After Thursday’s exhausting day of snow removal, I was definitely in the mood to stay home and bang out a ride from the compound.
Watching the Town of Indian Lake groomer roll through ilsnow Capital City amped up my excitement. By the time I headed out early Friday afternoon, I already heard reports of good riding from Moose River Plains through C8 into Indian Lake.
When I’m starting from this, I know it’s gonna be a good day!
S86/main drag into Town was in good shape, but was already showing signs of abuse from jackals who think the throttle is a thumb pumping exercise. Almost from the get-go, I encountered some riders who weren’t happy with just their side of the trail on corners.
S86/Little Canada from One Stop to Sawmill Road was groomed but still needed more snow. But Sawmill Road to Lone Birch was a roll on the white carpet.
Adirondack Lake was a fun rip! S87/42nd and Broadway was a nice ride.
Rolled S84 toward Blue Mountain Lake for a look-see. It hadn’t been groomed yet. Was bumpy in places but I wanted to sample it to Rock Lake Marsh. Encountered some water spots, but nothing horrible. Made it about a mile past Million Dollar Bridge until I encountered this large fallen tree mass.
I could have ridden around it, but I decided to turn tail and hit other places for recon. Hopefully, this will have been cleared up by the weekend and S84 combed through with the groomer.
Heading south
Saw smooth, groomed riding into C8/Sabael trail and got excited!
Unfortunately, after Pashley Road it was bumpy and rough with at least several large water hazards to negotiate. The trail was passable, but I had to be extra careful.
Indian Lake was fairly heavily trafficked with mini-drag strips. I only encountered slush near the ice hump by Watch Hill toward the south end of the lake. Off the beaten track, my skis and track cut through ice glaze like a spoon through the crust of a crème brulée. Was actually pretty fun!
Indian Lake to Lewey Lake Campsites was bumpy, but not yet a medieval torture chamber. Lewey Lake was another nice rip.
C8/Two Miles from Hell was groomed. Save for several water spots, it was by far the best ride I’ve had on it all winter. For the first time, it seemed more of an actual snowmobile ride than a bump-n-grind-athon. It looked pretty darn dapper up top just before Perkins Clearing Road.
Perkins Clearing was its usual snowmobiling happy place.
Onto…Speculator!
In the back side of Perkins Clearing, I sniffed C4/C8 Big Brook trail. It had been groomed, so I rolled through the green light! Had a few water hazards and some spots that needed more snow. But overall, a very serviceable ride.
C4/Fawn Lake trail? Even better, Johnny!!!
Sacandaga Lake was a fun rip to Moffitt Beach. LP1/Page Street trail was a good roll onto Lake Pleasant.
Business Access Trail (BAT) was studder-bumpy throughout and bony in places, but it got the job done in getting me to Mountain Market for my usual foot-long Philly cheesesteak with all toppings and small dark roast coffee. Just call it the Darrin Happy Meal!
Heading home
Decided to give C4/Oak Mountain the sniff test. It was rough and ragged as Lindsay Lohan after a 3 day coke binge. Sure, I could have ran that cheesegrater all the way to the top for the sake of a trail report.
But I had more than enough intel by Oak Mountain. I turned tail to go with the horse that got me into Speculator with smiles. Yes, Fawn Lake trail was holding up nicely by evening. Smart decisions are sometimes rewarded.
Big Brook trail had gotten a tad bumpier for the return run, but still light years better than C4/Oak Mountain trail was. Took a sniff on C4/C8 Willis Mountain trail – hard studderbumps galore, didn’t stick with it long.
Rolling around Perkins Clearing
This was basically pad the ride with miles-n-smiles time. Carpenter Hill Road was up for the booty call, a fun roll down to Mossy Vly. After crossing the Vly, I endured icy plowed road and a logging slash field.
I got to see a skidder with bright lights drag several logs through the woods at night. Kind of reminded me of the machine rolling over skulls in the opening scene of Terminator. Pretty cool to watch, being that I’ve watched that movie and all other Ah-nold 80s action flicks countless times. But I gotta say Commando is my all-time favorite; I think Ah-nold was at his absolute zenith on that one with over-the-top action and pithy one-liners. Predator and Running Man were awesome too. Just can’t go wrong with any of them, lol!
LP9/Nichol Vly was the best ride I’ve had on it all winter. Just a few spots on the west side that chronically need more snow.
Rolled Perkins Clearing Road down to the Southern Bypass trail for a sniff. It had been groomed. Was quarter-way decent ride on my half-mile sample of it.
Saw fresh groomer tracks heading on the trail to Pig Rock parking lot. Aside from one big water hole near the beginning, it was a pretty good ride to the icy plowed road section. Trail was thin and stubbly through the logging slash field to Route 30, but it was groomed and passable.
After I crossed the highway, a fresh groom continued into Speculator Tree Farm. I didn’t pursue it though. It was well after dark and getting colder by the minute, which made me decide to save Tree Farm for another ride.
Back to Indian Lake
Nothing fancy, just straight up the gut via Perkins Clearing Road, 2 Miles from Hell, Lewey Lake, Indian Lake and C8/Sabael trail. By the time I got back to Town, the main drag had succumbed to throttle jackal abuse, with continual studders from Bear Trap Swamp to Crow Hill Road.
I saw good & bad, while experiencing occasional great sprinkled in. Well worth getting out there! Not like I was totally surprised, but the quality of snowmobile riding was about as good as I could have hoped for. The groomers are really trying to make it work.
In case you were wondering, I didn’t drop my ice scratchers and only have mini-studs on the ice ripper track. And yet, the ACE Turbo never came close to overheating. Warmed up a bit on plowed icy roads and after I ran hard and fast on lakes, but that was it. Some new snow Saturday afternoon should put engine cooling and slide lube concerns to rest.
Bottom line
Riding this weekend will be like playing Press Your Luck. You’ll win prizes and hit whammies.
I can tell you that ilsnow land is a viable option for snowmobiling. I wouldn’t have rolled off 103 miles Friday afternoon into evening if the riding was mostly garbage. Don’t listen to Debbie Downer and Johnny Couchbanger, who’ll tell you it’s over..
Last weekend, we were dead. This weekend, we’re alive. Simple as that…
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
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