C4 at west end of Sacandaga Lake shut off
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Yes its true–because of some rude people the trails that we used to get off of Sacandaga Lake towards Oxbow Lake is now shut off. You now have to get off this lake as tho you were going to Fawn Lake only you go left on the Fawn Lake Rd to the same sand pit road and take a right and head for Oxbow.
She opens on December 27 and the food is great here. Also the beer is fresh and cold. At least this is what she told me.
RonAt least there’s a bypass. Otherwise, that would have been a disaster. Imagine the amount of traffic that Fawn Lake trail, Willis Mountain trail and Fall Lake trail would have absorbed. That would have been a torture chamber, lol!
Sometimes, I do miss the days when snowmobile trails didn’t get shut off.
Darrin
I don’t like this bypass much either, but my bigger concern now is when will the season start and how short will it be this year? With the season not starting until the beginning of February and being over at the end of February lately it is getting tougher and tougher to justify owning snowmobiles. For a weekend rider like me, it can be a very short season.
I still love riding, so I’ll take what I can get, but sure long for the winters of the past sometimes…Seems like everyone comes out for the few good weekends we get in a year like last year and it can get crazy and trails are trash by noon. In past years when the season started in early January and often stayed until the end of March the weekends did not seem so crazy.
I just hope that this road (Fawn Lake Rd ) is not plowed and sanded for a long way. I know there are a couple of houses on it but I cant remember how far from our turn off. If there are houses here I dont think they are going to be happy with a thousand sleds going by at night. We will see. Hopefully not to long from now. Maybe by the end of this month and your right about the trails getting rough by Saturday night. This is why as week enders we head west thru Morehouse and ride this direction on Friday or early Saturday. They groom at least 2 to 3 time a day and their trail to the county line is always great. At the county line we usually take the Jones Rd into Ohio unless we see drag marks on the short trail to the Nobolsboro Bridge, then we can figure the Mad Tom trail to Haskell’s is good, or not that bad because I know Ohio only groom once on Wednesday.
On Saturday night we used to take the trail from Salisbury Club thru Stratford to the Powley Rd and knock our livers loose getting to Powley. Now we go to Salisbury first then to Ohio or we turn south at Salisbury and head to the Doldgville R & G Club and get back to Powley before its tore up. I have counted 150 sleds in the one hour it takes us to get down here, praying I dont get hit on the Powley Rd when its smooth.
PS My wife won a hundred bucks from the early bird Spectacular Drag Raffle. We support all the clubs who’s trails we ride.
RonLast season my son and I were headed eastbound onto Sacandaga and encountered a group of about 2 dozen sleds parked at that lake access point. Even with our helmets on and being outdoors, you could still smell the weed being smoked by those riders. I can’t say I’m surprised that the property owners have put an end to that action. For their part, the riders were clearly not worried about any ECO/LEO rolling up on them. Not a good feeling knowing that the people you’re encountering on the trails are high/drunk. Add that to my list of why not to ride on the weekends.
Yes, it seems the number of weekend reckless/high/drunk riders has been getting worse. I’d love to say I won’t ride on weekends, but for me as an out of state rider working full time if I didn’t ride weekends I wouldn’t ride at all. I usually try to ride where I think the crowds won’t be. Most of the time I avoid problem riders this way, but it seems once or twice a year I get run off the side of the trail to avoid someone coming at me on my side out of control.
In a few years I will retire and, if we still have winters with snow, and I’m still physically able to ride, I will become a weekday only rider.
It the 50 years I’ve been riding around the Piseco Area, Ive been hit head on, luckly glancing blows 3 times by idiots going to fast when the trails are smooth. I lead our group and some times I look like an ostrich trying to stretch my neck to see around some of the tight curves especially when the snow is hanging on thick spruce trees. I go so slow on these trails and sometimes I have sleds backed up behind my gang. My wife who rides behind me got hit by a young kid who blamed her for not pulling over far enough one time. She was not hurt but he blew the whole side of his sled off when he caught her back of her sled. We had words and he left madder than hell. I will pull our gang over if I see them but on these twisting trails we ride I cant see back that far and have been encountered with nasty words when we do get to a pull off. If I’m with my nephew ( he’s 6,4, 200 plus ) I will throw them the bird and hope they stop long enough to tell them to slow down a bit that I cant see back that far and always pull off for faster riders.
Oh well–seems to be the way of the world today–every body is in a hurry to get no where
PS I own the land at the east end of Evergreen Lake and every spring I pick up a bag of beer cans and garbage there. If I’m in camp and can hear voices there I know they’re resting and go and ask them to be respectfull of my property. Sometime it works. But I can understand why property owners in some cases have had enough.
RonQUOTE: Yes, it seems the number of weekend reckless/high/drunk riders has been getting worse. I’d love to say I won’t ride on weekends, but for me as an out of state rider working full time if I didn’t ride weekends I wouldn’t ride at all. I usually try to ride where I think the crowds won’t be. Most of the time I avoid problem riders this way, but it seems once or twice a year I get run off the side of the trail to avoid someone coming at me on my side out of control.
In a few years I will retire and, if we still have winters with snow, and I’m still physically able to ride, I will become a weekday only rider.
UNQUOTEI hope you’re able to become a midweek rider. Would be a total game changer for you!
Darrin
So, with the end of Sacandaga closed off, we now have over a half-mile of pavement riding to get to the cemetary trail – verified this weekend. Bad pavement riding – as in, you’re lucky to have one ski on the snow. No attempt to shelf it or anything. Which means a lot of that traffic will likely head out to Fawn Lake and the outhouse, overwhelming that trail. Which has now happened. Blame it on the weather – probably part of it. I’m sure it didn’t help having additional sled traffic getting pushed out there. Really sucks when some riders have to be a holes and push a landowner to the point of closing off trails. That closure will hurt the business owners (think Oxbow Inn) more than the riders.
You’re not kidding about the bare pavement riding, ouch! Shelving the snowbank would make for a much better passage.
And…our trails are getting more pressure (even midweek) because it’s one of the few places to actually ride for more than a week or two all winter over the past several years.
Darrin
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