After Wednesday’s ride, I knew another trip to the south would be in order but I wasn’t quite sure where I’d end up.
So off I went and almost every trail I touched enroute to Perkins Clearing Road was good to occasionally excellent riding, even C8/Two Miles from Hell and S82C/Old Indian Lake Road. Of course, the campsites between Indian Lake and Lewey Lake were BRUTAL!
Just knew things were gonna roll my way when I saw these fresh groom marks passing the compound upon departure:
I continue to encounter slush on lake crossings, but nothing that modest throttle couldn’t keep me on top of. The south end of Indian Lake appeared to have the most slush and ruts.
Pressing west from Perkins Clearing
I hit LP9/Nichol Vly trail, which was a nice run. After I crossed Mossy Vly, I encountered roller bumps and studders on Carpenter Hill Road, but the riding was decent enough to get by. The bypass over to Big Brook trail had some bumps, but was actually better than what I was hoping for.
C4/C8 – Big Brook trail was a fairly good ride down to the outhouse. Then I saw the fresh groom marks down C4/C8 -Willis Mountain trail and had one of the best rides I’ve ever had through there toward Piseco:
Almost anyone who has ridden this trail could share his/her unique horrific story about involuntary organ donation through that avenue. I’m sure there are at least several in the ilsnow archives. But for today, it was ACES!! At this point, I was definitely smelling an Ohio Tavern run and beyond. 🙂
Trails all through Arietta/Piseco area were groomed and immaculate riding. Except for areas of slush at mid-crossing, I’d have to say that Piseco Lake was one of the best lake crossings I’ve had in at least a couple of weeks.
Evergreen Lake was an adventure. Someone must have pulled the plug on that pond, because it didn’t look there was a lake at all. On top of that, I had to cross the partially frozen Panther Mountain Streambed at the east end of Evergreen. After walking onto the ice to find a suitable spot that held my weight, I gripped it and ripped it across. The stream wasn’t deep, but I really didn’t want to break through and get stuck in the muck.
I followed the established cowpath to the other side of Evergreen. There were several places off to the side where brooks could swallow a sled and send a rider over his/her handlebars. Definitely wouldn’t want to ride that at night.
C4 through Morehouse was goat-path magic, which was being freshly groomed:
If you haven’t ridden through Morehouse this year, there is a new bypass trail in which you travel down C4C/Mosquito Hill trail for a short distance then cut your way back up to French Road. It was groomed for a good ride, but I can tell you it’s even more tight and twisty than the usual Morehouse trail – or even Willis Mountain trail in Arietta. Your shoulders will get a workout through there.
Heading into Ohio
Looked like S46A going toward Nobleboro was recently groomed, but after riding goat-path for miles, I opted to take the fun rip down C4/Jones Road into Ohio. Looks like a couple miles of seasonal road at the south end is being plowed, but there was a snowbank trail to get by.
The section of C4 along Gray-Wilmert Road and Hill Road has sufficient snowbank trail to get by. C4B over to Route 8 was a pretty good ride. The section of C4B running parallel to Route 8 to reach the Ohio Tavern was totally mint!
By the time I reached the Ohio Tavern, I was certainly feeling the electricity of a great ride! And their stuffed burger ALWAYS hits the spot with me:
After lunch, I was in a hurry to get back out there! But I did stop by the kitchen to chat with Dan and Becky Virgil for a bit.
Going for the loop
By this point, I had decided to loop over to Salisbury and Stratford thence run up the gut through Powley Road to return to ilsnow land.
So I pressed down C4B and C4G with good to excellent riding conditions. Looks like there was a bypass to Salisbury, so I followed the signs along C4 and ended up going through Cold Brook. The woods trails through there were a bit rough, but the seasonal road riding was fun. And you know how giddy I get about riding open fields!
Pressing on C4 toward Norway, the snow thinned to the point where the woods trail sections showed snirt and a few pebbles at times, but the trail was still pretty flat.
C4/Military Road toward Salisbury Clubhouse was fun and fast riding. From the clubhouse, C4A was a fairly studdery ride with some deeper rollers to Stratford, even on the seasonal roads.
Dugway Road and up through C4A was a pretty good ride into Stratford. C8A became quite studdery on approach to Powley Road.
Heading back home
Powley Road had lots of roller bumps on the Stratford end. The riding got much better once I crossed into Arietta. But even then, there were some studders on Powley.
I encountered gold star riding on S88 trail up to Piseco Lake Lodge which only had several sleds run it since the fresh groom earlier in the day. C’mon, can it get ANY BETTER THAN THIS?!
Did the grip-n-rip thing across Piseco Lake to make the run back up to Perkins Clearing. C4/C8 – Willis Mountain trail was still magnificent. But Big Brook trail was somewhat more bumpy than it was in the morning.
Caught this beautiful view as I was getting back into Perkins Clearing through the bypass:
Although the picture didn’t pick it up, I could easily spot the Pillsbury Mountain fire tower.
Carpenter Hill Road was rather bumpy, so I was pleased as punch to cross Mossy Vly to hit the good stuff on the other side. For something different, I ran Mud Lake Road back over to Perkins Clearing Road, which was great!
The return trip up to Indian Lake was very nice riding, save for the brutal campsite bumps and areas of slush on the lakes. C8/Sabael trail was a nice welcome mat back into town. Inner Indian Lake village trails were a bit shredded by evening, but still fun riding.
Overtime!
I rolled into Stewarts to refuel with 170+ miles as the day was winding down. But I wasn’t about to lay up short of a 200-mile “mega-miler” with such good riding conditions. So I figured a run up to 538/Newcomb trail would do the trick. I ran S84 toward Lake Durant, which was a nice ride overall, but did get studdery at times past Rock Lake marsh.
538/Newcomb trail up to the County Line had just been groomed by the Indian Lake Snowarriors and was nearly perfect!
I sniffed 538/Newcomb trail for about a half mile past the County Line and found a few studder bumps. But it appeared as though it would have been a good ride if I had wanted to press on.
But, the temperature had dropped to near zero shortly after dark and the cold was starting to get to me after being out all day. With the 200 miler in hand (assuming a safe trip back to the compound), I turned tail and headed home.
Of course, I ripped the celebratory victory lap in which S87/42nd and Broadway and S86/Little Canada were groomed excellence!
Rolled back into the compound with 207 miles for the day and a big smile on my face from Thursday’s ride! Days like these make me feel on top of my game. 🙂
Get out there! We’re heading into the Back 9 of Winter.
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!
