Ohio (and more) run!

Saturday, March 4th Update:

With the storm winding down late Saturday morning, Indian Lake is approaching 8-inch total at the ilsnow.com storm center. Based on Oak Mountain’s 10 inch observation early this morning, I’d say that Speculator is ending up with around foot.

New snow amounts decrease, pressing into the western and northern Adirondacks.

Friday, March 3rd Ride!

I was long overdue for an Ohio run. Their fantastic trail system has been closed the majority of this winter. Even today, there was not a lot of snow when I rolled through there.

Many of my favorite rides happen in March. Gotta love the clear, cold nights and sunny morning starts!

Things started off on the right foot with C8 through Bear Trap Swamp having enjoyed a morning groom.

C8/Sabael trail hadn’t been groomed yet, but a decent enough pathway except where the stream cuts into the trail.

Indian Lake!

Nothing beats a smooth rip on Indian Lake whilst bathing in the sun!

Moving on

C8/Two Miles of Hell? Ugh… The best thing I can say about the trail, it got me to Perkins Clearing. Pure bump-n-grind.

Perkins Clearing’s rumble strips hardened up Thursday night and were a tad jarring in the morning.

C4/C8 Big Brook Trail was studdery in places with a few rollers. Still tolerable.

C4/C8 Willis Mountain trail was a half-way decent, slow-motion roller coaster through the twisties with occasional studders thrown in. Town of Arietta was grooming with a skandic, which took some edge of the bumps. Past the kiosk, it became a better ride to Piseco Lake.

Piseco Lake was a fast and easy crossing. Found a few frozen slushy ruts.

Trail from Piseco Lake to Evergreen Lake was freshly groomed, for the win!!

Panther Mountain Stream was sufficiently frozen and Evergreen Lake was an uneventful crossing.

Morehouse

Shortly after Evergreen Lake, I encountered Town of Morehouse grooming. C4A & C4 was a beautiful ride into Hoffmeister.

C4/Hoffmeister to Hamilton County Line hadn’t been freshly groomed yet, but was a pretty enjoyable ride.

Onto Ohio!

C4/Jones Road was a fast and fun rip all the way down. C4 continuing along Gray-Wilmurt Road and Hill Road was a nicely shelved snowbank.

Vast majority of C4B was good to great riding with a fresh groom all the way through Ohio, over to Grant.

Continued on C4B until I hit C4 for an extremely fun rip through Hinckley State Forest. Plowed pavement sections had enough mealy snow on them to skate by.

Into Remsen

Was only going to run as far as Hinckley Reservoir, just to say I got there. Then I would turn back to Ohio. But I caught a fresh groom on C4 along Route 365.

By the time I stopped at Northway Stop N Shop for a break, I had already rolled over 85 miles. At this point, I determined not to make it home without at least 200 miles for the day.

C4 into Remsen was miles of fun riding with the fresh groom. Seasonal roads were a blast. Open fields had thin snow, but were flat and passable.

Then I encountered this mud patty!

Yes, I could have bowled my way through that skank pile. But just because you can do something doesn’t always mean that you always should. I hit the easy button and retraced my steps back to Ohio.

To Ohio Tavern

Once I got back to Hinckley State Forest, I rolled C4/C4G to complete the Ohio Loop. Best summary of that stretch: Seasonal roads, GREAT! Open fields, thin but flat and passable. Wooded trails, getting beaten up.

By early afternoon, C4B to Ohio Tavern was showing signs of considerable wear from traffic and warming temperatures.

There were about 2 dozen snowmobilers at Ohio Tavern. Way more busy than I’m used to. But screw it, I was getting hungry! Ran into Mike Saccente and his son and ended up eating lunch with them. I chatted Mike up for intel on trail conditions via Powley Road, Stratford, Salisbury and Norway.

For lunch, I opted for Texas burger with a side of sweet potato fries. If you want a tasty, fun burger that leaves bad onion breath for hours after, it NEVER disappoints. Sorry, no picture… I was hungry and down the hatch it went!

After lunch, I chatted with Dan and Becky in the kitchen for a few minutes. They were happy to be busy after such a lousy winter. I hope they get at least a couple more busy weekends on the Back-9 of Winter.

Via Salisbury/Powley Road

I decided to go for the loop instead of just running it back through Morehouse. When I encountered muddy conditions through Norway, I questioned that decision. Mike had told me it was muddy.

But….

As bad as that looked, I’ve ridden even leaner conditions through Norway, so I kept pressing on until I regained snow on C4/Military Road enroute to Salisbury. Wasn’t the best I’ve seen it, but was entirely passable. The wooded sections of C4 had a few big mud holes on spots I hadn’t seen before. Studderchoppy riding at times. But Salisbury Ridgerunners, bless their hearts, were grooming it!

From Salisbury Clubhouse, C4A was chattery on the skis, with some rollers. But at least there weren’t any mudholes. After C4A dumped onto Ukrainian Road, it was a relative cakewalk into Stratford.

The push home

Took a few minutes for a rest stop at the bottom of Dugway Road and enjoyed listening to the creek.

From Dugway Road, C4A and C8A were actually holding their own as nearly half-way decent riding aside from some water spots.

C8A/Powley Road had some corner bumps. But it was still a snowmobiling happy place, and a relief from the mashing it took to get there.

Took a flyer on trail from Powley Road to Piseco Lake. It paid off! T’was a nice roller coaster ride through the twisties. I always love this bridge near Piseco Lodge.

After a quick rip over Piseco Lake, it was time to bump-n-grind C4/C8 Willis Mountain trail. Actually, despite being more studdery than it was in the morning, it wasn’t horrible.

C4/C8 Big Brook trail was st- st- stu- studder-bumpy! Looks like throttle jackals had their way with it.

Heck, even Perkins Clearing has studderbumps in places. Not its usual snowmobiling happy place.

2 Miles from Hell and Campsites trail? Horribly rough and bumpy. Just AWFUL! Hard studders and rollers galore. It pounded the life out of me. Ripping Lewey Lake and Indian Lake on the way home was a cathartic release, but only enough to partially expunge the memory of that beat down.

C8/Sabael trail was moderately rough, but not the soul-sucking energy vampire that 2 Miles of Hell was. Main drag into town was wall-to-wall studderbumps.

After a refueling stop at One Stop, I barely had motivation to rip off a Victory Lap. But I’m glad I did, because S86/Sawmill Road to Lone Birch, Adirondack Lake and S87/42nd and Broadway (shown below) were good for cheap thrills.

Rolled back to the compound with 209 miles, earned the hard way on the return trip home! Had a lot of fun, especially before lunch. But the way home pounded the snot out of me, to the point my bones ached for me to dismount the snowmobile.

Bottom line

I bagged my mega-miler. And I’ll be happy to keep the horse locked in the stable all weekend. Had a lot of fun this week, but also endured my share of lumps along the way. The weekend hoards can have it now!

For the ilsnow nation,

Darrin

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