When Damion called home yesterday and asked if I would like to ride Cranberry Lake with a bunch of his friends from work, the only acceptable answer starts with a “Y” and ends with an “S” and rhymes with “guess.” Needless to say, I jumped on that bandwagon quickly!
So Damion, Tyler, Mike, Nick and Steve arrived in Indian Lake to pick me up this morning and off we went. Getting past Long Lake on Route 30 was the easy part. Getting our trucks to Horseshoe Lake via Route 421 was more of a challenge. Damion blew the turn to the big hill and went into the private road, then Nick’s truck followed us. About a half mile in, we finally found a driveway to turn around in. Once back on the road, we spun some tire going up the big hill but made it.
While unloading at Horseshoe Lake, I spotted Ken and Steve (Empire Sport Riders and Splat10) almost ready to head in. There was another guy with a shovel in his backpack. I’ve seen him before, but I couldn’t quite place him. 😉
C7A was fast and flat leaving Horseshoe Lake. C7 (Railroad tracks) looked bumpy and rough both ways, so we weren’t tempted to try it. C7A got somewhat bumpy after the railroad tracks, but still not a bad ride. With the powdery snow, visibility was a huge problem due to snow dust. Nick lost it on a slight turn about 10 minutes into the ride, but the deep snow (2-3 feet) prevented serious damage. C7A become really nice again after we passed the junction with S88. Massawepie Road was great riding. The last stretch up to Thirsty Moose had a few mud spots, but nothing that terrible. After riding a bumpy ditch/roadside trail and getting a bit lost on the roads, we got over to C7C. That was probably the worst riding all day.
Ride Video
[vsw id=”u7VTfeufq6I” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]
We had another adventure crossing Route 3 while looking for C7A. Damion ended up hitting something in the snowbank at low speed, flipping over the windshield and landing on the pavement flat on his side. After Damion shook that off, we cranked through C7A, crossed Route 3 again then hit S77 to hit Thirsty Moose for lunch. As some point, we noticed Mike wasn’t behind us anymore. So we decided to play in a wicked awesome powder pit until Mike caught up. After about 20 minutes of that, we realize that Mike still isn’t with us. We sent search parties in all directions. Tyler found Mike’s sled off trail S77 in “OH-MY-GOODNESS-I’M-REALLY-STUCK” powder and had the tow strap hooked up. I showed up in time to offer the final boost needed to get Mike’s sled unstuck.
After that, we finally got lunch and gas at the Thirsty Moose. Damion decided to lead us over toward Cranberry Lake. We never really got there and I’m still not sure where we ended up. But there was some AWESOME riding and scads of powder pits. Eventually we looped all the way back to C7A. By that point, it was close to 4 PM, getting colder and darker. That was our cue to make it back to Horseshoe Lake. We caught Ken and Steve pulling out shortly after we got back. On his way out Steve muttered something about “Whatever goes on in Cranberry, Stays in Cranberry.” No wonder I’m thinking of Jimmy Hoffa right now!
Back to Indian Lake
The trip back to Indian Lake went without a problem. After Damion dumped me back in town, I took a little spin. The Indian Lake village trails were groomed and light years better riding than what they were over the weekend. It looked like groomers were working on Sabael trail although I didn’t go back there. The Blue Mountain trail was still pretty bumpy and rough; I only ventured just past the Cedar River bridge. 42nd and Broadway wasn’t groomed yet, but was still soft enough to yield a decent ride.
Bottom Line:
Wow! What a day. This is only the second time I’ve ridden the Cranberry Lake areas trails. If you’ve never ridden up there, I recommend you try it at least once. The worst part BY FAR is getting back to Horseshoe Lake. If that road is snow covered, you are not making it up without 4WD. The frost heaves also get really bad as the winter progresses.
Childwold Snowpackers is a good place to get general information, including trail conditions, for the area.
Like Arnold says: “I’ll be back!”
