Wednesday was the last day of my “weekend” and Crazy Cal blew off work. So we were looking to RIDE, RIDE, RIDE!
Temperature around ride time was about 7*F. Heading out of Indian Lake, S84 out toward Blue Mountain Lake was being groomed and in great riding shape.
538/Newcomb trail had a fresh groom and was awesome from bottom to top, perhaps even better than we had found it Tuesday PM.
It was nearly board flat all the way through:
C7B over to Long Lake was also freshly groomed and was about a good a ride as I’ve had through that trail. The logging section had solid ice base with enough loose snow to get by.
Tarbell Hill Road was somewhat painful to get down to the lake without a good shelved snowbank to ride on. The strong March sun left it bare in sections.
Long Lake itself was a smooth rip, with the usual areas of slush that prompted me to keep a decent handful of throttle, just in case…
Had a late breakfast at Long Lake Diner and I ordered the meat-lovers omelet, with sour dough toast, home fries and the short stack of French toast:
Their breakfast never disappoints. 🙂
On to Raquette Lake
North Point Road had a good shelved bank, which was needed because that road was going bald in places. The road down to Forked Lake was a roller-rama, but not as bad as I’ve seen it.
Forked Lake crossing had the usual slushy spots that prompted me to keep a decent handful of throttle, just in case…
Trail from North Point Road down to Raquette Lake was brutally rough.
Raquette Lake was a smooth crossing and I only recall a couple of small slushy spots near the north end.
Over to Inlet
Browns Tract Road was its usual awesome rush. S81C to 8th Lake was brutally rough, although the lake was a smooth crossing.
8th Lake Campsite had plenty of rollers, but wasn’t abysmal either. 7th Lake had the usual stump alleys and creek openings on the east end, but was another good lake crossing otherwise.
Trail from 7th Lake House toward Inlet was rough in places. But the riding got good once we got into the loop system and we had a nice ride over the top to Moose River Plains.
Moose River Plains to Indian Lake
Aside from the usual snirt closer to the Limekiln Gate end, the Inlet side was its usual fast and fun riding.
Here’s Cal staring down the barrel of Big-T flats:
As we crossed Silver Run into the Indian Lake side of things, we encountered long-wave, low amplitude rollers. Wasn’t bad riding, but definitely a grade below what was on the Inlet side.
C8 from Headquarters back to Indian Lake had been well groomed today, but the day’s traffic was starting to give it shredder-bumps in places by afternoon. We encountered plenty of snowmobile traffic on that trail.
Part 2, Speculator
After we got back to Indian Lake and refilled on gas, we headed back to Cal’s house to take a short rest before the remainder of today’s ride.
C8/Sabael trail was a really nice riding heading southward. Indian Lake and Lewey Lakes were good crossings. The Campsites were ABSOLUTELY BRUTAL.
2 Miles of Hell was bumpy, but not quite living up to its name yet. Perkins Clearing had some bumps from the day’s traffic but was still a decent to good ride in most places.
Pig Rock/Whitaker Lake trail and LP10/Wolf Hill trail was an absolutely gorgeous ride down into the Speculator Tree Farm, both in terms of riding conditions AND the mountain scenery. I just LOVE that stretch.
S41D through Elm Lake Road, Long Level Road and Fly Creek Road was as good as I have encountered it this winter.
C4 though Old Route 30, Cave Hill Road and toward Speculator was mostly good ride, with only some occasional studder-bump.
Got to the Mountain Market at quarter-after-seven p.m. and it was still light out with a temperature around 32*F. It felt NICE! We both got their Philly cheese-steak because it was so good yesterday too…
Back home
DRAG of Speculator was out grooming LP3/C4 up toward Perkins Clearing, so that was an awesome ride from bottom to top!
Southern Perkins Bypass trail was loaded with soft studderbumps. Then we ran the clockwise loop through Perkins Clearing before jetting back up to Indian Lake.
And that 2 Miles from Hell was starting to live up to its old reputation by Wednesday night. After another dance with the devil through the campsites, we said goodbye to the bumps and had a fun rip back up Indian Lake and into town.
As you can guess, we did some miles today:
I think that’s the first time I did the Long Lake loop and ran down to Speculator in the same trip. A lot of the riding was good to excellent, but I did catch myself typing “BRUTAL” a few times in this report as well.
Lots of people had the same idea and rode Wednesday. Enough traffic and bumps to call it WEEKEND LITE.
My “weekend” is over and I chug back to work with the satisfaction of getting in a whole lot of fun riding in two and a half days, over 410 miles.
Not like I get wrapped up in mileage totals. I ride as long as it’s fun, whether that’s 50 miles or 200. But the higher mileage indicates plenty of good riding to be had.
Weekend Outlook
Warmth over the next 2 days is going to stink. But with virtually no rain expected on Thursday and well under an inch of rain for Friday, I don’t foresee the creeks opening up and washing the trails out.
But I would expect the lakes to become slushy and lose their snow before the weekend.
Another positive heading into the weekend is that Friday night won’t get cold enough to freeze everything into a brick. We could even get enough snow on Saturday to whiten things back up a bit as well.
Not a “lost cause” by any means, but I was glad to hit the trails this week.
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
This report is brought to you by Prospect Point Cottages on Blue Mountain Lake. If you are looking for a quiet and scenic winter getaway, this place is for you with fireplaces, free hot brunch and snowshoes provided. The wintry view of Blue Mountain from across the lake is nothing short of amazing with a fresh mantle of snow!
