It’s nice we’re at the point that we can ride out from Indian Lake without enlisting the services of a trailer. 🙂
So Crazy Cal and I set sail for Old Forge today, eventually deciding on making a run to Brantingham.
The groomers got out there and at it Wednesday morning with C8/toward Cedar River Headquarters being in nice riding shape for several miles until we overcame the groomer. Just a few small water spots before the Deer Valley parking area. Even after we overtook the groomer, it was a still an enjoyable ride.
We saw this nice ribbon entering Moose River Plains from Headquarters:
Good riding, with just a few bumps until we overcame the groomer. But still decent riding afterward. Crossed over into the Inlet side, which wasn’t much smoother until we swished through the Big-T flats and beyond. Snow cover was noticeably thinner on the Inlet side, with it getting snirty and bordering on dirty in places as we approached the Limekin Gate.
The trail over the top from Moose River Plains into the Inlet Loop system was thin and rocky in places. Trail leading to the Ole Barn was groomed flat, but was thin, snirty and pebbly.
Ole Barn to Gilbert Road was groomed, but snirty to dirty snow all the way through with choppy areas. This was an accurate representation:
After cruising through the snirt city of downtown Inlet, we elected to rip 4th Lake over to Daikers, which ended up being the right call…because that was a nice ride across. Of course, the strip coming off the lake into Daikers was nearly completely grounded down to dirt.
Trail 5 over to Rondaxe Road was chocolate snow and choppy at times. But quite honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. And Rondaxe Road had great snirty snow coverage. We’ve all had worse rides down that avenue. 😉
Trail 9 was it’s usual nice ride. Trail 1 was nice in some areas and thin/snirty in other areas, but not many significant bumps.
On to Brantingham
BT Trail was groomed recently and in nice shape for the majority of it, until we hit a section that resembled a snow-cross mogul course. Again, we’ve all had worse rides through there.
C7B/10 Mile Crossing heading toward Brantingham was decent at best, with small chop nearly most of the way and thin spots. The plowed section was a bit seedy by the logging staging area, but the remainder of it had enough white to skate by.
C7B to Kovach’s was snirty throughout, but a nice flat ride. Partridgeville Road had enough snow coverage along the margins to skate by. With Pine Tree Inn being closed, we elected to try Trailside for the first time and ended up with a good lunch.
The way home
We hit the trail behind Trailside to make the run to C8A/Confusion Flats. Not completely sure what trails we hit to make it over to C8A, but they all needed more snow. I’ve done it enough times, to the point I make it though by feel.
Confusion Flats over to Stoney Lake was a nice enough ride, but with much less snow than I’m used to seeing through there. Here’s a picture from the power lines section:
The Mount Tom section was open, but became a brutal ride with this little crossing to add a few difficulty points:
But we did make it up to 10 Mile Crossing and continued on. Took Trail 1 down to North Street, which was recently groomed and pretty good overall. Hung the left onto Trail 5, which was snirty but not terribly rough.
Trail 4 was a snirty bump-and-grind all the way up to Pete’s Peak. But that view made it worthwhile:
Quite honestly though, I expected the ride up Pete’s Peak to be much worse than it actually was. Sometimes, it’s nice to be pleasantly surprised. 🙂
Once we hit Trail 5 to Rondaxe Road, we re-traced our steps back to Indian Lake. Moose River Plains was a pretty good ride all the way across once we cleared Inlet. C8 from Headquarters back to Indian Lake was a solidly good ride most of the way through.
We had thought about making a run up to Newcomb to bang out an official 200 mile “MEGA-MILER”. But after night set, the woods trails became tight and got the 4-TEC hot under a collar a couple of times, even with the scratchers deployed.
With Trail S84 heading out of Indian Lake almost certain to be nearly brick hard, we scratched that plan. So we were content to bang out a victory lap around town and call it good, ending up at 190+ miles. Suppose I could have played around Adirondack Lake a bit to pad the miles, but we were rather satisfied with what we rode, essentially riding on marginal conditions with an application of white paint.
On the victory lap, S84 and S87/42nd and Broadway were studdery and could use a comb over with the groomer. Of course, the gold star went to S86/Little Canada between Sawmill Road and Lone Birch.
Bottom line:
Well, can’t say it was all bad if we ripped off 190 miles. I certainly wouldn’t have done that if much of the riding was garbage. We had a great day and having Cal lead me through Old Forge was a great source of entertainment. 🙂
If you get up here mid-week with reasonable expectations, I think you’ll do well enough. The way this winter has been running, do you really want to bank on trying to find a better deal next week?
Unfortunately, we’re not getting any meaningful snow before the weekend. And I think that everyone and their buddy will be heading here on Saturday because ilsnow land and nearby areas in the Adirondacks are one of the few games available to play in New York State.
So get here mid-week, Thursday or Friday if you can, for best results!
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
This report is brought to you by Progressive Motorsports, celebrating their 27th 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.
