Believe it or not, I hadn’t done a ride from Indian Lake in nearly a couple of weeks.
Part of that was to avoid holiday crowds. And I wanted to try different places.
This ride felt like a homecoming.
I met up with Damion and Derek at Indian Lake parking lot at Benton Road Thursday morning. Got rolling just after 10 am.
Damion hadn’t done a Salisbury run in a couple of years, so that’s where we went!
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Heading out
Town of Indian Lake trails were being groomed for GREAT riding!
Indian Lake and Lewey Lake were steaming bowls of powder chowder! VERY FUN
In-between-lakes Campsite trail was lumpy and bumpy.
Caught a fresh groom on Two Miles from Hell for the WIN!
Perkins Clearing was cloud riding all the way to the back.
Followed a new groom through Big Brook trail and Fawn Lake trail.
Fish Mountain Oxbow trail and C8/Spy Lake trail were GREAT!
We encountered a little slush on Oxbow Lake, but no big deal.
Powley Road was… POWLEY ROAD! Ain’t nothing wrong with that.
C8A & C4A through Stratford were strewn with studder bumps and occasional rollers. Not pleasant, but got us through.
C4A into Salisbury Ridgerunners was pretty good at times, final 2 miles to Clubhouse were GREAT.
C4 past Clubhouse was cloud riding at times, led to a fun rip through Military Road.
C4 through Norway was beaten brown-ish in places, but decent riding.
C4 into Ohio was NICE!
C4G is CLOSED for snowmobiling. Won’t get into the reason for that! So, we rolled C4 around the horn to Herk 16 intersection. All good to excellent riding.
C4B was FAST through Hinckley State Forest. After getting by the roadside rash through Grant, C4B was a beautiful ride to Herk 29 intersection.
Then it was C4B to Ohio Tavern for lunch by mid-afternoon.
Smokehouse burger is no longer a special. IT’S ON THE REGULAR MENU! I am now 4 for 4 at the Ohio Tavern this winter with ordering this burger.
The ride home
C4B and C4 through Jones Road was good to excellent riding to Hamilton County line.
C4 entering Morehouse had stretches of soft studder and some rollers, but wasn’t bad. Caught a recent groom at Hami 14 intersection and had a pretty good ride through Hoffmeister.
C4A to Evergreen Lake was VERY GOOD.
Trail from Evergreen Lake to Piseco Lake was lumpy and bumpy at times. Piseco Lake was a fun rip, other than some slush at mid-crossing.
Piseco Lake to Oxbow Lake trail was mostly good riding.
Oxbow/Fish Mountain trail had been groomed and perhaps the best night ride I’ve had on it. WOW!
Sacandaga Lake and Lake Pleasant were uneventful lake rips. LP1/Page Street trail had some loose bumps, but was pretty good riding.
Speculator Village trails were good to great riding.
C4 from Speculator Village to Perkins Clearing was by far the best I’ve experienced it this winter. At least half of it qualified as GOOD riding.
Perkins Clearing southern bypass trail was MINT!
Perkins Clearing Road was a VERY GOOD ride to Mason Lake.
2 Miles of Hell was holding up well. Nice to ride it as a real snowmobile trail instead of a rodeo bull jacked up on crank.
Campsites trail between Lewey Lake and Indian Lake WAS like riding a rodeo bull on the return trip. At least that wasn’t 2 miles!
C8/Sabael trail into Indian Lake was MINT! S86 main drag was holding up. Victory Lap via S86a and S87 was SWEET!
Adirondack Lake had a large patch of frozen slush ruts. Back side of lake was pretty fun though.
Returned to Benton Road parking lot not long after 7pm with 183 miles for the ride. Vast majority was fun and easy,
AWESOME DAY!
Ride map
Click here for ride stats, larger map and 3D Flyover
Weekend outlook
We are touching rarified air! General snowpack throughout central Adirondacks is 18-36 inches with snow bowls holding 3-4 FEET.
Warmish on Saturday, but with very little precipitation. Otherwise, the next several days will hold our DEEP snowpack.
Ride here THIS WEEKEND. Weather outlook for the following weekend appears quite sketchy. Modelology and ensembles are all over the place with possible outcomes, but almost all of them appear to hurt our cause.
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
