I woke up at 6am, intending to be on the trails by 7am. But temperatures in the -14*F to -18*F range compelled me to wait a bit until temperatures at least made a run to zero before I got out.
The groomers have been out in force around Indian Lake to iron out the Presidents Week bumps and I saw a pair of them headed out of town this morning before I started off.
C8 out to Cedar River Headquarters was better than I expected and LIGHT YEARS better than it was last week. Here was a fresh groom:
Moose River Plains into Inlet
Cedar River Headquarters to Silver Run wasn’t completely smooth, but the Presidents Week bumps were carpet-bombed sufficiently to make for an enjoyable ride through there.
Silver Run toward Limekiln Gate was a good ride, with some studder-ripple here and there. Of course, the final few miles were snirty and thinner.
Inlet Loop trails needed more snow in spots but was a nice flat ride through. Ole Barn to Gilbert Road was snirty with a bit of carbide clank.
Through Old Forge
From Inlet, I ran the Fulton Chain Lakes over to Hollywood Hills. The wind had blown the ice bare in spots, but there was adequate snow cover for the most part on the lakes.
Trail 4 and Trail 5 from Hollywood Hills into Old Forge was brown-ish but probably about as flat as I’ve seen that stretch.
Trail 1 and 17 over to 7 and 7a into Thendara was great riding, aside from maybe a few thin spots.
On to Fopo Land
From Thendara, I took C7/Railroad. Some of that was good riding, some had hard studders and there was some decent rail showing around McKeever. The worst of it was this bridge crossing:
Wasn’t sure what to do with this. So I ran the my track over the right two rails and crawled along to make sure my skis or spindles weren’t hitting the rail bolts. Nerve wracking, but I made it across without incident.
“RIP OUT THE RAILS!” I say…
Did see this cute little house on the way down:
After a gas and warm-up stop at Adirondack Grocery, I ran C7C/Brandy Lake trail which was one heck-uv-a nice ride:
C7E and thence C7 (off the tracks) was more beautiful riding down into Forestport. At this point, it was snowing pretty good and the roads were sufficiently coated to glide through town. Once I got to the town limits, I snapped this insta-post card:
C7 to Alder Creek was a fun rip! But the fun stopped once I crossed Route 12 and hit the Penn Mountain trails. It was rough and bumpy, so I only did that for a couple of miles then turned tail.
Part of me had wanted to attempt to stick out Penn Mountain and go for the complete loop through Ohio. But knowing that C4 heading toward Remsen was closed would mean that I’d have to run all the way down to Deerfield and then make the turn through Poland.
Also wasn’t crazy about the prospect of running lakes back to Indian Lake at night in the cold snowfall, all by myself. No matter what, I had the mega-miler in hand, so I made the decision to head back up to Forestport, where I knew the riding was great!
Back up
Once I got back up to Forestport, I ran C7B along the Canal Path toward Boonville. A lot of that was very nice riding. Then, I ran C7C to complete my Fopo loop. Lots of good riding through there. The only headache was crossing a fairly long steel grate bridge, which was like nails on a chalkboard to my carbides.
So, you can see my ride up to this point:
Saw a recent groom tracks on the Round Pond Trail, so I gave that a shot. That was a fun twisty ride through the woods. Did clip a couple of decent sized rocks through there. Also had to run about 2.5 miles of Moose River Road and that LOOOOONG Route 28 bridge crossing. Good thing for new carbides, I guess. But there was a good inch of snow on the road, so at least there was enough to keep my slides and heat exchangers happy enough to get by.
Trail 6 was a great ride back to Thendara and I was happy to avoid the rails (especially that rail bridge!)
Home stretch
Trail 9 and 5 were great ride over to Eagle Bay. Yes, I said Trail 5:
By the time I got to Inlet, the cold had finally gotten to me, so I had a pit stop at Screamen Eagle and had the honey mustard wings. I needed a pile of napkins to keep myself clean, but they were good eating!
The home stretch
Moose River Plains on the way back home was even better than it was in the morning. C8 from Headquarters back to Indian Lake was also very nice.
Didn’t need the victory loop around Indian Lake to hit the 200 mega-miler threshold, but I did rip S85/Ski Hut trail and S86/Little Canada, because I can. Here was my total at the compound:
Had a great ride and I really enjoyed Fopo land. Would love to hit it more often, but the rails really spook me, even if I can run Trail 6 to minimize my “rail exposure”
Got some more fun-and-gun planned for Thursday. We’ll see where I end up this time, and with who. 😉
If you can sneak up here for a mid-weeker, you won’t be sorry. Those Presidents Week bumps have been relegated to the ash-heap of history.
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
This report is brought to you by Progressive Motorsports, celebrating their 26th year. They live, eat and breathe snowmobiling. Stop in today and see for yourself! Be sure to tell Karen that Darrin @ ilsnow.com sent ya.
