The promise for snow this week rang true as it looks nice and white out there again!
Snow cover is several inches around Indian Lake/Speculator and probably closer to a foot as one presses across Moose River Plains into the western Adirondacks.
With everyone chomping at the bit to ride, I’ll give you my best advise on the spots to try:
Moose River Plains
The tried-and-true-playbook for the early season rider is to park-and-ride-in from the Brown’s Farm parking lot near the end of Cedar River Road and worm your way back into Moose River Plains.
If you set reasonable expectations, you’ll do fine banging out your first miles of the season in Moose River Plains.
The locals have started to slither around Indian Lake on their beaters, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that with YOUR sled. There simply isn’t enough snow to sufficiently bury the rocks, stumps and swamps to provide a decent ride.
For the love of all things good in this world, don’t try riding C8 from Indian Lake out to Cedar River Headquarters. Just pay the old lady at Brown’s Farm for $5/sled and take the points…
Perkins Clearing
The north end of Perkins Clearing is closed for logging this winter and all the way up Jessup River Road toward Spruce Lake gate.
S82C/Old Indian Lake Road isn’t going to be a good ride from Mason Lake Parking lot with the starter snow cover.
Best bet would be to park at the southern lot on Route 30 and work your way into Perkins Clearing Road from the south. Mud Lake Road and Carpenter Hill Road are open, but you’ll need to be careful through Mossy Vly because I’m sure that hasn’t frozen up tight yet. LP9/Nichol Vly trail would probably not be good to hit up yet with all of the wet areas through there.
Set reasonable expectations of limited riding and you should do OK in Perkins Clearing.
Speculator Tree Farm
I’ve heard mixed reports as to conditions in there, so be especially careful if you attempt to scratch your way in from Old Route 30.
Powley Road
As far as I know, Powley Road is still CLOSED for snowmobiling as the Arietta Highway Department continues to repair the washouts from the Halloween Storm. Please stay away and give the crews room to work.
Lakes?
Umm…. Don’t trust the ice yet!
Next Week
If you’re itching to get up this weekend, I’d recommend that you give it a shot because I don’t foresee next week’s weather helping us out.
This is NOT the temperature anomaly profile we want to see across North America for the days leading up to December 28/29:
At least the weather pattern will become quiet for a while, which should keep the threat of significant rain at bay through at least Christmas Day.
We may get active again by the end of December. But with the extended modelology serving up a multitude of permutations, I’m not going to hazard a credible guess in regards to what may happen.
Extended Outlook
The CFSv2 model is cranking out an interesting look for the first week of January 2020 with cross polar flow delivering brutal cold into south-central Canada:
The fun with this pattern may become storms rolling across the northern United States, underneath the Canadian Arctic grip. We’ve had active weather this autumn in approach of winter, so I think we may be getting busy to start 2020. 😉
Trail Talk Podcast
If you have yet to check out my interview with Rich Lupia on his Trail Talk Podcast, here are the segments:
Part 1 – About how I got into snowmobiling and what eventually led me to start ilsnow.com
Part 2 – I talk about snowmobiling issues in the Adirondacks, including safety on the trails and lawsuits over snowmobile use on recently acquired State land.
Part 3 – More stories of snowmobiling and life in general.
Part 4 – Extra stuff with two good snowmobiling buddies having a conversation. Stuff that was supposed to be off the record.
It was a lot of fun to do and I look forward to being a repeat guest! 🙂
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
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