Friday Night 2-January-2009
I took Darrin Jr for a nice jaunt to the Big-T this afternoon. The inner village trails were in pretty good shape; a hard base ranging from smooth to slight chop with an inch of chopped granular snow on it. The Sabael trail was a mess, but Parks and Rec was doing surgery on the worst water holes and grooming the trail; conditions should improve with more snow and cold. The Ski Hut trail had the typical water hazards closer to the Ski Hut, but pretty good overall.
The trail from Adirondack Mountain Sports to Cedar River Headquarters was in fair shape. There was a solid base with slight ripples for the most part and a handful of frozen washouts. The creek was nearly level with the bridge deck about 2 miles before the Deer Valley parking lot. Thankfully, we won’t be having another thaw soon, or else that bridge would be in serious jeopardy!
Past the Deer Valley parking lot, the trail was better overall with more smooth spots. The wider segments were really nice riding. The trail got choppier as it narrowed toward the river with more frozen washouts. The final mile or two to Headquarters was nice riding.
Headquarters to Silver Run was overall nice riding. The trail ranged from smooth to slight studders. There were some small moguls on either side of the big hill you would not want to hit at fast speeds. Watch out for ice on the S-turns!
Past Silver Run, the Inlet side was fairly choppy for several miles (a good couple notches lower in quality from the Indian Lake side). The Flats leading up to the Big-T were good. After we watched the deer and blue-jays along with about 2 dozen other people, we headed back to town.
To save some time, we went home via Cedar River Road. The trail from Headquarters back to the former paid parking lot was perfect. I almost turned around to do it again! By evening, the snow was coming down hard enough to coat the road. Spun off 70 miles and enjoyed most of it!
WEEKEND OUTLOOK: At 9PM, I’ve already picked up 2-3 inches of fresh snow at the ilsnow.com storm center and it’s likely we’ll pick up at least another few inches overnight. Moose River Plains will pick up a good dump of snow overnight and that should motivate Inlet to groom back to the Silver Run turn around this weekend. People have been riding the lakes and I rode Indian Lake to reach the village trails and felt safe enough about it to have Darrin Jr ride with me. Doug Wells told me that the Indian Lake Snowarriors will be grooming the Blue Mountain trail and Sabael trail on Saturday. Come on up!
NOTE: The paid parking lot at the very end of Cedar River Road is closed this winter. The Town of Indian Lake chose not to renew their lease for the lot this winter. People who park in that lot will have their vehicles towed.
There is a private pay lot ($5 per sled) on Cedar River Road on the Brown Farm about a mile before the end of Cedar River Road. This lot is marked with signs.
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