No matter how good the riding is where I can truck my snowmobile, it’s always best when I can roll it out from the compound.
I hadn’t ridden down to Wells this winter. Believe it or not, I hadn’t ridden the Speculator area in nearly a month!
Wasn’t gunning for big miles. Just wanted to have a enjoyable, easy-paced day to finish this week’s binge ride-a-thon.
Temperature started at -22*F Friday morning, which set a new record low for March 4th at the Indian Lake Cooperative Weather Observation station. On mornings like these, I like to wait until the temperature creeps above zero before heading out. It was 5*F when I set sail around 9:30am.
Leaving Indian Lake
Indian Lake main arteries ranged from nearly smooth to soft low studders when I headed out. S87/42nd and Broadway was a good rip.
C8/Sabael trail was a tad bumpier than the rest, but not that bad. There was a washout trench in the trail about a quarter-mile from Furnell’s Field. It was marked with red tape on the trees: easy enough to see in daylight, but not easy to see after dark.
Cold weather had tightened up the edges on Indian Lake, so that was good to go! Excellent riding on Indian Lake and Lewey Lake.
Campsites were bumpy, but not yet sno-cross material. C8/2 Miles from Hell was a bumpy, but serviceable pathway: seen it worse, seen it better. There was at least one washout hole in the trail.
Into Speculator
Perkins Clearing Road was far from being it’s best, but worth the price of bumping and grinding my way through 2 Miles from Hell. My first stop of the day is one of my favorites in Perkins Clearing. The sun felt warm and I was riding alone. This allowed me to stop often and take many pictures on the ride.
C4 down into Speculator, was freshly groomed and by far the best I’ve seen it all winter, hands down! Good to excellent riding continued through LP4, Business Access trail and down LP4A toward Wells.
Entering Wells
I decided to try C4B/Gilmantown trail. It was certainly bumpy, but soft enough to keep my interest. There were several small washouts along the way. The ride quality did improve as I crossed the town line into Wells. Of course, power lines were the most fun riding.
After basking in the late winter sun for a bit, I dropped into Wells. The riding through town down to Lake Algonquin was good to excellent with a recent groom.
Lake Algonquin was an ABSOLUTE BLAST to rip across! The view of it from the bluff was fantastic.
The road off the south end of Lake Algonquin was bare, but I was able to hump the snowbank onto Schyler Road and Abrams Road until I hit S44 to Sacandaga Campground. This hasn’t been groomed in a while. But low traffic kept the trail from getting beaten up badly. And I can’t complain about the view!
I pressed along S44 to Pumpkin Hollow Road. The biggest hazard along the way was a washout stream as I drew closer to Route 30.
Pumpkin Hollow Road was bare, but I was able to ride the snowbank nearly all the way through.
I had never ridden S43 east past HAMI 705, so I decided to give that a shot. No fresh snowmobile tracks through there, which meant breaking new ground. When the pavement ended, I ran a small stretch of seasonal road. The trail kept closing in thereafter.
After a while, I saw only snowshoe tracks crossing a bridge barely wider than my snowmobile. After the bridge crossing, snowshoe tracks exited stage left and I was roaming into no man’s land.
About a mile after I crossed the bridge, the combination of side slope, boulder in the trail and an old fallen tree convinced me to turn around. No way I was gonna make it to Wilcox Lake on the big, heavy 900 ACE Turbo. But I gotta say I made it pretty far in there.
It was a fun side ride to incorporate into my toolbox. In future forays back there, I’ll just call it good at the bridge and turn around.
On my way back out, I had considered running S43 northward to S47 and loop it back into Wells. But after my trek into the middle of nowhere, I was content to double back the way I came.
I was dying for a cheeseburger wrap and homemade chips at Over Rock Cafe. But they were closed due to a private party.
Up to Speculator Tree Farm
Ran S42 northward along Route 30. That was good riding northward out of Wells. Once crossing Route 8, I encountered some roller bumps whilst riding up the gorge. But it was still a fun ride.
Out of curiosity, I decided to try C4/Griffin Gorge trail only because it had a lot of tracks going in there. There was one big washout and several smaller washouts, but I was astonished this trail was actually ride-able. After I crossed the wooden bridge about halfway down, the ride became bumpier but the washouts disappeared.
This ride wasn’t for the faint of heart. However, I enjoyed stopping by the river.
On a lark, I crossed Route 8 and continued on C4 toward S43/Pine Orchard for a half-mile look-see. It was well tracked. But it was twisty, extremely narrow and I was clipping rocks…definitely not my kind of riding.
After turning back and running C4 back up to Old Route 30, I spotted Speculator friends having a rest break. They had a friend from the Great State of Texas riding with them.
After chit-chatting for a bit, I continued my run into the Speculator Tree Farm. Old Route 30, Fly Creek Road and Long Level Road could have used a pass of the groomer to iron out low roller bumps. But it was still a fun rip through that avenue.
Elm Lake Road was recently groomed and won the Speculator Tree Farm gold star of the day. I ran up Hatchery Brook trail and hit Wolf Hill Road run a loop so I could hit Elm Lake Road again. That was a good ride, but some of the southern exposures were getting thin and pebbly.
I took an opportunity to go “off grid” and have this place to myself for a half-hour.
Hit S41D down Silver Hill, which was pretty good down the hill and great at the bottom. Looks like they had run a groomer on C4 toward the river, which maybe gave it a half-way shot at being a decent ride. But I wanted to milk the Tree Farm for all it had, so I ran C4/Cave Hill Road down to Old Route 30, which was a decent ride aside from some rollers.
After that, I ran LP4A for a fast rip up to the postcard sign.
I decided to try something new by going to the Lemon Tree Brewery. Opted for the Buffalo chicken wrap panini. There is a nice fireplace in there. Definitely worth a stop if you’re looking for something different and don’t mind choosing from a small, but good menu.
The way home
Business Access Trail, LP4 and C4 from Speculator into Perkins Clearing had suffered wear and tear from today’s traffic, but were still easily passable.
Ran Perkins Clearing Road straight up the gut. South end had worn corners. North end was better.
2 Miles of Hell was a bit worse by late afternoon, but not bad enough to pound piss and blood out of me.
Indian Lake was a fun rip at twilight. Edges of the lake had become damp, as a reminder not to loiter near shore.
C8/Sabael trail had enjoyed a groom whilst I was playing down south and was holding up pretty good into the early evening.
Indian Lake trails had soft studders from the day’s traffic, but were holding up OK. S85/Ski Hut trail and S86/Little Canada were good for a cheap thrill to wrap up the ride.
Didn’t even try for miles and ended up with 140 for the day.
Let’s see…
140 miles Friday
145 miles Thursday
136 miles Wednesday
180 miles Tuesday
That’s 600+ miles I would have missed if I had listened to Johnny Couch Rider and Debby Downer saying it was NO GO!
After Sunday, we’ll hear from Donnie Doomsday saying that snowmobiling season is over…
But I’ve played the game to know it’s never truly over until the fat lady sings. A one day Chinook and a half-inch of rain will make it f-ugly, but won’t wipe us out. ILsnow land will live to ride another day.
Time for me to run and hide from the weekenders. Have fun out there!
For the ilsnow nation.
Darrin
This report is brought to you by Allen Van Hoff – Howard Hanna Real Estate Services. Voted Realtor of the Year 2016 by Southern Adirondacks Realtors Inc., Allen Van Hoff is best described as a warm and friendly, attentive full-time real estate professional with a passion for the area and people he serves.
