Mild-ish temperatures over the weekend into Monday morning didn’t help our cause. But it came with very little rain, so not much damage done to the trails.
Unfortunately, snow squalls Monday night didn’t leave more than a dusting as everything froze brick hard.
But the sun was bright and I wanted to give it the ole college try Tuesday afternoon once the temperature got back above zero. Dropped down the ice scratchers and went to work!
Down to Perkins Clearing…
Indian Lake trails were being groomed and ranged from fairly smooth to slight studder ripple. Looked like C8 was being groomed toward Cedar River Headquarters.
C8/Sabael trail hadn’t been groomed yet by early afternoon, but wasn’t a terrible ride.
Indian Lake and Lewey Lake were hard packed. My best strategy for keeping the heat exchangers and slides happy was to stay off the beaten path and let the ice scratchers pick away at the somewhat softer crust.
Campsites trail? Not that bad…
C8/2 Miles of Hell? Some frozen studderbumps. But not anywhere as rough as I was expecting it.
Perkins Clearing Road and Jessup River Road had quite a bit of board flat-ness to them as the Lake Pleasant groomers were able to carpet-bomb most of the weekend bumps:
With the hard crusty snow, it was nice to ride some of the scenic places off the beaten path that were difficult to get to with the deep powder snow for much of February:
Over to Speculator…
C4/C8 Big Brook Trail? Hard and flat….
C4 Fawn Lake trail? Board flat and beautful!
Sacandaga Lake and Lake Pleasant were hard and mostly flat crossings with icy and bumpy spots. LP1/Page Street trail was brown and had some hard bumps but was far from horrible.
Speculator Village trails were mostly flat, hard as a brick and a bit dirty looking. Despite having scratchers deployed, I did come close to tripping the overheat lamp:
Back to Indian Lake…
C4 passing Oak Mountain up to Perkins Clearing was flat, hard and whitened up once I got over the hump.
Ran Mud Lake Road and LP9/Nichol Vly in Perkins Clearing for the loop. Even though there were occasional small hard bumps through that avenue, it was an enjoyable ride and I was lovin’ life in the sun:
For the good ole’ change of pace, I ran S82C/Old Indian Lake trail up the Mason Lake and that was a nice ride.
Once I got back onto Indian Lake, I meandered around the islands on the east side of the lake and wandered into Johnny Mack Bay. At this point, I was wishing the day would never end. C’mon? Can it get any better on the big pond?
After reaching all the way back to end Johnny Mack Bay, I meandered around the shoreline and islands up to Norman’s Cove. Wasn’t up to doing the hill climb to Baldy today. Will save that for another day on foot:
The sun was starting to set as I was getting back into Indian Lake and I could feel the trails harden further by the minute. C8/Sabael trail had been groomed and was fairly smooth riding. Not pretty with the brick hard snirt, but it worked to bring me home:
Main arteries in town were brown hard snirt ranging from fairly flat to small studders. Cruised through S85/Ski Hut trail before refueling at the One Stop for my next adventure. Rolled into the compound with 85 miles in the sun. Finally hit a mid-week day with few other sleds on the trail!
This was definitely a ride to dial down the speed to maintain control of the snowmobile on the trails, especially without studs. It was also a great day to be out on the lakes for the sunshiny views.
Midweek Outlook
Not a whole lotta snow in the forecast this week. So conditions aren’t going to change much. Cold weather will hang on through the week, with Wednesday being the “warmest” day.
Signs of trouble brewing next week. Grab it while we’ve got it….
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
This report is brought to you by Progressive Motorsports, celebrating their 28th 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.
