I’ve been racking up the rides, miles and smiles for the past couple of weeks.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been riding Franklin and St. Lawrence counties fairly often, discovering new (to me) riding territory. It’s an amazing trail system up there.
On Thursday, I wanted to put it all together into a big loop. I actually had a plan for this trip, and I was actually able to stick with it.
Getting started
I parked at Washington Street parking lot in Tupper Lake to kick off the ride. The trail through Little Wolf Pond was bumpy in places, but got the job done. There was little more than a half-mile of roadside riding to reach the pond.
Turned my skis onto 732/Matumbla trail and found a fresh groom. A lot of great riding through that avenue.
The trail narrowed down into Piercefield, but still good riding with just a few thin spots and rock clanks.
On to St. Lawrence County
C7 off the railroad track was a much nicer ride than I had found it on Tuesday. But I didn’t give the groomer a big enough head start. It took the operator a few minutes to find a spot wide enough to let me pass by.
S79 was good at first, then became studdery. I encountered stretches of high rollers approaching the top at Intersection 7.
Turned left and ripped C7C through the Boy Scout Camp. C7A, 718, S88 and S88A was a stretch of fantastic riding over to Intersection 25.
From there, I rode C8 all the way up to the Route 56 crossing. Most of that was very nice riding and I encountered grooming in progress north of Trooper Shed.
Once the trail narrowed after crossing Route 56, C8 wasn’t quite as smooth, but still a decent ride through the twisties. I just love this spot in the clearing.
C8D passed through plowed driveways, but had solid ice base and enough pow-pow to slide by. The trail could have used a combover in places by the groomer after I crossed Route 56 again. The scenery was like riding through a winter post card.
Once C8D opened wide, it combined with C8E for a wonderful ride into South Colton. I stopped at Boyce’s Store and Deli for a gas top off. By that time, I had ridden 65 miles and hadn’t even gotten off my sled or stopped for a break (other than to snap pictures). Figured it would be a good opportunity to rest, warm up and get lunch.
Got the cheese steak. When they asked me whether half or whole, I said “Whole! Gotta go big or go home.”
Next leg
This section would be new (to me) riding, so didn’t know what to expect. That’s part of the fun in discovery, right?
S86A started as a long stretch of roadside riding along the shore of South Colton Reservoir. Once the trail moved into the woods, it was decent enough to pass through – some bigger bumps here and there.
Not sure how I found myself on C8 (which was my plan), but trail signs eventually indicated I had joined that trail. About 3 miles of that was narrow Arietta/Stratford style single sled width goat-path. It wasn’t great riding, but thank goodness a groomer had passed through there recently. That could have been BAD!
Here was a nice shot along the way in an opening.
Once C8 opened wide, the riding became super fun! Hitting Jones Road fully opened up a Pandora’s box of AWESOME riding to come.
The ensuing miles of C8 were amazing and euphoric riding. LONG SUSTAINED STRETCHES of flawless riding, absolute top shelf riding you might encounter only a couple of times all winter. Had this all to myself, yeah!! Eventually the trail narrowed and riding conditions came back down to earth, still quite good through until I found this frozen water hole.
Then, it was back to good!
Reentering Franklin County
C8 remained great and fun riding to Meacham Lake State Park. There were a few sections where the trail had narrowed, maybe a few bumps/thin spots in those places. Mr. Pumpkin was smiling.
At Intersection 22, I went “off-script” and split onto C7A with thoughts of riding up to Moira then over to Malone to really widen the loop. That started half-way decent, then got bumpy. Didn’t want to stick with that for the next 25 miles, so I turned tail and returned to the great stuff on C8. Shot this nice distant mountain pic before I turned around.
C8 from Meacham Lake over to C7 was narrow and windy at times, with one nasty rough section locals call “The Rock Garden”. But overall, definitely worth riding.
Once I reached C7, I had rolled off 136 miles for the day and dismounted my snowmobile for only the second time on this ride. While C8 had at several lengthy roadside stretches, there always seemed to be good snow along the margins to scoot by. That was nice!
After that reset, I headed toward Charlie’s Inn. C7 was full of soft-studderbumps. Figured this would be a great excuse to peel off to S83 and hit C7B. That proved to be a GREAT CALL! C7B started like butter along the lake shore and continued that way for most of my ride on it. AMAZING!!
I used the cut-over trail to get back to C7. That stretch had some bumpy sections and a couple of frozen water holes. But it was groomed well enough to permit a fun ride, overall.
The final 4 miles of C7 to Charlie’s Inn was incredibly fast, ranging from smooth to very slight studder-ripple. I encountered a guy on the side of the trail, who’s snowmobile motor had blown. He lived in Lake Clear, so I was able to tow him back to his house within 15 minutes.
After that, I doubled back to Charlie’s Inn to rest, warm up and grab a candy bar from the vending machine.
For the mega-miler!
Once I left Charlie’s Inn, I saw fresh groomer ribbon heading toward Saranac Lake. At this point, I did the mileage math in my head and sniffed the mega-miler. Bonus night riding, bro!!
Indeed, it was a great ride into Saranac Lake. After a quick gas stop at Stewarts, I pressed along and found C7B studder-bumpy for stretches through the city and beyond, but friendly enough to make the eventual run to Lake Placid. It did get thin and pebbly passing through Ray Brook, but not horrendous.
On the return run, I encountered the Lake Placid guys laying down ribbon. Nice riding ensued though Saranac Lake to Lake Clear.
Lake Clear to Floodwood on C7 was heaven on a snowmobile, for incredible night riding. The final miles to Tupper Lake had small bumps, but nothing that chattered my teeth. Inner Tupper Lake trails were beat by the time I got back to the truck.
And whomp, there it is! Mega-miler tally…
For me, the solo mega-miler is the pinnacle of snowmobiling. Means I was out there all day into the night, having fun. I have 100% control over course and pace.
This trip had wonderful water views along the way. I could see myself doing this again.
Light snow was in the air for my trip home from Tupper Lake Thursday night, But I got home long before the snow squalls and falling temperatures hit.
T’was a great day!
Don’t think I’ll be riding Friday. Certainly not far, even if I decided to. If something unfortunate happens in daytime sub-zero temperatures and bone-cutting icy wind, things could go badly in a hurry. I’ll take the time to reload for my next rides.
It’s been a tough winter. I’ve needed to be creative and truck-it-to-ride-it nearly each time out. As long as wake up feeling great every day and bring my A-plus fastball to this game, I’ll keep at this. Feeling electric never grows stale!
Look at opportunities, not obstacles. You’ll likely discover new riding territory.
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
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