FreestyleBackcountry
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I’d like to know the same thing, and find one to test ride. Yamaha Transporter Lite and Arctic Cat Blast LT are basically the same machine.
The simple answer is that snowmobilers do not have enough clout. While the environmentalists organized and were happy to pay big bucks to lobbyists and lawyers, and reacted to calls for action in terms of political pressure and UMP comments, snowmobilers grumbled about $5 dues to NYSSA, continued to think that the trails magically appeared and it was their right to use them, and joined clubs mostly to get a voucher instead of physically contributing to trail maintenance.
I went to Upper Pine today. Unfortunately some guys got to the trail before me and rutted up the steep part but they did not get to the top. I went all the way to the top. No problem at all with my 09 Freestyle Tundra. Then I spent some time with my snow shovel fixing the worst ditches that they made. The trail should be fine for an average machine with a decent rider. Then I did a little more boondocking. Temperature was warm with wet snow Thursday but 19° this morning so it was ‘hero snow’ today.
I think riding will be fine Saturday and there may be a couple inches of new snow, but it may not be as good for deep snow riding because it will be warmer. I’m probably going out anyway, or maybe doing a snowshoe recon of the old route to Mud Lake.
Saturday night is predicted -4° and a high of 12° on Sunday. I’d rather it be 10 degrees warmer but at least it will be mostly sunny.
I don’t have definite plans . Let me know if you want to go.
The problem with the Cotter Brook/Moose Mountain trail east towards Cod Pond and ultimately Thurman from the Griffin/Gerard Sugarbush trail is that the DEC will not allow the bridge over Georgia Brook to be replaced.
The proposed but as far as I know still not approved UMP has that trail being closed and switching the corridor to the trail between Pumpkin Hollow Rd/Willis Lake and Wilcox/Stony Creek. But since there is no UMP and now since the lawsuit stopping virtually all trail work we are left with a little trail through the woods that is not suitable for the average snowmobiler, and a narrow bridge over Stony Creek that most snowmobiles can not use. I can ride across it with my Freestyle because the ski stance is only 38″ There is an old road to a ford a quarter mile upstream but the river is not always frozen.
In 2007-2008 thousands of volunteer man-hours were put into improving the trail. Replacing the short Georgia Brook bridge would be simple thing compared to building a snowmobile bridge over Stoney Creek, and it is a much shorter route than going way south of Wells to go east.
Ron, Last year or maybe last 2-3 years I never rode the Clockmill, Wagoner Loop, Good Luck Lake, Dexter Lake, Spectacle Lake trails because there was just not much snow, but the last time I did ride them they were cleared. I think maybe 4-5 years ago I went on an early winter trail clearing work detail with the Stratford Club. We stared from Lower Arietts but I can’t remember which trails we cleared.
Corridor trails are essential for longer trips between destinations but it seems like the trend has been to “compromise” to get the corridors by giving up the smaller, less used trails. I have nothing against groomed trails in general and definitely don’t want to be riding bumps all the time or 10 MPH between towns but generally the more I am confined to hardpacked trails, especially the same ones I’ve been on a hundred times, the less enthusiastic I am about snowmobiling.
The DEC will not let the clubs replace the bridge. They want to close the trail completely and have the new corridor through Wells and over to Thurman on the Willis (Pumpkin Hollow) – Wilcox trail.
Relying on only one trail is a mistake. A bridge out or other major problem completely severs the connection.
There is no valid reason to have only one trail. Having both makes a really nice “wilderness loop.” My friends and I used to ride this all the time.
Snowmobiling is going downhill big time.
We are losing the real snowmobile trails. Everyone is driving big overpowered tanks and only wants to go fast on snow-paved roads, so they don’t fight to save the actual trails, and the tree-huggers are 1000x more effective at pushing their agenda than snowmobilers.
Couple that with the disrespectful narcistic wanna-be racers running loud pipes and trespassing, causing more loss of trail segments on private lands.
I’ll see what I can find out from the Algonquin Snoblazers. My favorite riding is either off-trail where possible or close to it, on real snowmobile trails such as those. Weekday riding is best but typically it does not matter too much on the backcountry trails because not too many people take them. We are going to lose the pristine conditions with the warm-up and rain mid-week, but it is going to cool down on Friday and maybe it won’t be too bad on the weekend. I don’t know about weekend plans yet but I’ll post here if I’m available.
The last time before today that I rode was Feb 3 and Sacandaga had a lot of slush. I did walk out on the lake a couple of times after that and there was slush even after cold weather. I finally got machines dug out and fixed and I rode around the lake this afternoon. It all seemed hard even off the packed tracks.
1971 Rupp S-23
1971 Yamaha SL-292
1972 Moto-Ski Mini-Sno
1973 Moto-Ski F-440
1971 Rupp S-34
1982 John Deere Sprintfire (340 liquid cooled)
1988 Polaris Indy Sport (340)
1997 Polaris SuperSport (488)current
2007 & 2009 SkiDoo Freestyle Backcountry (550 fan)
2009 SkiDoo (Freestyle) Tundra (267 single)
2×2006 SkiDoo Freestyle 300 (267 single)If the 267 single as 340 a single and 35 instead of 25 HP the tundra and 300s would really be super.
I’m thinking about getting a new Yamaha Transporter Lite /Arctic Cat Blast LT.
I rode all the way around the shoreline of Sacandaga Sunday about 4PM. Surprisingly no significant slush. Lake did not look too bad this morning either. Village trails and LP1 pretty rough Sunday afternoonl. Way to warm and wet to groom. Not worth risking scraping off the snow that is left and won’t set up anyway. Now that the rain has stopped and it is getting colder I think they will be out Trails won’t be quite as nice as when there was lots of cold loose snow, but will set up hard and should withstand this weekend. Let’s hope for some snow and no more rain. We could get in another couple weeks.
Yesterday I only got to ride a few miles to Clay Vly (past Fawn Lake) and back.
Monday I rode a loop Fawn Lake – Big Brook – Jessup River Road – S82 to Mason Lake and back – Hatchery Brook – Speculator. All good until I crossed Elm Lake Road. From there in to Speculator and village trails were somewhat rough. Lakes good in packed tracks but there is slush under the unpacked snow. I regret not stopping at The Inn for dinner. Missed the meat loaf special. 🙁
No riding today (2/24) so far except around the yard and out on the lake to turn around. Packed snow areas seem to still be hard. Some traffic on the lake but seemed light so I doubt much damage. 45° today but as of 5 PM no rain. Trails should be OK and any grooming next few days should be really effective to harden the base for a while longer. But Saturday forecast 39° and rain combined with traffic does not look good for trails.
People attempted Upper Pine a couple of weeks ago but no one got past the rocks and ruts at the bottom of the first big hill on the skidder road. I tried last Saturday but the snow was way too light. I spent over an hour walking up the hill with my shovel filling in the ruts and packing. Next day I came back with my Tundra. 2 guys had just made it up to where I stopped packing and filling but they didn’t know where to go after that. I rode to the top then made an extra trip to pack and widen the trail. I may get the chance to go back again after this snow.
Willis was near perfect when I rode it today. New bridge over fall Stream is really nice.
Went in Jan 10 from the former Arietta Hotel to C8 past Third lake, and S82 to Spectacle Lake trail clearing with Stratford. Trails should be really nice now the all the snow and cold.
According to the Ohio club Farcebook page, they opened up the trail on 1/23. Th picture shows some bridge building or repairing. According to one comment “Another day of clipping and a lil more snow to fine tube it and that trail will b the best its ever been…alot of traffic on it today!!”
On a related note, the Stratford Snowdrifters have don a lot of work on C8 in lower Arietta. I was part of a work party that cleared the trail from the former Arietta Hotel (which is being refurbished and will re-open as the Balsam Inn) to C8 and S82 over to Spectacle Lake. So this means we could ride a nice loop down from Clockmill Corners, over to Stratford, then either up the Powley Road or over To Salisbury then up through Mosquito Hill.
