Wednesday started cloudy and cold with the Parks and Recs groomers making their rounds.
Snow cover in the exposed roadside areas in town was 6 inches or less with bald spots growing. But snow pack “in the woods” was still upwards of 1-2+ feet.
Indian Lake village trails were snirty with some dirty corners, but groomed flat:
Heading out
C8 out to Headquarters was being groomed nice and flat! There were some snirty stretches and dirty corners, but a lot of the ride looked like this:
Honestly, it was about as good as I’ve seen that trail in early spring without a fresh covering of snow!
Moose River Plains
Getting out to Headquarters was a breeze and I saw fresh groomer marks going out:
For a cheap thrill, I ran S-88 from Headquarters to the end of Cedar River Road. It was absolutely AMAZING!!
Then I backtracked into Moose River Plains. The stretch from Cedar River Headquarters to Silver Run was loaded with moderate to occasionally slight rollers. The grooming was chopping the tops off the bumps, but not much else.
The Inlet side of Moose River Plains was phenomenal with the Big-T flats being an incredible rush. 🙂 The trail base did thin out as I approached Limekiln Road.
Inlet
The Inlet trail splitting off Moose River Plains was groomed, but thin going up the hill with some rocks poking through. But the remainder of the Inlet loop trails were terrific! Can’t remember that last time I’ve had a BAD ride in there.
Ole Barn to Gilbert Road was snirty, but flat. There were some skunky spots as I was entering the woods after Chip’s Track.
Gilbert Road was passable, but I had to hump the snowbank in places.
Inlet village square was grizzly:
Sidewalk trail from Inlet toward Eagle Bay was grubby. So I took a look at 4th Lake. The drag strip seemed solid, so I ripped it across. I don’t recall the last time I had seen so much blown belt debris on a lake. There must have been at least several snowmobiles that had smoked their belts out there last weekend.
The open water in front of Daikers had frozen back up with the subzero mornings. But getting off the lake was a painful dirt ride up the hill.
End of the road
Got up on Trail 5 and I didn’t get far before it got really skanky:
As bad as that looked, it got even worse before I decided not to bother with it any further.
After I parked to the side to ponder what I’d do with the rest of my ride, several snowmobilers passed me. I heard continual carbide clank, bouncing springs and pebbles bouncing in the tunnels.
I’m sure there was good riding to be had in Old Forge once I could get off Trail 5. But whatever was there probably was not worth incurring that kind of sled abuse, especially since I could double back and hit the Inlet loop trails and Moose River Plains.
The way back
I meandered through the dead-enders and Bear Pond Trailhead loop on my way back through Moose River Plains.
It was nice to see white again:
I even made it back to a place “off the grid” where I don’t get to every year. In fact, I hadn’t been back there in several years. It’s a place where the only thing I hear is the wind gently whistling through the pine trees. When my time on earth is done, I would love to hear that wind blowing through the pines on my death-bed on my way out of here. I could have died in that place today and been at perfect peace with that.
After a half-hour in that amazing place, I moved on…
On the way back, I was sure to hit S-88 down to Cedar River Road and back for another cheap thrill.
C8 from Headquarters back to Indian Lake was holding up very well most of the way back, aside from the dirty corners. But some of the exposed areas from Deer Valley back to Indian Lake village were showing more of this:
Here was a little video that I shot once I got back into town, describing what I had encountered to that point:
The road crossing area from Route 28/30 down to Bear Trap Swamp had gotten skunky in places when I rolled back into town late afternoon.
Crow Hill Road Shelf was holding up OK, but there was some unavoidable dirt riding near the roadside.
The trail running toward the Route 30 One Stop and into town was starting to get bald off Crow Hill Road:
Out to Blue Mountain
S86/Little Canada had some small bald spots between Route 30 One Stop and Sawmill Road, but was nearly mint enroute to Lone Birch.
I zipped across Adirondack Lake and hit S87/42nd and Broadway, which was still in great riding shape. I had to hump the snowbank on Benton Road to make the connection to S84.
S84 leaving town had a few large skunky swaths on the way out of town. But once I got over the top, it was a beautiful early spring ride all the way up to the intersection with 538/Newcomb trail…nearly board flat!
538/Newcomb trail was HORRIBLY ROUGH from the get-go, so I didn’t waste more than 30 seconds on that trail. S84 out to Lake Durant wasn’t as smooth as the previous 6-7 miles, but still a pretty nice ride.
After zipping back and forth across Lake Durant, which had some fairly deep powder, I called it a day and headed for home.
Rolled into the compound with 170+ miles for the day. It didn’t feel like that much because a lot of it was easy riding. 🙂
Bottom line
Trail conditions on the heavily-used arteries in town are degrading day-by-day. Even with an overcast sky, the March sun was able to bump the temperature up to 40*F Wednesday afternoon after starting in the single digits. But some places can fool you into believing that it’s still mid-winter, if only in spots.
I think the Indian Lake village trails can hold into Saturday for one more weekend of “real riding” where you can make the connections for food and gas. But you will have to ride over some skank to make it there.
It would have been nice to pick up a half-foot of snow before the weekend, but that’s not happening. But if you come up here for that last ride, I think you’ll be able to do some miles and enjoy it.
Come and get it, because the wait for next season is always too long! Savor the ride. 🙂
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.
