Or PROBABLY the last Ohio run of this snowmobiling season for me, barring an unforeseen white intervention.
After an early morning low of 10*F, I allowed the sun to be my friend and soften things up. By 10am, I was ready to rip!
From Indian Lake, I rode to the back side of Perkins Clearing to embark on the trip. Won’t go into the blow-by-blow because it was in line with what I experienced on Tuesday’s ride.
But I will put this picture up, showing what parts of C8/Sabael trail leaving Indian Lake were looking like Wednesday morning:
Those areas grew longer and more numerous as the day went on….
To Morehouse
C4/C8 Big Brook trail was somewhat more stuttery than I had found it on Tuesday, but it was decent enough to keep rolling with it.
Continuing onto Willis Mountain trail wasn’t quite as bumpy. But the continual small bumps made the riding laborious through that avenue. I knew I wouldn’t want to ride back through there if I didn’t have to.
When I stopped at HM8 intersection, a tandom of groomers moved out of C4/Fall Lake trail and headed down C8 toward Piseco airport. I was more than happy to hang out there for a while to give the groomers a sufficient head start.
My patience was rewarded with a nice ride down to Piseco Lake. And WOW…I had one of the nicest cruises I’ve experienced on Piseco. By mid-day, there were already small areas of standing water on the lake.
The trail connecting Piseco Lake to Evergreen Lake was a pretty good ride. Evergreen was a sweet crossing.
C4A/C4 into Morehouse was great riding with long stretches nearly perfect. It was a glorious ride through the hardwoods:
The only true blemish was the half-mile or so of skank I had to weave around, left behind from the logging earlier this winter:
West of Erb Road on C4, there was the usual half-mile of roller-rama. The remainder the ride to the Herkimer County line was nice with a slight roller or studder every once in a while.
Down to Ohio
S46A down to the Route 8 crossing was so horribly bumpy and rough, I questioned my decision not to take the easy rip down C4/Jones Road. The remainder of the ride down to Nobleboro was just barely “good enough” to keep me going in that direction.
Figured it was time for a rest stop to soak up the sun after I crossed the bumpy Route 8 bridge. It was REALLY WARM by this time:
S46A rewarded my patience on the other side of Nobleboro, quite nicely!
C4H/Mad Tom trail kept the good times rolling down to Route 365.
Had some bumpy and browinsh bridge crossing and snowbank riding along Route 8:
Then C4B was a fun and at times very brown rip down to the Ohio Tavern.
By mid-afternoon, it felt nearly too warm to be riding. Was glad to stop for lunch and to cool down! Texas burger with sweet potato fries for the meal. Cheesecake with strawberries for dessert:
It certainly hit the sweet spot!
The way home…
After lunch, I ripped northward to HERK 125 intersection and hung the right to continue on C4B. There was some really beautiful riding through that avenue:
Then I aimed up C4 toward Jones Road. Ohio Ridge Riders get a gold star for their shelved and groomed snowbanks. With the exceptions of direct or diagonal road crossings, my skis touched the road only a few times, for short distances:
C4/Jones Road was an outrageously fast and fun rip back to Morehouse.
C4/C4A through Morehouse had shown some deterioration from the afternoon heat, but was still a great late winter ride to roll back into ilsnow land.
By late afternoon, the lakes had large areas of standing water on them. Here was Evergreen Lake:
Sloshing through the water was so much fun, I wanted to hit them all on the way home: Piseco Lake, Fall Lake, Oxbow Lake, Sacandaga Lake, Lake Pleasant, Lewey Lake, Indian Lake. The only one I didn’t hit was Mason Lake.
C4/Fish Mountain – Oxbow trail was brown with bare spots along with studders and some rollers. But somehow, it wasn’t nearly as bad as what I was bracing for:
LP1/Page Street was brown and starting to get skanky in the woods.
Speculator Village? Brown-ulator! Skank-ulator!
C4 passing Melody Lodge was getting cooked to dirt on the southern exposures and rocks were poking through the snow. But the riding was pretty flat.
The wet lakes were all I needed to pad the fun, so no need to add miles just for the sake of doing that. Ran Perkins Clearing Road straight up the gut. Had plenty of studder bumps through the south end. But did improve from the Perkins T intersection up to Mason Lake.
C8/2 Miles of Hell was quite possibly the slowest and most painful bumpy ride I’ve had through there – in forever. Bumps were setting hard with the evening cool down. JUST AWFUL!
It was a bit disquieting to see nothing but dark grey standing water on the south end of Indian Lake nearing twilight. But I ripped all the way through without incident.
C8/Sabael was a tortuous, bumpy as %*@#*&^!*! run back into town with dirt stretches having grown as temperatures reached into the middle-50s during the day.
No victory lap for me, as the Indian Lake main artery trails were seedy and getting skanky. Rolled back into the compound about 7pm with 143 miles spun off for the ride.
Unless I’m willing to trailer somewhere next week, this might have been my last dance. My season total is 2198 miles, definitely on the light side for me, owing to the very late arrival of ride-able conditions and having my sled down for 2 weeks in February.
The ole 4-TEC has nearly 14K miles. She’s been a great sled. But nothing lasts forever. It’s getting time to look ahead and spring order a replacement for 2021-22.
Weekend Outlook?
Snow pack is still in the 1-2 foot range as of Wednesday evening, so there will still be something left after the meltdown. And we will not have a big rain to blow things out.
My best suggestion would be to start somewhere with direct access to Perkins Clearing, Speculator Tree Farm or Powley Road and see where you can go from there. Morehouse trails will likely be ride-able, but that logging area will be skanky or bare. Whatever remains ride-able will freeze up hard for the weekend. Lakes will likely harden up to glare ice.
You need the die hard mentality if you want to get your kicks in this weekend.
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.
