The picture shows how much snow I had remaining at the stake on my lawn at Indian Lake, NY after I got done with Wednesday’s ride at 5pm. Snow cover in my travels ranged from several inches in exposed/receding areas to 12-30 inches in the woods.
Unfortunately, I had left my phone home and didn’t realize it until I was out there riding.
So… I’ll just have to paint the picture entirely with words. Kind of a shame, because it was a beautiful day for a spring ride with sunshine and temperatures poking into the 50s.
Heading out
Town of Indian Lake Parks and Rec had started grooming. C8/Sabael trail hadn’t been groomed yet, but was holding on as a rideable pathway. You’ll need to watch for holes in the trail as water eats away from the sides and underneath.
Indian Lake and Lewey Lake (late AM): Wavy bumps on the drag strip. White velvet off the beaten path. Some frozen slushy ruts.
Campsites: If snowmobile trails faced the afterlife, there would be a special place in hell for this. Rough wouldn’t describe how awful that was.
C8/Two Miles from Hell (late AM) – Freshly groomed! Residual divots, but got a gift on that one!
Perkins Clearing Road (late AM) – Groomed from Mason Lake down to Mud Lake Road. Smooth sailing through that.
LP9/Nichol Vly (late AM) – Great ride!! Back end of Mud Lake Road was plowed and muddy. Didn’t bother trying to connect to Carpenter Hill Road via Mossy Vly.
Perkins Clearing Southern Bypass trail (late AM) – Freshly groomed. Several corners and southern exposures with considerable skank, but passable all the way through. Kind of a mess where the trail is shared with a logging skidder.
C4/Oak Mountain (midday) – Bumpy, but with good snow coverage. Not many bald spots yet.
LP4/Mountain Market (midday) – Hard core, old school brown Bumpulator.
Speculator Business Access Trail “B.A.T” (midday) – Getting brown and skanky. Trying to hold on as a viable connector in the village, but may not hold on for much longer.
Lake Pleasant (midday) – Wet spots on the lake. Some frozen ruts.
LP1/Page Street (early afternoon) – Freshly groomed from CapeStore to Moffitt Beach for the WIN!
Sacandaga Lake (early afternoon)– Wet spots. Very rutty crossing.
C4/Fish Mountain to Oxbow trail (early afternoon) – Freshly groomed. Divot bumps from cemetery to Oxbow Lake, but easily passable. Some bald spots along the way.
Oxbow Lake – Rutty with wet spots. But I found a smooth seam and ripped it across!
Lunch!
I’ve rolled past Oxbow Inn several times this winter and found Weekend Lite crowds there and had to pass on. Not today, bro! Only a few snowmobiles parked outside.
Really too bad I didn’t bring the phone today for pictures. Ordered up the Reuben sandwich with a side order of garlic-parm fries. Not my usual fare, but I wanted to try something different. Very good eats! And those garlic parm fries had a ridiculous (in a great way) amount of garlic. If you think there can never be too much garlic, these are for you!
On to Powley Road
C8/Spy Lake trail (afternoon) – Appeared groomed today. Jack’s Hill and southerly exposures getting bald. Still passable, but not sure for how much longer. Rolled Spy Lake for a nice rip to bypass some likely skunky trail riding.
C8A/Powley Road (afternoon) – Magnificent spring riding! Smooth to slight studder-ripple for most of it. A few roller bumps into the Stratford end.
C8A into Stratford (afternoon) – Took a half-mile sniff. Stuttery and rideable, but with at least a few places where water was eating away at the trail. Probably could have pressed toward Salisbury if I had really wanted to. But I just wasn’t feeling that. Not with Powley Road calling me back!
Back to Indian Lake
Backtracked to Sacandaga Lake to attack Perkins Clearing from the backside. Proved to be a great move!
C4/Fawn Lake trail (afternoon) – Holding on beautifully! Quite possibly the best ride I’ve had on it this snowmobiling season. And I’ve had a bunch of good rides through there.
C4/C8 – Big Brook trail (afternoon) – Sun was starting to burn the southerly exposed hills and corners. But was holding on well as a groomed and enjoyable ride.
Perkins Clearing (late afternoon) – GREAT!! Carpenter Hill Road was an amazing helmet-whipping booty call.
C8/Two Miles from Hell (late afternoon) – Hadn’t seen much traffic and holding on surprisingly well as an enjoyable ride. A few skunky spots developing at the bottom toward Lewey Lake where the water/mud likes to collect.
Lewey Lake/Indian Lake (late afternoon) – Wet spots. Lots of white velvet off the beaten track.
C8/Sabael trail (late afternoon) – Freshly groomed for a plush ride back into ilsnow Capital City. One of the smoothest rides I’ve had through that avenue this snowmobiling season. Water eating away at the sides of the trail in several spots though.
Indian Lake main drag C8/S86 (late afternoon) – Getting sloppy in places but holding its own for now in the woods. Crow Hill Road shelf was getting eaten away, but still there for now. S86 getting bald spots next to Crow Hill Road – but holding for now in connecting to One Stop, McSweeney’s, Indian Lake Restaurant and Stewarts.
S85/Ski Hut trail (late afternoon) – Cheap thrill ride. But water eating away at the trail from the sides in places.
Bottom line:
For March 22nd, this was a tremendous ride! Heck, I’ve seen worse stuff riding January or February 22nd. Rolled back to the compound with 130 miles for the day and thoroughly enjoyed it. Knocking on the door of 4,000 miles for the snowmobiling season.
Days like this remind me of how tremendously blessed I am to live here. It’s not for everyone, but it’s totally for me.
Weekend Outlook
Snowmobile riding will be available for this weekend in ilsnow land. If anything will do, we’ll have it for you.
Seasonal road snowmobile trails like Perkins Clearing, Speculator Tree Farm and Powley Road will hold out the best.
Narrow woods trails? Welp… Spring conditions. Projected rainfall on Thursday is under an inch. If we’re fortunate, maybe under a half-inch. Maybe enough of those trails will… hold… on… for… one-more-weekend…
Saturday’s weather system appears to be Great Lakes cutter working with marginally cold air. Maybe it will be enough for an application of white paint and slops to reward the ones who come here one last time.
Ride now, ride soon or ride next winter!
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
This report is brought to you by Steet Ponte Auto Group. Many of the vehicles here in Indian Lake are bought from the Steet Ponte. Co-owner Joe Steet is a huge fan and booster of ilsnow.com. If you’re looking for a new truck, give Steet Ponte a good look.
