E. Emil
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Rode out to Powley Road from Lake Pleasant yesterday – good run. Page Street getting a groom in the AM. Sacandaga to Oxbow trail in reasonable shape on the way out – getting beat up on the way home – a fair number of riders out for a Tuesday. Oxbow to Powley was in good shape – groomers getting it done. Powley had not been groomed recently but groomer was getting ready to go when we went by in the morning. Regardless, Powley was in good shape. Until you get to the end where it is typically plowed. Which it is not. And the groomer is not running down that section. Sooooooo – its a total mess. We turned around and headed back. Clockmill was great – looked like someone took a small drag down there and the trail was a pleasure to ride – real throwback. Throttle blippers should stay off this. We headed back to Powley on wagonner loop – a couple sleds had been up there but it was still pretty rugged. Still an interesting ride – worth it if you have someone with you and can keep yourself from getting jammed up in the deep snow. All lakes have an increasing amount of slush, so just beware and wear boots that are waterproof. Fair number of deer out – both on the trail and along edge of lakes.
Rode from Lake Pleasant out to Sacandaga then Oxbow on Tuesday. Pretty much the woods trails all have thin cover – Page Street wasn’t too bad but leaving Sacandaga and coming out past the cemetery was rough. Lakes are all good with some slush here and there but nothing that gave me pause. A couple spots had some glare ice just under the fluff – that makes it interesting for sure.
Wednesday went out to Fawn Lake and then past the Outhouse and up into Perkins. All of that trail had been groomed and was decent. Definitely some thin spots and rocks here and there but a good ride overall. No issue in Perkins – the town was grooming in there yesterday. Lake Pleasant also groomed the 2 miles from hell yesterday – but it didn’t do much good. It’s pretty bad. Lewey Lake and Indian Lake were a good run. Once you come off Indian Lake into town, its been groomed but is thin. After lunch, went back down through Perkins, across Route 30 and down to Oak Mountain. Brutal. If you don’t have a trailer to get your sled up to Perkins, you should run out to Sacandaga and up the Fish Mtn Trail. Otherwise, you’re in for a pounding and your sled will be beat up as well. Need more snow for sure.
We also went down the river trail from Route 30 to see if we could make it down to old Route 30. Turned around as that trail is ungroomed and in very bad shape.
January 7th – a Friday afternoon – and not a single sled in sight on any of the ILSnow web cams.
Sad indeed.
I took my kids back in there in the summer of 2020 and cleared brush on the Griffin connector from Route 8 (at Teachout Road) over to the Sugarbush Trail. We fixed up a couple of the small bridges along the way, built a couple of swamp crossings, but didn’t get to go further down toward Cotter Creek. The Georgia Creek bridge was definitely gone at that point – clearly missing on air photos. My recollection is that the trail was slated to be abandoned under the Corridor Trail plan and not much effort was being put into maintenance. However, with that plan now crapped on by the high court, hopefully some funds can be spent rebuilding those bridges.
I can’t tell if the Thurman Connection snowmobile club is still active – a couple of trail postings early last winter but nothing new on their web site. I’ve had some good rides starting out from Route 8 at Teachout Road – its definitely a great place to ride, but not alone – very easy to bury a sled back there and lots of rocks/boulders in the Griffin Connector section. Last year, Wells was grooming C4 all the way down to the gorge, but nothing south of Route 8. In fact, I can’t think I’ve ever seen the Griffin Connector groomed. Which is nice – not a lot of people will venture down there absent grooming.
I think there are two sides to that issue – if a municipality with employees is responsible for grooming, there should be a real good excuse if it’s not getting done. It’s troubling in that, for the most part, there’s no accountability for a municipality getting trail money and not doing the work.
However, volunteer organization (clubs) can only do so much, particularly given family commitments, work demands, COVID limitations, and similar issues. Absent having a trail use permit system where groomer staff could be paid, the clubs do the best with what they have and I accept their efforts with gratitude. Not that I’m against a permit system – given what we’re paying for sleds, fuel, insurance, and registration, having to pay for an annual trail permit would not be a huge burden and would add to local employment opportunities in an otherwise depressed off-season economy. Permit fees could be waived for volunteers that put in the hours with their local club. Think about it – do you want people coming to ride our area just because its free or because the trails are great and there is value to what their paying for?
I rode Lake Pleasant out to Sacandaga – Fawn Lake – Outhouse – Oxbow Inn – Piseco – Powley – Oxbow – Lake Pleasant last Thursday. Everything was 100% – the groomers out west are getting it done, for sure. Lots of slush on all the lakes if you’re off the beaten path – just keep it pinned and you’ll be fine (just don’t be a Darren and ride alone). Friday went up to Perkins via Sacandaga and found the same conditions everyone else did – pretty rough once you got up past the Fish Mtn trail / Spruce Lake Gate. It was clear that nothing had been done grooming-wise since at least the Monday snow event. The only nice piece of trail was S41C from Perkins Clearing out to Route 30. And that was only because the Whittaker Lake trail is closed, so not much traffic rolling out there (did see one grouse). Stopped for lunch out by the sand pit – stepped off my sled and sunk in up to my thighs. Hopefully that amount of snowpack will hang around for a while.
