NY Snowmobile Conditions

Chris wrote

Chris wrote

SWEET PICS onto the next page

Haven't made it to Speculator, yet.  

Yamacat- How about them Sidewinders??  I've had the opportunity to ride a couple of them in poor conditions... Scary fast.

I spend a lot of time in Stratford/Oppenheim/Arietta area.   I help groom/maintain the Stratford Snowdrifter Trails, just haven't had enough snow there yet.  If the snow was more dense it would be a different story, lots of bones up there.

Plenty of snow to poke around, just not enough to groom so you can really rip.  We groom with Mogul Masters behind Skandics.

We had plans of doing a big ride on Saturday AM, but this weather isn't looking too promising.

We may go up and do some BC skiing.  The snowmobile trails, are great fun for skiing and give access to some promising pitches around the Good Luck Mountain area off of Rt10.

Yamacat --- haha

Haven't ridden the Sidewinder but only because I haven't had a chance to yet. I'm sure once I get to Speculator my biddy will let me rip one across the lake.

I'm an Arctic Cat guy but I'll admit I was pretty psyched to find out they merged with Yamaha. I feel I have the best of both worlds with a Yamaha motor and Cat chassis. Totally digging the 4 stoke torque, the engine braking is taking some getting used too tho. Doubt I'll ever go thru a set of brake pads.

We mainly are trail riders around here which, as you know, is much diff than the riding up there. If we get a 2 mile shot of flat groomed before ducking back  into a single track wood section we're lucky. And when we do we'll lap it a couple times to let 'em eat. We do have some power line rips that are substantial POW rides. Like anything else when the conditions are right it's nothing but drift blastin', POW floating grins ear to ear.

I am looking forward to getting to Speculator for some serious groomed trail riding tho. It's soooooo fun!

We have a super nice county loop that's right a 110 miles --- we were hopeful for Sunday but it's not looking good. I'm looking at Tuesday )fingers crossed) as my next day to ride.

Do you ride with a Tech Vest?? I just ordered one. The majority of the guys I ride with all have them and have convinced me to spend the 300 bucks to get one.

I hear moose river plains is riding real nice out toward inlet and eventually old forge, my cousin did 160 miles last sunday.

campgottagopee wrote

Do you ride with a Tech Vest?? I just ordered one. The majority of the guys I ride with all have them and have convinced me to spend the 300 bucks to get one.

I actually ride with my arcteryx shell, pretty much the exact setup that I use on the ski hill/in the woods.  Thing blocks all of the wind and I let me under layers do the insulating.  If it's cold I'll wear my Carhartt bibs with longjohns/sweat pants for lower body.  Up top just a long sleeve, sweatshirt & down coat under my shell.  Only thing that gets cold on my is my fingers, but I just ordered new hand warmer elements last night off of Dennis Kirk

I just started riding with a the 509 MX style helmet/Goggles and love it with a Balaclava.  I came from a Modular helmet, but have a massive head and had fogging issues and a hard time with the mouth cover thing.  I still wear Modular on warm days, they're nice for on trail refreshments along and when grooming to easily be able to talk to people and again.. have a refreshment.

I mean one of these things ---- mainly protective gear in the event of a crash ---- but I'm told the built belt helps tremendously supporting your back.




I just ride in a shell as well ---- all gortex jacket and pants ---- new sled has a heated seat, can you believe that shit?? LOL


Funny about you switching to helmet with goggles ----- when I rode years ago that's what I rode with, now I went to modular w/ heated windshield. I wear glasses and find I fog up less with that modular due to being able to just crack the shield a little. On warm days I just ride with the sun visor and leave the main face shield up

Got for a 60 mile rip yesterday. Some sketchy spots but all in all a great day for riding. Highlights were the wind loaded hedgerows in the fields, drift surfing at it's best!

 

Looks nice. Didn't get to ride last weekend on account of the carnage from the rain and letting trails firm back up but will be riding this weekend. Ride up around Old Forge mostly. Been pretty good up there so far this season.

Yea, I didn't ride last weekend either. From what I hear there was lots of open water around, but that's all frozen solid now.

We'll make a trip Specualtor to ride but other than that we ride right from our houses. I't kinda sweet not having to trailer and all the crap that goes along with it.

what about riding from your house up to speculator?  I met a few guys from Syracuse at Lisa G's that rode the whole way.

Nice shots BTW.  Drift jumping is hoot.  Snow banks right after they were plowed make pretty good jumps to.

Yea, we've talked about doing something like that. It would be wicked fun to do just need to get everyone on the same page to take the time off of work. If I were to do something like that I'd want to make a week long trip out of it.

I'll try and get some action shots next time out. It's just too much fun to stop and take pic's.

If you pick up a I love NY winter brochure the 2 guys in the bottom photo are a couple of the guys I ride with --- how funny is that!


 

It's not looking good for riding much past this weekend so I'm trying to get in as much as I can. We have what we call the Valley Loop which is 12 miles. All of the Greek Peak side was groomed!! What surprise, and I was the 2nd sled to get it. It's pure adrenaline rush being one of the first few sleds thru after the groomer knowing everything in front of you is flat. The loop was so nice I had to do it twice

Shot of GP from one of the many cornfields behind my house.

Nice, Camp- love night rides with fresh silk... talk about tunnel vision!

Got out for a surprise 95 mile ride this past Sunday, we wanted to give the waterholes a chance to freeze up.  Started at 8:30 on Sunday morning with the thought that we'd just crawl around the trails for an 30-60 minutes just for something to do.  We made our way toward the town of Stratford thinking we'd grab coffee at the East Canada Stop n Shop and then turn around and get the xc skis out.  

Well, during coffee I looked out toward the Salisbury Ridge Runner's club trail and it was groomed to perfection.  We decided to check it out... a couple hours later and we were at the Ohio Tavern having the best BBQ Pork Grilled Cheese sandwich you could imagine.  Was one of those days where we had good luck, just kept hitting perfectly groomed trails the whole ride out.

Tunnel vision for sure --- what a trip tho

Sounds like you hit it perfect! Reports are clubs are out grooming all over around here now. I know I'm riding every chance I get this weekend.

Oh boy!

Going to look at this sled tomorrow --- what a classic muscle sled ---- '79 El Tigre 5000

We are on a no snow hold

Still a great weekend of riding despite the water and mud holes ---- I've had less mud on some of my dirt bikes

All dressed up and nowhere to go



Yesterday we bumped into a crew out coyote hunting --- we stopped to watch them on one of their drives --- was cool to watch them rip up and down the field with rifles strapped on their backs

We got out a bit this weekend too, Saturday was nice but deteriorated quickly.  Didn't do much riding, cleared trail to Spectacle Lake and made a nice fire in one of the bays to roast some White Eagles, natural casing baby.

A few weeks ago I saw my first gun strapped to someones back on a sled, thought it was rabbit hunting though maybe he was going after dogs.  I sort of chuckled to myself because where we saw him, there was a pair of bald eagles soaring above him... "did I just interrupt his Eagle hunt?"

On second thought there were probably eagles hovering over a food pile that was there to bring in the yotes.

campgottagopee wrote

Oh boy!

Going to look at this sled tomorrow --- what a classic muscle sled ---- '79 El Tigre 5000

didya buy it?