The other day I was scouring some topo's looking for a loop trip to ride. I was considering an out and back trip to the Moose River Plains but really wanted a loop. I ended up in the snowmobile parking lot off RT 10 in Arietta. Sitting in my truck I was reviewing the map when a couple skiers pulled in. As we all were gearing up they came over to check out my bike and we got to discussing our routes. When I explained my plan to ride up the snowmobile trail to the Piseco-Powley Road and then down to Clockmill Corners and across to either a spur back north or worst case out to RT 10 and then back north they seemed surprised. "That's an awful ambitous plan", they commented. Great! Just the motivation I needed. When the time comes, when you reach a point of no double backing, when things just are getting sketchy, THAT's when I need that little 'push' to keep going.
Ok, so that's me riding. Where I can free up a hand.
Two areas of concern. First riding on frozen water. I had no intention of venturing out on any lakes or ponds. Maybe a stream crossing or across a vly. But not out and exposed. The winter has been mild and although the nights have been down in the single digits and teens, the days have not been all that cold and lake ice is borderline. Second, riding on the road. With it snowing the roads were just covered and the visibility diminished. Plus drivers don't expect to see a cyclist on the road. Both concerns would eventually come into play.
There is about a foot, foot and a half of snow in the woods. That's a hundred inches shy of a mediocre winter. The first leg on the snowmobile trail was soft in spots. Not bad, a good warm up. Temperature was about 20 degrees F and light snow.
I had on three light layers on top with a goretex shell. On the bottoms, EMS cycling shorts under my EMS Fencemender trousers. The Fencemenders are lined with a thin layer of primaloft but are still cotton on the outside. I was cognizant of the fact that these were the weak link in my kit. However, I did have a pair of fleece long underwear and shell pants in my pack. Dam Fencemenders are too comfy. I'm still wearing them working in the woods, but also have wore them skate and telemark skiing. I've got better than a hundred miles biking in them as well this winter. The only sign of wear are the cuffs. Note about cycling shorts: every cyclist has their favorites and what works best for them. I really like the EMS brand. Both the six and eight panel models work well for me and they're considerably cheaper than PI. They've held up well over two years of year round usage. Too bad they don't make a long legged pair.
Once I reached the Piseco Powley road I found it well packed by snowmobiles with 2 to 3" of fresh snow on top. Headed towards Stratford and Clockmill Corners I was cruising at a pretty good clip.
I stopped to check out some side trails and it didn't look as though many snowmobilers were venturing off the main trails.
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| Closed Loop |
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Wasn't long and I was at my first decision point: Clockmill Corners. Here there is a trail off to the east and Clockmill Pond. It looked like there had been a couple machines down the trail so I headed off that way. The snow was decent enough and there were a few open patches but noting the Pugs didn't take in stride. I was able to hop from packed snow to rocks and back with out missing a beat. There were a couple hills where I had to shift down to 'two foot' drive, but no worries.
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| Rock Lake |
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| Matt's Mountain (turn coming up) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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So at about Matt's Mountain I had a good idea of what to expect. My plan was to take the next intersection and head north where I might go all the way back to the truck or hop out onto RT 10 for the last mile or so... this plan would not happen.
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| Broke through into mud... and almost took a trip. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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| Point of No Return |
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| But the trail is closed and unpacked.. so plan B |
The trail north was closed, the snow too deep and unpacked. The plan B was to head due east along the shore of Kenells Pond out to RT 10. However, after reaching Kenells Pond the trail was obliterated by a logging operation. I kind of found the trail / skidder track but the ground was so soft that the track was three feet deep and had frozen overnight. The ruts were a mess. Two foot drive would take hours and even longer if I ran into slashing piles. So I considered heading out onto the frozen surface of Kenells Pond. If the ice held I could be out to RT 10 in minutes. I bushwacked down to the ice and walked out a ways with my floatation device which also doubled as a bicycle. There are videos of the Pugsly floating and even supporting the weight of a swimmer. But I didn't want to test it out through a broken hole in the ice. There was no slush under the couple inches of snow so I decided to go for it. If at any time I ran into slush my plan was to bolt for the shore. About a 100 yards down pond I saw that a good portion of the bank was shear rock wall. Oh well drop it a couple gears and pedal faster...
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| Plan C with trepidation.. |
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| Bigger... |
Here was the culprit.... with the soft ground conventional skidders would be problematic...
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| Road grime... and salt... |
After six miles on RT 10 and no issues with traffic.. (mid week winter there are few travelers out)... I was back no worse for wear. Covered about eighteen miles in just under three hours. Consumed a liter of water and a pack of shot blocks... strawberry....
