1/18/22 UPDATE: Indian Lake Parks and Rec are out grooming the Town trails! I saw fresh groomer marks on C8 heading out to Cedar River Headquarters.
Monday 1/17/22 Report
I was surprised to the point of being aghast at how many people were out riding in town this weekend before the storm hit. It couldn’t have been fun. Hey, it was the holiday weekend and people were up here anyway.
Notwithstanding disappointment by some, the storm brought what we sorely needed – a solid dump of base building snow. Most snowfall reports I’ve seen for the central Adirondacks by Monday evening were in the 7-10 inch range. I did see a report of a foot-plus close to the Hamilton/Warren County border.
After I finished my household snow removal duty, I had to go out and ride because I hadn’t done anything other than lawn jockey rips this winter. Gotta say that I was so out of practice, it took me a half-hour to get my gear on properly and locate all clothing and accessories I needed to ride – even though I thought I had it together. Clearly wasn’t in mid-winter form on that.
Around Indian Lake
The best riding conditions were on the lakes. I rode Adirondack Lake and Indian Lake and didn’t encounter slush on either. That may change as time goes on. And yes, I’ll add my usual disclaimer: Riding on lakes is always at your own risk.
Town trails had sufficient snow to ride, but were bumpy from holiday weekend traffic. The groomers hadn’t come out yet. My carbides clipped a few rock tops, but I wasn’t flat out banging into rocks. Didn’t venture on C8 toward Headquarters or S84 toward Blue Mountain Lake because I didn’t have the appetite to bump and grind on those for miles and bang rocks.
Instead, I ripped the lakes and buzzed around some “off the grid” trails for maximum enjoyment.
I did encounter several slush spots, but none enough to swamp my sled:
But for the most part, trails were looking solid
Someone who rode his snowmobile up from Speculator told me 2 Miles From Hell was brutal but Perkins Clearing was nice.
Rolled back to the compound with my first 25 miles of the season (not counting lawn jockey rips). I’m running new iron, a 2022 900 ACE Turbo Renegade X with ice ripper track. Had fun running it over to Mom’s house so I could dig out the pathways.
When you ride here this winter, you’ll notice more signs at intersections to help you get around. A few of the signs will make you wonder why they didn’t use auto-spell-correct. I’ll let you find them for amusement when you get here.
Mid Week Outlook
An Alberta Clipper will bring another application of snow on Wednesday, but probably not on the order of what we got Sunday night into Monday. Otherwise, we’ll have typical mid-winter cold most days this week.
Snowpack is approaching respectable, finally!
The new snow has pushed us over the hump into “real snowmobile riding.” Once the groomers get out to make their rounds, it will be possible to have enjoyable or at least semi-enjoyable riding from town to town, in addition to riding circles in Perkins Clearing or parking at the Browns Farm and heading into Moose River Plains.
Dang, it felt good to get out there and get my sea legs back! I’m having fun again…
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
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