Sunday started at -20*F in Indian Lake, NY.
Frigid cold!
But the temperature would rebound to teens ABOVE ZERO Sunday afternoon under abundant sun.
Heat wave! What a great day for a ride.
Darrin Jr and I set sail toward Speculator shortly after 9am. At that point, I didn’t have any particular goal for this ride, other than to enjoy the day.
Heading out
C8 through the Swamp was freshly groomed.
C8/Sabael trail had also been freshly groomed. Indian Lake had a wavy dragstrip, a sunny yet very cold morning run.
Campsite trail was pretty good for a Sunday. Lewey Lake was a nice rip.
C8/ Two Miles of Hell was bump-n-grind, but not nearly as bad as I would expect for late in the weekend.
Perkins Clearing Road was somewhat tattered from the weekend. But from Perkins-T intersection, it was a nice ride to the back via Old Military Road/Jessup River Road.
C4/C8 Big Brook Trail was not bad enough to turn tail, but not good enough to be enjoyable. Plenty of bumps to the outhouse – and probably Fawn Lake trail too.
Continuing C4/C8 through Willis Mountain trail was a good ride to Piseco Lake.
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To Ohio Tavern!
After crossing Piseco Lake, we decided to make the Ohio Tavern run. Not much slush on Piseco Lake.
Piseco Lake to Evergreen Lake trail was pretty good riding. Evergreen Lake had a wavy drag-strip.
C4A/C4 into Morehouse was good riding. Caught a fresh groom in Hoffmeister and eventually caught up to the groomer parade.
Overtook the groomers at Erb Road and encountered lumps and bumps to Hamilton/Herkimer county line.
S46A pointing toward Nobleboro looked pretty good, so we took it! Best riding through that avenue was between Nobleboro and Herk 126 intersection.
C4H into Ohio has bumps and divots in places. But most looked like this.
From Herk 125 intersection, C4B to Ohio Tavern had huge rollers in a few places but was decent riding overall.
Lunch
Got to Ohio Tavern around 12:30pm. We were ready to eat! Riding through the cold gets me hungry.
Started with soup of the day, Polish Penicillin to warm me up. Definitely hit the spot!
Main course was Smokehouse Burger with steak rub, cheddar, habanero, bacon jam and brisket sausage. Side was pierogies. EXCELLENT!
Back to Indian Lake via Speculator
Morehouse had been freshly groomed, so there wasn’t much of a decision to make on the route.
On the return trip, we took C4B to C4/Jones Road. Didn’t regret that!
Morehouse? Ohhhh yeah!!!!
Evergreen Lake to Piseco Lake trail had more divots on the return trip. Trail from Piseco Lake to Oxbow Lake was good riding. Had a fast rip across Oxbow Lake.
C4/ Oxbow-Fish Mountain trail was shockingly excellent all the way through. I’ve seldom seen it better!
Ripped across Sacandaga Lake and Lake Pleasant.
LP1/Page Street trail was lumpy-n-bumpy from the weekend. Business Access Trail (BAT) was a good ride to the Mountain Market for gas.
We hung out in the parking lot for about 10 minutes to soak in the warm sun. But we knew it would get cold QUICKLY once the sun goes down.
Home stretch!
C4 from Charlie Johns to Perkins Clearing was a bump-n-grind in places, but tolerable.
Perkins Clearing southern bypass trail was EXCELLENT!
Perkins Clearing Road was a good rip to Mason Lake.
C8 / Two Miles from Hell was bump-n-grind from tip to tail. But the distant view of Snowy Mountain encouraged us to press through.
Chatted with Glenn V of Indian Lake Snowarriors while he was taking a break from grooming the Campsites trail.
Indian Lake dragstrip seems flatter by day’s end. Nice-n-fast rip on that lake.
C8/Sabael trail and S86 main drag into Indian Lake were still in good shape.
After Darrin Jr and I parted ways, I rolled S85/Ski Hut trail back and forth on my way back to the compound.
And sure enough, it got COLDER BY THE SECOND by sunset. Was happy to get back to the warm house.
Bottom line
Usually, Sunday is for picking leftovers in ilsnow land. Today, it was almost a mid-week worthy ride.
148 miles, not bad!
Ride map
Click here for ride stats, larger map and 3D Flyover
Midweek Outlook
We’re already into FEBRUARY!
Get here and RIDE!
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
