E. Emil
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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.
