Sunday night’s event deposited 3-6 inches of snow on the central Adirondacks and 6-9 inches along the Route 8 corridor in the Speculator region.
After settling, snowpack ranges from several inches in thin/exposed areas to a general 6-12 inches in the shady woods. “Snow bowls” in the back side of Perkins Clearing and the high elevations of Moose River Plains Road between Headquarters and Silver Run probably hold over a foot of snow. Sub-par for mid-winter, but light years better than living on skid row for the past few weeks.
Seasonal road snowmobile trails such as Perkins Clearing, Moose River Plains, Speculator Tree Farm, Powley Road are good-to-go, plug-n-play. Grooming on these trails should start soon, if not already.
As for narrow woods trails, many of them were rideable but bumpy as of Monday. It will be up to each Town and Club’s discretion as to which trails can be groomed this week. Another dump of snow Wednesday night will further help the groomers to work some magic on as many trails as possible before the weekend. It’s a process, not an event…
A WORD ON LAKES:
I’ll never tell you that lakes are “safe” to ride. Snowmobiling on lakes is always and forever, AT YOUR OWN RISK! But I know people will ride them by this weekend with the new snow. I trust that we’ll all be adults and accurately assess whether the reward of riding lakes is worth the inherent risk. I don’t want to read about your snowmobile sinking to the bottom of the lake in next week’s Hamilton County Express.
Over the past week, ice fisherman have reported up to 12 inches of ice on Indian Lake, NY area lakes. That being said, inlets and outlets have open water or very thin ice, due to the warmth and rain we’ve had this winter. On Long Lake, I have observed large expanses of open water at the south end of the lake and again north of the Route 30 bridge where the Raquette River channel runs though.
On Indian Lake, a large pressure ridge has been reported from Norman’s Cove all the way across the lake to Sabael, somewhere between the north end of Lake Shore Road and the old Lake Store. I’ve been told that it’s high enough in places to wreck your day in a hurry if you hit it at speed.
If you have any doubts, do not ride the lakes!
Weekend Outlook
Given how this winter has gone, it may be a no brainer to get here and ride this weekend. Even though trail conditions wouldn’t approach perfect, do you really want to press your luck and wait for next weekend?
I’d say ride this weekend, then plan on hitting it again next weekend when it’s (hopefully) better yet. Nearly half the winter is pissed down the drain. How much more waiting can you endure?
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
This report is brought to you by Progressive Motorsports, celebrating their 30th 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.
