UPDATE 2/7/20:
Got blitzed with 10 inches of white gold at the ilsnow storm center on Friday! Trails in town are a mess with ice and snow laden trees bending down to the ground. Adirondack Lake has DEEP slush that almost made me regret going out there.
C8 out to Cedar River Headquarters was a good ride Friday morning, except that I got my bell rung more often than Rocky Balboa by low hanging branches. I almost had a branch fall into my lap while I was riding!
Moose River Plains got really bumpy with the new snow and high volume traffic. Higher bumps on Indian Lake’s side. Lots of low hanging trees out there too. From Headquarters down to Cedar River Road was wonderful.
Ended up with 86 miles and some bushwhacking under and thru the trees:
Ride Report 2/6/20
The 3-4 inches of new snow we got early Thursday morning was very nice indeed, springing Crazy Cal and I loose for a ride. It was nice to see the trails white instead of brown!
The Indian Lake village trails were starting to be groomed on the way out. C8/Sabael trail hadn’t been groomed yet but was a decent enough ride out of town.
Indian Lake was a brutal crossing, because our heated shields were no match for the freezing drizzle spray on the lake. Seemed like every droplet froze on contact. Eventually, I had to ride with the visor lifted: getting an ice-cream headache and growing icy stalactites on my eyelashes.
After we got off Indian Lake, we chiseled and scraped our visors clean and started anew. Thankfully, temperatures were starting to warm a bit, and the icing problems eventually went away.
Lewey Lake was another nice crossing. C8/Two Miles From Hell and S82C/Old Indian Lake Road were their typical bump and grind. We were very pleased to find smoothness with a fresh topping of snow on Perkins Clearing Road:
C4 down to Speculator and thru the village was brutally bumpy and rough, just totally sucked. River Trail was good enough to get us over to Lake Pleasant, which was a good crossing.
LP1/Page Street was in pretty good shape through the woods and nice along the roadside. Sacandaga Lake was a good crossing in the morning, but dang…there was a lot of slush on the return trip that afternoon.
C4/Fish Mountain trail to Oxbow Lake was a good ride to the cemetery, but westward was a bump and grind with a couple of significant water bars.
Made it to the Oxbow Inn in the mood to eat lunch. And as always, great food!
After lunch, we pressed onto C8/Spy Lake Trail which was bumpy, but the new snow cushioned the bumps enough for a decent ride. We hopped onto Spy Lake to avoid some bumps.
The gold star of today’s ride went to Powley Road, which was FRESHLY groomed and like riding a cloud:
The greatness continued down to the Stratford town line. After the Arietta groomer had turned around, Powley Road had some bumps and included a couple of places where the Halloween storm had altered the topography of the road – stuff you wouldn’t want to hit at high speed.
C8A down toward Stratford was quite honestly, a surprisingly good ride! I was expecting a rugged ride with the low snow conditions. Aside from some thin spots and a few rock top clanks, it was certainly enjoyable.
C4A into Stratford thru the woods was a bit choppier than C8A, but was still a respectable ride. The riding got good again when we hit Dugway Road.
Continuing on C4A to the Salisbury Clubhouse was a bump and grind through the woods and fun riding on the seasonal roads.
After seeing the riding wasn’t anything special around Salisbury and that it was 3pm, we refueled at the Clubhouse, thence headed back the way we came.
Thankfully, C8/Spy Lake trail and Fish Mountain/Oxbow Trail had been freshly groomed by the time we came back through late in the afternoon. Certainly some thin, snirty riding through there, but it was half-way decent.
C4 out of Speculator Village was still brutally awful. But S82C/Old Indian Lake Road and C8/Two Miles from Hell were freshly groomed for what has been by far the best ride I’ve had through that avenue all winter:
Our dark trek back up Indian Lake was uneventful, save for large watery, slushy pit that compelled me to grab a heaping handful of 4-TEC throttle to muscle across.
C8/Sabael trail going back into Indian Lake was freshly groomed and the nicest ride I’ve had through that trail this season. Just a few small stubborn water spots remaining in the swamps.
After banging out the Donald J. Trump Acquittal Victory Loop around town, I rolled back into the compound with 153 miles for the day. It’s shorter than my usual Salisbury treks, but riding conditions weren’t totally ideal either. Thankfully, much of the rain today was mist, so we didn’t get totally soaked to the bone.
There was enough good to make it a worthwhile ride and hitting large stretches of freshly groomed trail on the way home added a star-and-a-half to my ride report. 🙂
Here’s picture of Crazy Cal enjoying the day and getting entangled in his wiring:
Bottom line
Keep waiting for ideal and perfect, this winter will pass you by! Hopefully, we get that nice dump of white gold on Friday to set us up for the best riding conditions we’ve had this season. It’s about time, eh?
You can check out some of the February snowmobile events scheduled here:
Indian Lake
Speculator & Lake Pleasant
Inlet & Old Forge
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.
