Indian Lake to Newcomb snowmobile ride

That half-foot of new snow on Tuesday got me motivated to bang out a local ride! T’was mid-winter cold, which almost felt strange. But I haven’t forgotten how to suit up for it.

Since my sled was already sitting in the ilsnow mobile command center, I just trucked it over to the parking lot at the end of Pelon Road (the old landfill).

S87/42nd and Broadway hadn’t been tracked much, which made it a nice pow-pow romp along Cedar River.

Heading out

C8A/Old S84 out to Blue Mountain Lake was bumpy, but plush with the new snow. Indian Lake Parks and Rec was out carving blowdown off the trail. This was a significant one.

There were at least several water hazards. But they were water-bars as opposed to sled-swallowing quagmire mud-holes. Past Rock Lake, I had to nurse it through a couple of especially tough spots.

The prize was a steaming bowl of powder chowder through Rock Lake Marsh.

On to Newcomb

Indian Lake side of C8A/Old 538 Newcomb trail hadn’t been groomed and had low bumps. But when you live here, sometimes you get to make first tracks on the pow-pow!

At Essex County line, I caught a fresh groom on the Newcomb side and make first tracks on that.

Yeah!!!!

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(Short) Long Lake sidebar

Wanted to do a sniff test on C7B/Long Lake trail. After I splashed through one big mud hole in the swamp, I encountered the next one. Decided to turn around, didn’t bother to even reach the Route 28N crossing.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any first-hand report for the trail to Long Lake. But I’m almost 100% certain you’d be dealing with water-bars along the way.

Long Lake does a good job of updating their snowmobiling conditions. You can click here to read their page.

Back on track to Newcomb

C8A from T-intersection to Newcomb was freshly groomed. Riding for the most part was good, except for at least several water-bar hazards. The worst one was by the beaver pond after crossing Goodnow Flow Road.

Ride into Newcomb proper was nice. I really like how the trail has been rerouted off the plowed road in several places under the power lines. That’s going to be a big help with late-winter/spring riding into Newcomb. Big thumbs up on that.

Ventured down to Lake Harris boat launch. I saw an ice shanty and a snowmobile track on the lake. But I didn’t feel the need to press my luck.

After backtracking, I rolled the trail from Camp Santanoni to the Overlook. The twisty tight wooded section through the camp had at least several water-bars. But it was groomed for an enjoyable slow-paced ride. My shoulders got a workout through there!

For some reason, this section along Hudson River is just one of my favorites.

Stopover at Newcomb Information Center

I got out the cold at the info center and chatted with Dave Hughes for a long while. There are a number of things Dave is working on with the Town to make Newcomb even better for snowmobiling.

At the info center, I accidentally stopped tracking my ride (instead of pausing), so I only have the one way to Newcomb. But go ahead and click here for ride stats and 3D Flyover to Newcomb.

On my way out the door, Dave asked me to do the Newcomb pose. I happily obliged.

The way back

Riding through Newcomb and back down C8A/Old 538 Newcomb trail hadn’t been scuffed up badly on the return trip. Enjoyable through that avenue – aside from the water bar hazards I mentioned previously.

C8A/Old S84 from Blue Mountain Lake back to Indian Lake was bumpy and rough as Lindsay Lohan entering day 2 of a 3 day coke binge. Didn’t take much snowmobile traffic to knock the plushness from those bumps.

Did a sniff test of C8 out to Cedar River Headquarters. Only stuck with that for a mile, enough to know that hadn’t been groomed yet.

No victory lap today. Just bee-lined it back to the truck to complete the 80 mile ride.

Midweek Outlook

I’m optimistic/hopeful groomers will begin to swirl around the Indian Lake local trails this week to set up ilsnow Capital city for our first real riding weekend of the season.

Moose River Plains from Brown’s Farm parking lot should be good to go, with grooming in progress!

Lakes

Mid-winter cold this week will certainly help the ice. But I can’t tell you when (or which) lakes would be “safe” to ride. Don’t ask me, because I won’t answer. I’ll just trust that we can all be adults about assessing the risk vs. reward and make good decisions.

My stance: Lakes are not snowmobile trails. Riding them is always at your own risk.

For the ilsnow nation,

Darrin