Another late morning start for Thursday’s ride.
Needed to remove the 3 inches of glop built up on sections of my driveway and Mom’s driveway that I had neglected all week (because I’ve been riding) before it hardens up Thursday night and becomes nearly impossible to move before the next snow.
Just before noon, I was ready to roll!
Heading out
Main artery trails around Indian Lake ranged from nearly smooth to studder-ripple. A little brown in places, but holding up pretty well.
C8/Sabael trail
Town of Indian Lake Parks and Rec has tamed the tiger! The worst remaining offender is a stream cutting into the trail from a hillside. Marked with orange ribbons, ride with care.
Other than that, hands down the best ride I’ve had through that avenue all winter. There is no 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th place or honorable mention, lol!
Moving along…
Indian Lake and Lewey Lake were white velvet! Mid-30s temperature doesn’t help snowmobiling trails. But for lakes, it’s magic – somehow firming up the snowpack and softening the bumps at the same time. Just AWESOME!!!
Campsites in Between? Bumpy as (insert your favorite swear word here)!!!
C8/Two Miles from Hell? Studders and occasional rollers throughout. Some burnt sections near the bottom. A lot words just to say that it really sucked.
Perkins Clearing Road to Perkins-T and out to the back had some rumble-strips. But most of it was snowmobiling happy place.
On to Speculator
C4/C8 Big Brook trail had studder-stretches, but low enough and soft enough to permit an enjoyable enough ride through that avenue. Brownish in places, but not burnt.
C4/Fawn Lake trail was nice riding.
Sacandaga Lake was a nice rip. C8/Fish Mountain trail was a pretty good roll to the cemetery. After the cemetery, there was a near-mile stretch that always needs more snow to cover mud and rocks. But Pleasant Riders did a really good job of making that stretch comfortably passable.
Oxbow Lake was another helping of white velvet. Took a quarter-mile sniff on C8/Spy Lake trail. Corners were scuffed and brown, but it was quite passable.
Oxbow Inn had 30 snowmobiles parked in the yard with more moving in. Way too busy for this bro… But I’m really glad to see all the sleds there for Crysti’s sake. She’s one of the most cheery and optimistic people I know, but I think this winter ALMOST cracked her. No, we can’t make up for all the lost weekends this winter. But we can seize what’s here now. 🙂
Figured I’d just rip it to Speculator to grab a quick lunch at Mountain Market and bang out some more recon.
Ripped Sacandaga Lake across and only found a few slushy spots – no big deal.
LP1/Page Street was brownish, but a decent ride up to CampStore. Really choppy from Campstore down to Lake Pleasant.
Lake Pleasant? Another swath of white velvet!
Speculator Village was old school, hard-core Bumpulator. Heavy snowmobile traffic and warm’ish temperatures really did in the Business Access Trail (BAT). That wasn’t even the worst of it, lol!
LP4 was a chop-shop over to Mountain Market. But I made it for the Darrin Happy Meal.
Heard that C4/Oak Mountain to Perkins Clearing trail was REALLY, REALLY BAAAAAAD!! Decided to sniff it myself. By the time I got to Oak Mountain, I had endured my share of awful, ragged, saw-toothed bumps. Saw enough to know I wanted no more.
Supposed I could have muscled C4 or LP4A into Speculator Tree Farm. But I didn’t feel like taking my chances with Hatchery Brook trail or Pig Rock trail to arc back up to Perkins Clearing, when I could just double back on the good riding through Fawn Lake and rip a couple of lakes again.
Life is hard. Never be ashamed to aim for easy on a snowmobile when it’s readily available. No prizes are awarded for beating the snot out of yourself when you didn’t have to.
Saw a crew setting up for the Adirondack Cross Country Races on Lake Pleasant.
More details here….
The way home
Once I got back into Perkins Clearing, I rolled through Carpenter Hill Road and LP9/Nichol Vly. The vast majority of that was good to great riding – with the exceptions of bumpy Mossy Vly, the logging slash field and those several spots on LP9 that almost always need more snow because the water bars haven’t completely frozen.
Ripped it down to intersection of Perkins Clearing Road/Mud Lake Road, thence back up to Mason Lake. Did a quarter-mile sniff test on Southern Bypass trail – was brown and bumpy, but passable enough.
There is almost nothing better in snowmobiling than cranking and ripping over Indian Lake like you own it after bashing yourself silly on 2 Miles of Hell and the Campsites. It’s extremely cathartic and fun way to blow off steam after getting flogged through the meat grinder. Wow, that was great!
C8/Sabael trail (for the first time this winter) was a fairly nice welcome back into ilsnow Capital City. It’s been a really tough winter for the groomers to work that trail with all of the water flowing through it.
Indian Lake main artery trails were brownish when I got back into town late afternoon, but holding their own as fairly enjoyable riding.
S85/Ski Hut Trail, S87/42nd and Broadway and S86/One Stop to Lone Birch were good for cheap thrills. I was sure to rip across Adirondack Lake a few times to break 100 miles for the ride.
Indeed, I rolled back to the compound with 103 miles. Not bad for an afternoon, I’d say…
Bottom line
Every time Debbie Downer and Johnny Couch Banger says it’s done, we get more snow. Don’t that tear the rag off the bush, eh?
- 163 miles Tuesday
- 124 miles Wednesday
- 103 miles Thursday
- Out for more Friday.
And I haven’t starting these rides until late morning. Gotta give the groomers a head start!
Daresay I’m approaching an ilsnow-mobiling binge-a-thon…
Weekend Outlook
Village Motorsports told me their entire fleet is rented out for Saturday. New York Free Snowmobiling is this weekend. New batch of snow arriving Friday night into Saturday, with ilsnow land being one of the handful of places that can offer miles of riding. Snowmobiling races on Lake Pleasant.
I think the snowmobile trails will face a lot of pressure this weekend! It’s a nice problem to have…
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
The report is brought to you by Irondequoit Inn on Piseco Lake. Direct access to snowmobiling and cross country ski trails, direct access to lake ice fishing and close to ski & snowboarding mountains! Call us at 518-548-5500 or visit online to book your room.
