Greetings and welcome!
I was under the weather yesterday and could not update. My apologies.
Today we are up to 44 degrees and partly sunny. Based on the traffic going past the house the trails are very busy today.
I did get out for a ride Thursday afternoon and found mostly good conditions. There were some bare spots where the sun went evil but most woods trails had ample snow.
What didn’t go so well was that with the warm weather the snow was very packy and it didn’t take long for the trails to get rough. On one stretch I was 4 snowmobiles behind the groomer and there were already bumps forming. I can only imagine the whoopties that all of the traffic is building today. The other part that didn’t go well was the road trails. The sun has those down to pavement in all but the shaded spots.
I broke my wrist pretty badly last fall taking a tumble in the shop. Being too stubborn to sit still for 6 weeks in fall, it never really healed right. I re-injured that pretty bad Friday pulling the snowmobiles out of the shop. I’m half Irish and 100% stubborn so I went riding anyway. Between the rough trails, running the throttle, and the Fred Flintstone era suspension under my ’94 Indy Trail, I only got about 20 miles before it blew up like a balloon. I was one hurtin’ unit after that. Unless I was going to hunt and peck one finger at a time, left handed, there was going to be no Friday update.
Through the magic of ibuprofen, ample whiskey, vitamins, and a day off, I am back capable of an update. I am off of the trail for a few more days. If it weren’t in the final days of the season it would be a couple of weeks.
I am not sure if this is our last weekend of decent snow conditions and system-wide riding, but my guess, based on the weather forecast, is that it probably will not be. If all goes well we might get next weekend with some hit and miss late season conditions. The big issue is the sun. On sunny or partly sunny days it really gets evil on our snow and you get stuff like this. This had 7″+ of fresh snow fall on it within the past 3 days. As you can see the rest of the trail looks fine.
In the week ahead we have a 6″+ snowfall expected Monday that will help a lot-if it’s snow. It will be a close one, but right now the forecast is favorable. We also have a couple of sunny days coming up this week. With no 40+ degree temperatures we have a fighting chance if we get the snow and ignore the sunny spots. The trails in the woods will still be good for a while.
There is also a big big storm in the forecast for next weekend. If that goes snow, it could turn out really well (Oh no! I’m snowed in up north!). If it goes rain not so much. At a week out the rain/snow line is just a guess.
When I was out riding Thursday I ran into some old snowmobiling friends from around Richfield. Great to see you guys, especially on the trail!
That’s it for today. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB