I can’t make up for missing two weeks of riding. As that old Fleetwood Mac song goes, “Yesterday’s gone…”
But I can nail what’s in front of me. After Wednesday’s long (and rough at times) miler, I wanted to go back to what I knew would be great.
So I set sail in the direction of Ohio again. Our brief bout of warmth didn’t do us any favors. But we had very little rain so the trails were able to hold up. The main arteries around Indian Lake weren’t pretty. However, they were effective:
C8/Sabael trail was pretty good heading out of town. Indian Lake and Lewey Lake were good passages. Campsites trail was groomed and about as good a ride as you could hope through there.
2 Miles from Hell was a good run from bottom to top. Perkins Clearing was good to excellent riding until I encountered some bumps on the back end of Jessup River Road.
C4/C8 Big Brook and Willis Mountain trails were in quite good riding shape. Here’s a shot from along the way:
C8 continuing into Piseco was good. Piseco Lake was a slushy crossing.
Rolling though C4A and C4 in Morehouse was amazing! Just mile, after mile, after mile of white ribbon:
It actually got crowded in Morehouse! I encountered an 8 sled traffic jam at the intersection with the C4C/Mosquito Hill trail. And I caught up with another pack of riders that stopped on the trail to have friendly conversations with the groomer tag team making their return trip. It was a good kind of crowd though. No throttle jackals – just a bunch of people enjoying a late winter’s day.
On to Ohio…
Instead of continuing C4 through Jones Road, I wanted to go through Nobleboro since I haven’t done that in number of years. S46A was hard, bumpy and rough until I crossed Route 8. But I’m glad I stuck with it because it evolved into a nice ride.
The nice ride continued through the C4H/Mad Tom trail down to Route 365.
After the bumpy Route 8 bridge crossing, C4B was a good ride down to the Ohio Tavern where I stopped for lunch.
After yesterday’s burger and large mountain of nachos, I was looking for something a bit more “healthy”. I ordered the turkey, avocado and bacon sandwich special and that hit the spot nicely:
Oh, the sweet potato fries in the background were ridiculously awesome!
Any pretense of moderation went completely out the window when I saw they offered blackberry bread pudding for dessert with a scoop of ice cream on top. Wow….
Thankfully, I was able to finish all of that without feeling bloated and tired. Good thing because I had a lot of riding left to do!
Next up, Salisbury!
C4G heading south from Ohio Tavern was aces:
C4 heading to Norway was grubby in places, especially where I had to ride on or beside plowed roads. Some sections through the woods were snirty and thin in spots. Open fields? Yes, please!
C4/Military Road into Salibury was awesome riding, with the valley views off to my south.
Did the C4A and C8A route through Barto Hill windmill field. That was incredible riding during the late afternoon in the bright sunshine – something I will remember years from now. Never get bored of this view:
Ran the combo of S45B, C8C and S42 from Dolgeville up to Salisbury. Most of that was good riding with some thin/snirty spots along the way:
Back to ilsnowland
C4A over to Stratford was pretty good riding. Maybe a few spots worn to dirt in the corners going through the woods. I had never taken a run up that little old ski hill. But today I did and found this relic up top:
C4A and C8A northward from Stratford was an enjoyable ride. Some rollers here and there. I caught this wonderful sunset:
Powley Road was simply ridiculous. Words describing that amazing ride would fail me…
C8/Spy Lake trail was in good riding shape with some modestly deep rollers on the steep hills. Took a few minutes to stop at the top of Jack’s Hill and listened to the breeze whistle through the trees in the twilight.
Ripped across Oxbow Lake and found plenty of slush. C4/Fish Mountain-Oxbow trail was about as fast a run as I’ve had through that avenue. Not to say it didn’t have some bumps here and there…but it was a solid good ride.
Sacandaga Lake had lots of slush and ruts at mid-lake crossing.
LP1/Page Street trail had some hard, low bumps but was not horrible.
Lake Pleasant was a hard and fast crossing.
River trail was bumpy and rough. But once I got past the sand pit, C4 from Speculator village was a good ride all the way back to Perkins Clearing.
The home stretch…
Perkins Clearing was actually….somewhat….studderbumpy! And 2 Miles from Hell was quite bumpy. There must have been a lot of Speculator to Indian Lake snowmobiling traffic during the day!
I did take S82C/Old Indian Lake trail, which was just about MINT!
C8/Sabael trail was chatterbumpy from the day’s traffic. The main Indian Lake arteries were studderbumpy in places and snirty with the bumps hardening up at night.
Rolled back to the compound with 190 miles. Didn’t even feel motivated to rip the victory lap or try to pad the miles to reach 200. Sometimes, it’s best to be satisfied a great ride and leave it at that…
Aside from snirt in town and near roads, riding conditions ranged mostly from beautiful packed powder to tight hard-pack that made the skis dart. I did not encounter truly icy trail conditions. But I can say that scratchers were my friends today.
Weekend outlook
Let’s see…
237 miles, Tuesday
175 miles, Wednesday
190 miles, Thursday
Yeah, it’s been a good ol’ fashioned Darrin @ ilsnow snowmobiling binge-a-thon!
Don’t overthink this: GET HERE AND RIDE!
This will PROBABLY be the best snowmobile riding weekend for the remainder of this season. Riding should hold on for the central Adirondacks into the following week. After that, the longer range model-o-logy is starting to show pathways to jailbreak warmth before mid-March.
Remember, Snowarriors Meet-n-Greet will be at Lewey Lake Campground on Saturday, February 27th starting at NOON. Stop by for hot dogs, hot chocolate, fire pit AND the ice carousel!
Looks like we may be closing out yet another shortened snowmobiling season here in ilsnowland before we know it. But at least the peak of it was good.
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
This report is brought to you by Steet Ponte Auto Group. Many of the vehicles here in Indian Lake are bought from the Steet Ponte. Co-owner Joe Steet is a huge fan and booster of ilsnow.com. If you’re looking for a new truck, give Steet Ponte a good look.
