I’m no fan of riding icy, hard trails.
Bumps are unforgiving and steering can be tricky, especially on narrow, woodsy trails.
Snowfall over the past few days amounted to a fresh inch or two of new cover in town. Temperature by mid Wednesday morning was 35*F. This made trails soft enough for me to proceed.
I wanted to bang out a recon ride to see how Town snowmobiling trails have held up through January Thaw.
Let’s go!
Bear Trap Swamp was icy in places, but had no water bars or washouts. Not bad!
Main artery C8 was thin under evergreen canopy with icy stretches, but I skated through.
C8 out to Cedar River Headquarters after Route 28/30 highway though forest preserve section was rather bumpy in places and relatively tame in others. There were several partial water bars and some rock tops, but trail was easily passable.
Past Deer Valley parking lot, ride quality on C8 improved a grade or so. Open forest road sections were pretty good riding. I love this partially logged clearing.
Moose River Plains and back
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Did a preemptive pad-the-happy-fun-miles run to Cedar River Road trailhead. Aside from studder-ripple and some icy spots, that was a decent back-n-forth rip.
Indian Lake side Moose River Plains from Cedar River Headquarters to Silver Run was studder-ripple for the majority of it. Sharp turns and bridges were bumpy.
Inlet side Moose River Plains was a fun rip to Big-T intersection! There were a few long wave, high amplitude rollers approaching Big-T flats to keep me honest.
Before turning tail back to Indian Lake, I enjoyed an untracked Big-T deadender. Sweet riding!
On the return trip, C8 from Cedar River Headquarters to Indian Lake had much more corner scuff than it did in the morning.
Along the way I took a breather by Cedar River. Felt great to take off the helmet, breathe in fresh spring-like air and listen to the river. One of my all time favorite rest stops!
Heading toward Blue Mountain Lake
C8A/Old S84 was bumpy in places through Quarter-million bridge with some rock tops showing. After I got over the top, the riding approached halfway decent at times. Honestly, better than I expected.
I did cross over several water bars, with this one as the most grizzly offender.
At Rock Lake marsh, I turned tail and headed back to Indian Lake. My appetite for twisty snake snowmobile trails had been satisfied by then.
Sabael trail
Town of Indian Lake crew had laid out corduroy over a flooded section of trail between Hami 603 intersection and Pashley Road.
After Pashley Road crossing, the majority of trail was fairly comfortable when ridden with care. There were at least several holes and a couple of water bars. Made it all the way through to Indian Lake without incident, but I didn’t bother jumping onto the big pond.
Back to town
Main C8/S86 artery would not have won any photo contests with snirt and icy spots, but the trail was intact.
Crow Hill Road shelf was holding up.
After refueling the ole 900 Ace Turbo at Indian Lake Market, I rolled over to Indian Lake Restaurant for late afternoon lunch.
Started with a yummy garlic bread soup.
Main course was Gorgonzola burger with fries. SOOOO GOOD!
After that, I headed back to the compound. Ended up with 93 miles of recon for Wednesday’s ride. No need for a Victory lap because getting out to ride was victory enough.
Bottom line
Overall, I would call it fair-at-best conditions. Town snowmobiling trails were holding up in most places. And trail crews have removed numerous blow down to keep the trails passable.
Snowpack in central Adirondacks is generally 6-18 inches, depending on melt exposure. Snow bowls probably harbor more than a foot-and-a-half of pack.
This trip served its purpose as a scratch-the-itch ride and collected some recon for you. Daytime max temperature near 40*F didn’t help the trails. But it was comfortable for riding. Handwarmers OFF!
Weekend Outlook
At 7pm Wednesday, temperature in Indian Lake was 33*F with light rain and mist.
Rain-to-snow scenarios are usually tricky. If we get a good pulse of snow late Wednesday night into Thursday morning, the groomers could work some magic before the weekend. If that doesn’t pan out, we’ll still be riding anyway but the outlook wouldn’t be as good.
Over the weekend, further snow should come in dribs and drabs, enough to freshen things up from time to time. And will be seasonably cold.
Ride map
Tracking app flaked out some of my ride around town, missed my jaunt on Sabael trail.
Click here for ride stats, larger map and 3D Flyover
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
