I actually tried this ride on Tuesday. Even with the strong late-March sun, the crusty snow was not breaking up in the woods or the lakes enough to keep the heat-exchangers happy, even with ice scratchers deployed.
In particular, Indian Lake was hard as a brick, even into the afternoon as temperatures didn’t even break 32*F. But you couldn’t argue against the beautiful blue sky:
As for the Indian Lake Village trails? The constant hard, low studders weren’t much fun to ride.
Much of the trails still had nearly 100% snow coverage, but the exposed spots were getting cooked:
Crow Hill Road shelf was still here, but under assault:
And here’s the trail that comes off Indian Lake, going bald:
I got back to the compound with 18 miles and a determination to get in a meaningful ride on Wednesday.
March 27 Ride
I waited until early afternoon to hit the trails and let late-March sun and 40*F help my cause.
To summarize my trip into Perkins Clearing, I can say the woods trails were bumpy and rough, the lakes were fast and flat and Perkins Clearing was groomed Wednesday for fantastic spring riding!
Aside from some residual bumps on sharp turns, it was about as good as you can hope for near the end of the snowmobiling season.
For giggles, I ran down C4/C8 Big Brook trail to the Outhouse Intersection. Although that trail had been groomed recently, it was still quite bumpy in places. Southern exposed hillsides were showing dirt spots.
Instead of enduring the bump and grind for at least several more miles in the direction of Fawn Lake or Oxbow Lake, I turned tail and ran back up into Perkins Clearing.
I was sure to run Carpenter Hill Road and LP9/Nichol Vly trail for a beautiful scenic ride! Aside from a few dirt spots on an exposed hillside section of LP9, most of it was great riding!
Would have loved to try hitting Pig Rock/Whitaker Lake trail over to LP10/Wolf Hill Road in the Speculator Tree Farm. But I just couldn’t stomach riding a long stretch of loose stone and skank to the other side:
So I doubled back and did the clockwise loop of Perkins Clearing before heading for home.
2 Miles from Hell along Route 30 was getting truly awful by late-afternoon, becoming a non-stop river of studders and washboard bumps. And the lower end was getting rather skanky in places:
I was so happy to reach the lakes after the ordeal on 2 Miles from Hell, even the rough campsites didn’t faze me much.
The cruise up Indian Lake was AMAZING: about as firm and smooth as could be with a shallow layer of water and slops to keep the slides and heat exchangers happy. I shot this little video at Griffin Rock, one of very few spots you can pull in a Verizon signal on Indian Lake:
Not a shabby way to spend the afternoon, eh?
After I bucked my way through C8/Sabael trail to get back into town, I rolled back into the compound just before 6pm with 78 miles for the day, a bit better than I did the previous day. And I can tell you the Indian Lake village trails had degraded further in the time I was out riding, getting especially skanky near exposed highway crossings.
I wanted to make sure I got back before the lakes and trails started to harden back up. And sure enough, with the very dry air, puddles were starting to freeze back over, even as temperatures were still near 40*F just with the sun getting lower in the sky.
Weekend Outlook?
With snow pack ranging from several inches with growing bald spots in exposed areas to over 2 feet in places, Perkins Clearing will certainly be ride-able this weekend and beyond, even with the warmer temperatures and rain expected.
Snowmobile trail grooming is done, or almost done for the season. Looks like the Indian Lake Snowarriors did their last tour of duty on the Newcomb trail:
So, if you want to hit the Newcomb trail for a last pass, I’d suggest parking at the Northville/Lake Placid trailhead on Route 28/30, then worm your way behind the Ranger’s Station to 538/Newcomb trail via the short section of S84. I can’t imagine that riding S84 all the way from Indian Lake would be much fun, based on what I’ve seen of the other woods trails.
I heard that Moose River Plains got horribly rough over the weekend, so I’ll be content to avoid it and fondly remember this as my last ride there.
Well, my weekend is over. So I suspect my last Perkins Clearing rides of the season will be trailer-assisted on my fuel-stablizer runs.
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.
