When I get to the Back 9 of Winter, I try to hit places I hadn’t hit all winter or even many years. So my plan for Wednesday’s ride was to get down to Powley Road, then hit C8/Clockmill Corners trail and ride that into Stratford.
Leaving Indian Lake…
The groomers were headed out of town on C8 toward Cedar River Headquarters and S84/Blue Mountain trail:
It looked smooth in that picture, but the small part of S84 I rode on the town loop had plenty of scalloped bumps which were indicative of how rough it must had been before the groom.
S87/42nd and Broadway and S86/Little Canada had some low-hard studders with the groomers not reaching them yet.
C8/Sabael trail had some low bumps, but was decent going out of town. It was remarkable what a half-inch dusting of new snow did for cooling on the trails.
On Indian Lake, I avoided the icy drag strip and stayed off the beaten path to maximize the meager snow. Even so, there were patches of glare ice where the snow was blown off the lake.
Campsites trail was starting to get the long, deep rollers again. 2 Miles from Hell was studder-bumpy all the way up.
Perkins Clearing Road, Jessup River Road and C4/C8 Big Brook trail were pretty much the way I found them from Tuesday’s ride, except for the bit of fresh snow on them.
C4/C8 Willis Mountain trail was a pretty good ride down to the intersection with Fall Lake trail, but didn’t have the fresh dusting of snow we had further north:
C8 to Piseco was bumpy at times past the airport. The trail down to Piseco Lake was bumpy and rough.
The drag strip on Piseco Lake was icy and somewhat rough. But off the beaten path had good snow – by far the best I’ve seen on ANY lake this week.
Trail coming off the west end of Piseco Lake was bumpy. But it got better when I turned toward Piseco Lodge. I always love this bridge crossing:
C4/S88 down to Powley Road was being tag-team groomed and yielded a nice ride though the hardwoods:
Down the chute!
After a short stay on Powley Road, it was time to go through with my plan:
As I hoped and anticipated, I was a beautiful ride down a trail that ranged from goat-path to semi-wide. I went by small lakes and weaved around the sides of hills. The snow was plenty deep:
My first “adventure” was negotiating my way around a large fallen tree, which I managed successfully.
Things were going very well by this point, so I kept on pressing southward on C8:
The miles and smiles continued. About a quarter mile past the Jockeybush Lake trailhead parking lot, the trail started having bumps and the steering become more darting. Even had a bit of a creek crossing:
By the time I got to HAMI 203 intersection, the trail was harder than a brick and the ice scratchers weren’t even etching into the hard pack. Steering become extremely darting and the overheat lamp tripped on. Figured this would be a good place to stop and have a snack break:
In the event I made it this far, I had wanted to do some loops in the Stratford trail system, maybe run by Good Luck Lake, Dexter Lake, Spectacle Lake, Third Lake and Fourth Lake, maybe even find my way to Pleasant Lake. Then I would find C8A to make my way back over to Powley Road.
But there was no way that was going to happen with those trails as hard and tight as they were. So I turned tail and headed back up C8.
Coming back…
When I got back up to HM 204 intersection, I gave S81/Wagoner Loop trail a shot. That’s a goat path in its truest sense of the word:
It definitely gave the shoulders a workout. But hey, it was a fun ride with nearly no bumps!
About half-way though, I encountered this fallen tree that probably would have taken me at least a half hour to hack through with my handsaw:
While I was walking around this mess to investigate a way to ride my sled around it, I broke through and found myself up to my hip-socket in snow! No sir I was going to try that all alone. So I turned tail and headed back to C8 to get back to Powley Road.
Powley Road was its usual glorious rip. But that ungroomed section between the north end of Powley Road and Route 10 was beyond horribly rough – about as bad as I’ve ever felt it. UGH….
C8/Spy Lake trail was snirty and studdery most of the way through. I was more than happy to hop on Spy Lake to bypass some of the trail. It was especially snirty on the turn on Jacks’ Hill:
When I got to Oxbow Inn, I saw why that trail got shredded up!
There were a significant number of sleds for a mid-week and people were waiting to even get a table. I think for a number of people, this week or this weekend will be their last rip for the season.
With my plans for lunch at Oxbow Inn shot to bits, I pressed toward Speculator. Oxbow Lake was an icy and rutty crossing – not very fun.
C4/Fish Mountain-Oxbow trail was snirty and had studders and rollers all the way through. Fun if you’re into snowcross.
Sacandaga Lake and Lake Pleasant were much better crossings than Oxbow Lake.
LP1/Page Street trail was snirty and bumpy.
Speculator Business Access Trail was brown and not doing a great job resembling snow. But bless their hearts, the groomers had it flat:
Made it to the Mountain Market for a refuel and lunch stop. And today’s call was for the foot-long Philly and a cup-o-joe:
Speculator Tree Farm, then home!
To be honest, I wanted to head straight home. But we’re approaching that late time of winter when I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to swing through again for any given area. So I went for it.
River Trail was horribly bumpy and rough. It was old school Bumpulator. Not even the 2 Miles of Hell could hold its jock strap.
After I bumped my way over the Route 8/30 Bridge, LP4A treated me to a brown, yet flat ride down to the Tree Farm.
The plowed part of Old Route 30 had good enough snow to slide through. Fly Creek Road was pretty good from bottom to top. Long Level Road and Elm Lake Road were a notch smoother than Fly Creek Road.
The gold star for the Tree Farm went to Wolf Hill Road, which almost never disappoints:
Hatchery Brook Road back up to Perkins Clearing Road was a good ride, probably about as good as I’ve ridden it this winter.
Perkins Clearing was still being worked on by the Lake Pleasant groomers when I rolled through. For the change of pace, I leaned on S82C/Old Indian Lake Road which needs only a pass of the groomer to make it perfect. Stopped to admire one of my favorite slices of Adirondack heaven along this trail:
2 Miles from Hell was groomed for a better ride than it was Wednesday morning. But the throttle piles and studderbumps were already starting to come back.
Rolled back into Indian Lake and found C8/Sabael trail and the main arteries around town full of shredder bumps and studder bumps.
By the time I rolled back to the compound, I had clicked off 138 miles for the day and was happy to get off my sled for the evening. No need to extend the ride after enduring the lumps on the way home.
I ended up finding more “adventure” than I bargained for. But it’s all good! Would love to run the Stratford trails that I didn’t get to ride today. Not sure I’ll get to do that before this winter closes out. But that’s something to stick on my bucket list. I hadn’t ridden those trails in so long, I have very little recollection – so it’d almost be new to me.
Moral of the story… Be willing to try something new or something you haven’t tried in a while.
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.
