We’re into spring and living on borrowed time. Figured that Tuesday would be my last crack at St. Lawrence County snowmobile riding before mud season sets in.
Route 421 to Horseshoe Lake was especially horrible the final two miles, as bad as I’ve ever seen it. Frost heaves and craters galore. It’s sad to say that roads in the slums of New Delhi, India are probably in better shape. Can’t believe there isn’t a highway pork barrel project to funnel money into fixing this atrocity.
Nevertheless, my sled was unloaded and ready to roll by 10:30am.
Heading out through Childwold
C7A from Horseshoe Lake toward Route 3/Shurtleff was pretty good riding with some portions enjoying a fresh morning groom. The sections that had been plowed for logging most of the winter were getting thin with bald spots.
Did the 718/717/S88/720 loop thing back and forth to pad fun miles from the get-go.
S88/toward Brandy Brook Flow got rather bumpy and rough. I suppose that making it back to Burntbridge Pond Lean-To made the lumps worth it. Well, not really, but at least it was pretty back there.
Into Cranberry Lake
C7A/Shurtleff north of Route 3 was bumpy with some worn corners, but was easily passable. S88 from STLA28 and STLA29 was good riding, but thin in places from being logged most of the winter.
C8 was its usual crank fest through the straights up to Trooper Shed. Nothing much worse than studder ripple through that avenue.
C8D was bumpy and rough, so I doubled back to try C8 northward toward S. Colton. That wasn’t a whole lot better, and I encountered my first large skank of the day.
Figured that I wasn’t going to hit much good snowmobiling north of Trooper Shed on this ride, so I rolled C7A over to Little Blue Mountain, where the view was much better than the trail riding to get there.
After bumping and grinding my way through S83, I ripped C8 to hit S89/Cranberry Lake for a helmet whipping booty call. It never disappoints!
I doubled back through S89, C8 and S88 to make the run to Seveys Point for refuel and quick lunch. C7A and C7C along the way were good riding, but thin in places from logging all winter.
After lunch, I doubled back to C8, then strolled through 712, which was GREAT RIDING!
Toward Degrasse
Rolled C8 through Windfall, which was mostly good to great riding, although getting thin in spots. On the way through, I ripped S89/Cranberry Lake again! S80G had been freshly groomed. There were a number of thin spots and one particularly bad skanky spot. But most of it was really good riding.
Turned onto S80 to Degrasse which continued the fresh groom for miles of really fun riding!
Even after I left the fresh groom, it remained good enough to keep rolling with it. The trail eventually narrowed and got thin with snow. By the time I got to this bare road, I figured it was time to turn tail.
Down to Newton Falls
Was more than happy to roll the fresh groom on S80 the other way. That was also a lot of fun! Got really sloppy entering Newton Falls with water draining into the trail from many directions. Saw this neat icicle formation along the way.
Didn’t bother crossing the steel grate bridge, so I doubled back to C8.
Back through Cranberry Lake and Childwold
C8 to Wanakena had some thin spots, especially passing over the mountain. But the vast majority of riding looked like this.
Ran the plowed road over to Black Waters Cafe and ripped across Cranberry Lake, AGAIN! Then I ripped through S89, AGAIN!
S88A and S88 were nice riding to Route 3. The highway shoulder riding sucked but it got me to the 718/717/S88/720 loop, which was still holding up great.
Back to Horseshoe Lake
C7A was fun mashed potato riding through the flats. But it was bumpy and whooped from STLA2 to STLA1. At least the final couple miles to the truck were still holding fast and flat by day’s end.
Ended up with 208 miles on Tuesday’s ride, which is the most I’ve done starting from Horseshoe Lake. I didn’t plan on riding THAT much, but I found enough good riding to keep the track rolling into early evening.
Bottom line
It’s spring! With no unseasonably cold air coming down the immediate pike, our snowmobiling season is drawing to a close. The trails took a noticeable hit Tuesday afternoon.
I’ll take another crack at it Wednesday before the rain rolls in.
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
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