Update 2/14/20: Got word that everything around Indian Lake into Moose River Plains got groomed Friday.
So, get here early Saturday and ride it!
Report 2/13/20
After being the solo warrior for the past couple of days, Crazy Cal and Matty Ice were able to blow off work and join me on Thursday. The Lost Boyz of Winter were back together! 🙂
We didn’t see any groom marks heading out of town on C8, so we opted for trying another direction. Ended up taking S84 out toward Blue Mountain and that was in good riding shape with a fresh inch of snow on it.
Before we pressed on 538/Newcomb trail, we decided to attempt a ride up to Childwold, since none of us had ever done that trip starting from Indian Lake.
Indian Lake’s side of 538/Newcomb trail hadn’t been groomed yet, but was a solidly good ride up to the County Line. After that? It was rough and bumpy all the way up to the Newcomb-T.
Hung the left onto C7B and had a good trip over to Long Lake. After a bit of deliberation, we took the chance on gripping-n-ripping the short distance across Long Lake to reach C7B on the other side. It wasn’t for the faint of heart or the lacking in horsepower. Probably was a stupid thing to do, with the deep slush. Guess you can say that I’m not totally risk averse. 😉
We found a freshly groomed strip of awesomeness called Trail C7B heading north from Long Lake, mile after mile of sweet ribbon!
Got up to Sabattis Circle Road and ran the snowbank trail up to Sabattis. That was a long ride, with the snowbank being bumpy at times. But it kept us off the plowed pavement most of the time.
C7/Railroad from Sabattis up to Horseshoe Lake was just a flat out medieval torture chamber for snowmobilers with an endless pathway of studders and rollers. At one point, I got desperate enough to jump off the tracks and plow through the marsh to make it a bit more fun. Almost swamped the sled, but at least the 4-TEC had enough juice to get back onto the tracks.
C7A coming off the tracks was just the bucket of awesome sauce we needed to make the ride fun again. That was an incredible ride until we hit the series of bypass trails around the logging. But I gotta say the bypasses were groomed with mostly good riding – lots of twists and turns though.
And we encountered this logging truck that got into a really good stuck on a shared section of the logging road:
After the loggers signaled that it was OK for us to pass through, we pressed on. Wanted to run C7C up to Thirsty Moose for lunch, which was in great shape through the Boy Scout Camp. We got turned around a bit and ended up at Seveys Point instead. If I had brought my map, that probably wouldn’t have happened. But the bypasses had screwed around with my internal compass.
We took the opportunity to re-fuel at Seveys Point, then got our bearings straight and ran C7C over to Thirsty Moose, which was a fairly bumpy stretch.
By that point, I was more than ready to get off my sled and eat. So, I ordered the Philly cheesesteak:
The way back
The dining room was empty when we showed up, but over the course of our time there, the room filled up with snowmobilers. Somebody told us that heading south of Sabattis, C7/Railroad remained bumpy for 2 miles, but then improved into a good ride down to Big Moose. It was an intriguing option, since we had discussed the possibility of doing that as a loop.
But in the end, adding that many more miles and the possibility of running into a brutally rough Moose River Plains and C8 back to Indian Lake was not very appealing, so we just headed back the way we came.
A funny thing: On the way back, the snowbank riding on Sabattis Circle Road didn’t seem as bad – in comparison to running the brutally rough railroad section twice. We just engaged in a game of good ole fashioned country hard ball bump-n-run all the way back down.
We were able to re-cross Long Lake before dark, during which I nearly got bucked off my horse by skirting a hard slush rut.
C7B back to the Newcomb-T was still a decent ride, but will need a comb-over with the groomer sooner rather than later.
538/Newcomb trail was still brutally rough down to the County Line. We encountered Indian Lake Snowarriors laying down the white ribbon on our side:
Trail S84 was groomed today and was a great ride back to Indian Lake. Matt headed back to his truck while Cal and I swirled around the victory lap, which definitely ended the ride on a high note! Adirondack Lake was rather rough in places, though.
And I rolled back to the compound with almost 185 miles:
Looks like we had accumulated a couple inches of fresh snow since late last night. Not as much as we were gunning for. But hey, it’s not rain…
Bottom Line:
I cranked off 500+ miles in 3 days this week. Had tons of fun, but I did endure my share of lumps and bumps Wednesday and Thursday. Gotta say that I’m not going to mind staying off the saddle this weekend while the ilsnow ground-n-pound machine regroups for another assault!
Weekend warriors, you know the drill… Get here early in the morning in attempt to maximize your good riding, especially with the holiday weekend traffic. GOOD LUCK!!
Don’t forget!
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.
