I got a text from Crazy Cal Sunday morning, asking me if I wanted to ride. To be honest, I hadn’t planned on riding and was content to stay home. I’d go take a walk to grab some outdoors.
But the weather was beautiful and how many rides had I lost due to winter’s late start? So, I decided to go for it and we were out riding by 10:20am.
We chose to ride south to capitalize on smooth lake riding. That proved to be the correct call right away. Indian Lake town trails had enjoyed a morning groom, so C8/Sabael trail was a pretty good ride all the way through.
Indian Lake and Lewey Lake were fast rips. The Campsite trail had even been groomed. We were off to a great start!
C8/Two Miles of Hell was awful – but not as horrible as I recalled from last weekend. Perkins Clearing Road and Jessup River Road were good to occasionally excellent riding. Carpenter Hill Road and Mud Lake Road were not quite as good, but still enjoyable.
Into Speculator Tree Farm
LP41C/Hatchery Brook trail was quite rough at times and needs a good dump of snow. I was determined not to go back home that way. Wolf Hill Road was a better ride, but not “prime Tree Farm” riding. Elm Lake Road and Long Level Road were good riding. Fly Creek Road was a decent ride. C4/Old Route 30 had plenty of wavy bumps, but still afforded a half-way decent run down to the steel bridge.
We hung out off the beaten path for a bit while we were back there.
Up to Speculator Village and over to Oxbow
Ran Old Route 30 to connect with LP4A, which was a decent enough ride back up to Speculator. Had nice rips across Lake Pleasant and Sacandaga Lake.
In between the lakes, LP1/Page Street was quite bumpy in places. But we’ve all seen worse. C4/Fish Mountain Trail was bumpy in places – and we had to work around rocks past the cemetery.
After another fast rip over Oxbow Lake, it was lunch at the Oxbow Inn. This time, I ordered the prime rib French dip special with sweet potato tots.
The way home
We opted to hit C4/Fawn Lake Trail and C4/C8 Big Brook trail to make the run into Perkins Clearing. That stretch had plenty of scuff and a few places with whopping moguls. But overall, it was a good enough ride to be happy with our choice.
Aside from the horrible Two Miles from Hell, it was a good ride back to Indian Lake. We ripped off the customary victory lap. S86A/Little Canada was a respectable cheap thrill. After refueling for the next trip at One Stop, I rolled back to the compound with 106.5 miles for the day.
Bottom line
My second Sunday ride went well enough to be happy with it. The weather was nearly perfect for riding and the weekend hordes had largely thinned out. Fish Mountain trail and LP4A were the only trails we encountered a significant number of oncoming snowmobiles. We managed over 100 miles, even though we stopped and chatted a number of times. Not all great rides for me are the solo mega-milers I’m famous for. Riding with life-long friends is awesome too!
Midweek outlook
I’m assuming the groomers will be out there doing what they can with what little we’ve got this week. Seasonable cold will hold into Tuesday before we attempt a warm-up on Wednesday. Thankfully, the blowtorch should be cut off at the pass. And we may have opportunity for meaningful snow Thursday into Friday. Will have to see whether or not sleet/freezing rain would cut down on snow accumulations. But there should be a net gain prior to the weekend.
We’ll take any breaks we can!
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
This report is brought to you by Chef Darrell’s Mountain Diner on the snowmobile trail in Blue Mountain Lake! A traditional diner serving breakfast all day, as well as lunch and dinner. They use fresh ingredients to handcraft a home-style menu in a casual, family-friendly environment. Open Thursday through Sunday all winter.
