UPDATE 3/5/20: Indian Lake picked up 2 inches of fresh snow Wednesday night!
It was snowing pretty hard at times Wednesday morning, although it was having a hard time sticking with 32+ degree temperatures and the higher sun angle.
Gotta admit I wasn’t really amped up to ride. But it’s looking like the end is coming sooner rather than later, so I dragged my tail out of the compound by 11am.
There was some water running into Bear Trap Swamp, but we’ve all seen worse:
The local main artery trails into Indian Lake had icy/dirty corners with some rocks poking up. Was also studdery in places. But overall, it wasn’t all that terrible to ride on the straights:
Of course, S85/Ski Hut trail was more “pristine” but you can see where the ground water is eating away at the sides:
Crow Hill Road shelf wasn’t pretty, but it was intact:
S86 on the Crow Hill Road side had some bald spots, but was entirely passable. This is usually one of the first stretches in town that gets baked down to dirt and grass as we press toward spring:
After I thrashed S86/Little Canada a few times, I gripped it and ripped it across Adirondack Lake:
On to Newcomb
S84 toward Lake Durant was getting seedy on the southerly exposed hillclimb out of town:
But once I got “over the top” most of the trail had solid snow cover, except for turns and corners scuffed down to dirt and some bony spots under the tall evergreens.
Ole 538/Newcomb trail was pretty fast and flat on the Indian Lake Snowarrior’s side up to the County Line. It was a fairly hard surface with some ski darting and the 4-TEC did run a bit warm through there:
Once I crossed into Newcomb’s jurisdiction, there were some bumps but it was still an enjoyable ride up to the Newcomb-T intersection. The trail base became noticeably thinner the further north I pressed from Joseph Mountain.
However, there seemed to be about an inch-and-a-half of fresh wet snow, which made the steering easier and allowed my sled to run quite a bit cooler under the collar.
From Newcomb-T over to Newcomb House was a decent to fairly good ride for most of it. But there were some bony spots spun down to dirt and icy corners. Here was the skankiest spot I encountered:
Going thru Newcomb was thin and bony in places, especially along the side of Route 28N.
Ripped it across Lake Harris to hit the High Peaks Overlook trail. The section along the Hudson River as a nice stretch for sure:
After hanging out at the Overlook for a bit, I headed back to the Newcomb Cafe and sank my teeth into a wonderful chicken cordon bleu:
Also saw a reminder that Newcomb is Trump Country:
Heading Home
On the way back to Indian Lake, I ran S84 over to Lake Durant and ripped the lake back and forth. By late afternoon, S84 back to Indian Lake was rather bumpy in places, so I raised the ape hangers to full height and surfed the bumps back into town.
Banged out a couple of victory laps and thrashed S86/Little Canada thrice. That stretch between Sawmill Road and Lone Birch is scary fast if you let it.
Rolled back to the compound with a couple clicks under 90 miles of the day.
Bottom line
Best I can tell you is that all the trails remain RIDEABLE. I’m not going to hazard a guess as to what might be groomed or not groomed by the weekend. If you are gunning for your last ride, I would aim for THIS WEEKEND because we’re going to endure another major hit next week.
As you can see from my ride, you can still make the connection into town for food and gas.
As for the lakes, I can’t tell you whether they are “safe”. But I can tell you I crossed three lakes today and felt fine with them. Just be sure to stay away from inlets and outlets. Much of the time, I was breaking a thin top crust into shallow slush.
Some new snow Friday afternoon into the night would be nice to freshen things up. But I don’t see potential for anything significant.
More motivation to ride NOW:
By mid-March, the EURO ensembles are showing the Polar Vortex having retreated to near the North Pole! With the strong late-winter/early-spring sun, that pattern will quickly eat away the remainder of our snowmobiling season:
Sure, there could be an outside chance of getting lucky with a jolt of white lighting if a storm tracks the right place at the right time – because snow is still climatologically favored until the end of March in the central Adirondacks. But hoping to get lucky this time of year usually means skidding into die-hard season – and dreading the arrival of spring and eventual blight of #summersucks….
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.
