailer. He came to invite me to ride one of the snowmobiles in to help pick up the hikers after they got back.
I figured: Hey, why not? It’s a free ride, whatever I get will be bonus and I can scope out some trail conditions. So after work, I went home and got my gear, then ran over to Camp Lascala on Jerry Savarie Road to jump in his truck and head down to Mason Lake Parking lot.
Perkins Clearing
So this 570 Z was my ride into Perkins Clearing:
Gotta say this ol’ girl still has some hop. But I felt I was sitting a foot and a half lower than I usually ride, lol!
The trail conditions in Perkins Clearing to down the T-intersection and over to Sled Harbor were somewhat shredded. But the bumps weren’t that terribly bad…even with that low-travel suspension. Only a few true whoppers along the way.
There was a Lake Pleasant groomer apparently down for the count on the side of the trail about a mile in.
We arrived at Sled Harbor to see our hiker friends waiting at the Yamaha that Ed had left. After some chit-chatting, they started loading their gear into the tow sled:
This crew was totally cool and really appreciated the length that Ed went to help them out. They also use ilsnow.com to gauge snow conditions in advance of their hikes. 🙂
I was more than happy to pose with the crew:
We all loaded up on the 3 snowmobiles and transported our new friends back to their car parked at Mason Lake parking lot.
The Real Adventure Begins!
Ed felt a little bad about dragging me out such a short ride, although I wasn’t disappointed at all. Was just happy to get out. He offered to let me take one of his sleds and run it back to Indian Lake to tack on some miles. I was slightly hesitant to run Indian Lake. But, it wasn’t dark yet and it wasn’t snowing hard enough to hamper visibility. And, the chance to gather more riding intel. So I said, “Sure, I’ll go for it!”
I opted to take the Yamaha because of the better suspension. Going down through the 2 Miles from Hell was bumpy, but was far from the worst I had seen it. There were a couple of large fallen trees that had been cut and removed by the Town of Lake Pleasant crew. The worst part was a couple of nasty washouts at the lower end that I had to ford.
When I saw Ed’s truck and trailer pass me by on the lower end of 2 miles from Hell, I figured “the race” was on. The plan was for me to meet Ed’s truck at the end of Jerry Savarie Road so we could load his sled on the trailer then take me back to my car.
Lewey Lake was incredibly smooth and fast, almost about as good as I could experience a lake. The campsites were the usual washboard junk. I dumped on to Indian Lake, sure to avoid the large area of open water near the boat launch.
The south end of Indian Lake was just like Lewey Lake. I’m not going to say how fast I was going. But I was humming along at a decent clip and the visibility was good as the snow had stopped.
Once I got mid-way to Sabael, there were some snow dunes and a few spots of glare ice. The slightly colder temperatures have seemed to button up the slush. I thought I was going to beat Ed to the meet spot with time to spare….
Then…
Boom!! The belt EXPLODED when I was passing offshore Griffin Road. Just like that, I was dead on the lake. So I searched for a spare belt and found none. Not like there was any room for a spare. The old belt was nothing but yarn and shredded rubber.
To my utter shock and delight, I had faint cell phone signal. Looks like the signal carries down the lake better than in the woods in Sabael. 🙂
Didn’t have Ed’s phone number. So I messaged his son Nick and told him that I needed his dad’s phone number NOW! Didn’t even tell him why at first.
Left voice mail and text for Ed. No response. His phone must had been off or out of range.
Figured my best course of action would be to sit there and wait for Ed to realize something had caused me to miss him at the meet point and the search would be on. I knew the ice was safe right where I was and I had dressed up well…so I wouldn’t be freezing to death. It wasn’t terribly cold, so I could sit out there all night if need be.
I was going back and forth with Nick for a while via messenger. After it started getting dark and no reply from Ed, Nick suggested that I call someone to run down to the end of Jerry Savarie Road to tell Ed that my sled was dead on the lake.
So I called Darrin Jr and instructed him to tell Ed about my plight.
The wind was blowing, it had started to snow again and it was dark. But the lights of Lakeshore Drive were probably less than a mile off. My fingers were getting cold using the phone, so I could only use it intermittently to maintain communication.
So I waited and waited for a while. I was probably out there for close to an hour. But of course, it seems longer when you’re out there alone. Gotta say it felt fairly peaceful.
Then I saw two snowmobiles heading slowly southward down the lake toward me. I fired up the Yamaha and rapidly flashed the brights on the lights to get their attention. It was Ed and Darrin Jr to the rescue!
Ed had brought a tow rope and the rescue commenced:
Then Ed dragged me up Indian Lake with Darrin Jr escorting to Camp Sabael, thence Jerry Savarie Road to Camp Lascala. It was much more of an adventure than I had bargained for, but it will give me a good story for years. 🙂
Bottom line:
Conditions are ride-able here… Just gotta pick our spots. Ed told me that Indian Lake did groom our side of Moose River Plains this weekend.
And I’ll fire my usual disclaimer: LAKES are at your own risk!
Be prepared when riding. You can never totally rule out some kind of breakdown… Phones are far from foolproof in ilsnow land, but you’ll be surprised where you can get a signal. Verizon is king of the castle around here. Always carry a spare belt…even if you have strap on a diaper bag to put it in.
Ed Lascala is an amazing ambassador for Indian Lake snowmobiling! Ed went out of his way to help a group of hikers on their way to accomplish an epic quest. Hey, I think they’re crazy. But guess what, some people think I’m crazy for banging out 200 mile snowmobile rides. We’re all out here to enjoy it, in the form that is most fun for the individual partaking in it.
Thanks Ed for the adventure! Although I’m sure you didn’t plan it quite like this.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed for Wednesday’s snow event so we can get something good out of March! 🙂
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.
