Friday NOON Update: Fresh morning groom on C8A/Old S84 heading out to Blue Mountain Lake. Yeah!! Grooming has commenced on our local trails, including C8 out to Cedar River Headquarters.

C8/Sabael trail has not been groomed yet. Be prepared for rough riding in that area, especially through the swamps. It takes a lot of work to make that trail an enjoyable ride .

Lots of sleds swirling around One Stop and Stewart’s at the noon hour. Looks like we’ve got a real riding weekend here in Indian Lake, NY!

Thursday’s ride report

I’m into the ilsnow groove: another day, another ride! After winter’s very sluggish start, it’s a very good place to be.

Today’s was another launch from Brown’s Farm parking lot near the end of Cedar River Road. The ride was good at the start. That 4 mile stretch to Cedar River Headquarters was SWEETNESS!

From Cedar River Headquarters through Silver Run I encountered studder-ripple and some low rollers. That didn’t change on the Inlet side until I got past the Big-T and encountered a fresh groom.

After that, a pretty nice ride to Limekiln Road.

Ole Barn to downtown Inlet was showing its typical snirty color, but was groomed for a comfortable ride.

Inlet to Eagle Bay along Route 28 was brown and loose, especially where the trail is adjacent to the highway.

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On to Old Forge then Brantingham

Didn’t see tracks running onto 4th Lake and I wasn’t going to be among the first. So, I Trail 5’d it to Old Forge. It had been groomed, but also getting ripped apart as fast as the ribbon got put down.

Got onto Trail 9 and enjoyed plowing through the 8+ inches of new pow-pow untouched on the right lane. YEAH!!!

Trail 1 northward was a decent ride, but had its usual pebbly spots and few small rocks floating around.

Brantingham (BT) trail had three large rocks that had been dredged by the groomer and deposited onto the trail. I removed them so they wouldn’t ruin somebody’s ride. One was nearly the size of a football. Besides that, it was probably one of the nicest rides I’ve had through that avenue.

Conditions did get thin and pebbly in places as I approached Herk 40 intersection.

C7B/10 Mile Crossing had a few pebbles floating on corners, but overall was a nice ride through Lewi 52 intersection. Gate to C8A/Mount Tom-Stony Lake trail was closed.

Final 5 miles of C7B/10 Mile Crossing to Partridgeville Road got really thin and pebbly as I descended in elevation and snow depth dropped off dramatically. I had to avoid at least several fist-sized rocks. Trail was groomed and flat though.

C7B to Kovach Repair was closed. So, I ran Partridgeville Road all the way to Brantingham proper, which had good snow coverage. (C7B to Kovach Repair has since been opened)

Lunch

Pretty busy for a weekday at Pine Tree Inn. But the staff was able to provide quick service. Was in there just long enough to warm up and accept the taco salad challenge. T’was a respectable pile of food and the jalapeño peppers cleared my sinuses.

Back to Old Forge

With dwindling snow into Brantingham, I decided it was best to bee-line it back to better snow. The stretch back into Town of Webb trails had been tattered by snowmobile traffic, but wasn’t terrible riding.

Peeled northward onto Trail 1. Plenty of snow up to Stillwater Road, but badly needed grooming.

Stillwater Road had great snow coverage to Big Moose Station, where more than several snowmobilers were enjoying their stop.

Trail 2 southbound was tattered in spots, but OK riding. 29/Doe Pond Trail wasn’t the smoothest ride either, but had untouched pow-pow on the margins to play with. FUN!

Spun myself silly around on a loop involving Trails 9, 8, 89 and Pipeline before finding Trail 1 to roll Trail 7. Some of that was nice with a fresh groom. Some of it was scuffed up with low bumps.

Made it to Elise Lookout for the photo.

Trail 6 to Thendara was a pretty sweet ride. Past Thendara Station, there was a recent groom on Trail 6 alongside the railroad track before peeling up the hill into the woods: Just some recon for those who want to make the run to McKeever or Fo-po land. Didn’t see any snowmobile tracks on C7/Railroad.

Sidewalk trail along Route 28 into Old Forge was loose, brown and bumpy but got me by. Stopped at North Country Market for gas, then inside for coffee to warm up before the push home.

Heading home

Continued on the trail around downtown Old Forge and took the covered bridge picture.

Rolled out of Old Forge via Trails 1, 3, 8 and 5. With the busier than usual weekend traffic, that stretch was getting tattered and brown in places. Wheeler Pond loop was OK, but nothing special. Maly loop had some fun untouched pow-pow play!

Trail 5 from Rondaxe Road though Eagle Bay, thence to Inlet was brown, beaten and bumpy.

For a diversion, I hit Inlet loop trails, which were nice riding. T’was good to see white trails again. The connector trail to Moose River Plains looked like it would suck, so I just rolled FX Matts trail over to Limekiln Road.

Moose River Plains

That was somewhat tattered from the day’s snowmobile traffic but was actually decent for the most part. The bumpiest part (with studders and low rollers) was from Silver Run to Cedar River Headquarters. The final miles back to Brown’s farm parking lot were a nice way to end the ride. Even got back before dark, making it just a bit easier to load up and remove my riding gear.

After 168 miles and taking some lumps along the way, it was worth spending the $10/sled parking fee at Brown’s farm to enjoy a warm, smooth ride home in the truck.

Mitchell Ponds trail was groomed today. That’s a fun, slow-paced (at times technical) ride when you’re in the mood for that type of ride.

Ride map

Click here for ride stats and 3D flyover!

Snow cover ranged from 12-18 inches for most of today’s ride. There was over a foot-and-a-half of snow cover on the slope of Cellar Mountain in Moose River Plains and in places on the Old Forge trail system, north of Route 28. It was approaching steep-n-deep at Carter Station.

Brantingham had much less snow cover, only in the 6-12 inch range.

Indian Lake intel

At the beginning of today’s ride, I saw fresh groomer tracks headed from Cedar River Headquarters toward Indian Lake. When coming home this evening, I saw that S86 from Bear Trap Swamp and S85/Ski Hut trail from Crow Hill Road had been groomed. So yes, groomers are beginning to roll on the local trails here.

Bottom line

Get up here and ride! We got snow and cold through the weekend. Warm-up coming up by middle of next week. Let’s worry about tomorrow’s problems, tomorrow.

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