PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Route 30 One Stop will no longer be selling gasoline (probably for the remainder of this winter) because their fuel supplier is closing business. When you are in Indian Lake, you’ll need to refuel at Stewart’s, which is close to the intersection of NYS Routes 28&30. If you know how to ride to the Indian Lake Restaurant for lunch or dinner, you’ll be close to Stewart’s.
The ilsnow Ground-n-Pound machine resumed its campaign on Friday. Instead of flying solo this time, I enlisted Darrin the Kid to be my wing man!
So, I met up at Junior’s place around 9:30am and decided on a trip up to Newcomb to start the day.
Trails were pretty tight from the cold night, but most places weren’t brick hard. Trail S84 out toward Blue Mountain was a pretty good ride throughout – once we got over the top and past the burnt hillsides. There were some sections under the thick pines pounded down to snirt with some rocks poking through. Maybe a few small left-over water spots. But I really can’t complain about the ride through there, given what little we have to work with.
538/Newcomb trail was a nice enough ride up to the County Line. But the gold star of Friday’s ride was north of the County line where the Newcomb boyz laid down the white ribbon:
Of course, there were some scuddy stretches going over Joseph Mountain. But the groomers are gradually closing up the water bars with each pass.
Over to Newcomb
C8B toward Newcomb needed more snow in a lot of spots, but it had been groomed enough to ensure an enjoyable ride over. There were a number of loose rocks to content with.
We zipped across Lake Harris and made our way over to the High Peaks Lookout. Much of the riding to reach that was good and Junior took this nice shot of the beast at rest in front of the mountains:
We also ended up meeting a gang of 4 from Edinburgh we had crossed paths with a few times on the way up. They had started from Benton Road in Indian Lake.
Lunch
Darrin Jr and I ended up eating lunch at the new diner in Newcomb at the 24/7 gas pumps. It was hopping in there, with a lively mixture of locals and visiting snowmobile riders!
The nice gentleman who picked up our lunch bill asked me to say “Gary L, you blew it!” on my report. I guess that meant Gary didn’t blow off work to go riding. 😉
Now we continue the new tradition of posting a picture of myself wearing my goofy reading glasses at lunch:
And I was representing my hometown snowmobile club too! 🙂
Yes, people are riding over to Long Lake from the Newcomb T with decent results, from what I’ve heard.
On to Moose River Plains
We zipped back to Indian Lake and hung out at Junior’s place for a while to take a break. Then we headed back out after 3:30pm.
C8/toward Cedar River Headquarters was fairly choppy from the heavy traffic it must have received over the course of the day. There were many sections that were churned down to snirt, especially prior to the Deer Valley Parking Lot.
Headquarters to Silver Run and beyond was somewhat bumpy although the riding improved somewhat past the icy S-turns. Big T flats to Red River T was nice. Red River dead-ender was excellent.
Didn’t press on toward Inlet because I knew it would get really thin and dirty toward the Limekiln Gate.
We doubled back to town and ripped through the victory lap. Inner village trails were chewed up a bit from the day’s traffic. S87/42nd and Broadway was nice. And S86/Little Canada was so great, you could thrash that thrice and still come back for more!
After leaving Junior at his place, I rolled back to the compound with 160 miles for the day. Not bad day at the office, eh?
Bottom line
190 miles on Wednesday, 110 miles on Thursday and 160 miles Friday. Simple arithmetic says I got my kicks in to the tune of 460 miles in three days. I got all summer to sit on the couch!
Assuming the groomers are back at it first thing Saturday, the early birds should start well. But I’m not going to hazard a guess as to what it’ll look like by Saturday afternoon after the hoards thrash it silly. Got a feeling that Saturday could end up being an absolute zoo – based on pretty decent traffic we saw here on Friday and the fact we’re one of the few games open for play in New York State.
Good luck and #GetItHowYouCan! Don’t wait for perfect or else you’ll just watch winter slip through your fingers. 😉
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
This report has been brought to you by Rate Locker. Call Chuck at 215-964-4475 for all of your mortgage needs and tell him that Darrin @ ilsnow.com sent ya!
