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Tom's Western NY Trail Conditions
Contacting Tom: Click here
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Anyone riding the trails, please email reports and I will post them below
These reports cover the trail system centered in the Varysburg/Strykersville region about 35 miles southeast of Buffalo, NY. Many of these trails are part of the Folsom Trailblazers Snowmobile Club system, though this webpage is NOT formally associated with that club.
email:
camplongacres@yahoo.com -
Phone - 716-652-9495
Tom's article on a "wish list" for grooming - discussion of what we wish WNY grooming was like
Archive of 2006/2007 trail condition - 2007 reports (what newcomers to our trail system can expect over a season - many pictures)
Oatka Valley Snowmobile Association - this club maintains the trails to the east of the Folsom club from Java and Attica east through Warsaw to Letchworth Park. This club maintains a fairly simple website, but often has recent trail conditions posted.
Tri-County Drift Hoppers - this club maintains the trails south of the Folsom system towards Arcade. The club's website is fairly extensive. Until recently, updates were infrequent. There is now a new forum, and some more frequent updates recently.
Folsom Trail Blazers - This club maintains the trails reported on by this independent website, in the Varysburg, Java, Strykersville area. The trail guys and groomer operators do a great job. There is a new webmaster, and this site is becoming more active. Hooray!
Holland Sno-Rascals - This club maintains trails to the southwest of the Folsom system surrounding Holland. The club maintains a pretty good website with an online forum. Trail reports are usually current, if not very detailed.
March 31st:
Another week of spring conditions up north
Western NY snowmobiling video project underway. We’ll have to finish next season, but we’ve got some good video already and may show some of it as a ‘work in progress” at one of the Folsom club meetings.
Tuesday, March 31 Update:
Trails across the top of Ontario in Hearst, Kapuskasing, and Cochrane are still listed as “Open”. Temperatures are in the 40’s during the daytime for a couple of days with some rain, then in the 30’s later this week. Night time temps will be well below freezing right through the period, though, so the trails should hold up. There’s lots of snow in the bush and in Abitibi Canyon. It is typical for riding up in that part of Ontario to continue through the first week or two of April. Looks like they are right on schedule this spring. Let me know if anyone goes and email us a report.
(They did get a decent dump of fresh snow over the weekend, but much of it has melted – they are back to the packed base.)
Saturday afternoon, March 28, 2009:
I’ve just been outside in shirt sleeves with the hose cleaning and greasing my tractor for spring work around the farm. Then I come in and out of habit check in with some of the sledding forums where I still see people reporting good to excellent riding up in Cochrane and Hearst, Ontario. And, again because I am still in the habit, I check Environment Canada and they have a WINTER STORM WATCH up for the Cochrane area!
“A fairly potent disturbance over Missouri will track towards the central Great Lakes later tonight into Sunday. The leading band of precipitation accompanying the low will spread into Ontario tonight. It will be cold enough for the northern swath of precipitation to fall as snow, beginning in the Sault Ste Marie area later tonight and districts to the northeast Sunday morning. A band of freezing rain is also likely, and has the potential to affect locales adjacent to the north channel and northeast through Sudbury to New Liskeard. Several hours of freezing rain are possible Sunday morning. Farther east around North Bay..Primarily rain is expected.
Snowfall amounts may reach 15 centimetres, with a few millimetres of ice buildup possible. Breezy northeast winds accompanying the freezing rain may also result in local power outages as tree limbs come into contact with hydro lines. Travel across much of central and northeastern Ontario may become problematic as snow and ice accumulates on roads.
Environment Canada continues to monitor this situation closely and will issue updated statements as deemed necessary.”
The all snow band is right over Cochrane, Kapuskasing, and Hearst as I read it. Monday and Tuesday should be awesome riding up there again! Then Wednesday through the end of the week, mid 40’s and spring conditions arrive even in the far north of Ontario. Man, I am tempted to load up for one more rip, but I will probably not do it – ARRgggh!
Thursday, March 26th:
Well, they are still riding in Cochrane in far northern Ontario. Reports from two days ago showed good conditions with continuing grooming. They got some rain yesterday and today but have tons of snow. Colder weather and SNOW FLURRIES return for much of the weekend and next week. The “A” trail is in good shape in the Cochrane area, west to Hearst, and also the trails north to Abitibi Canyon.
The “C” trail south through Shining Tree is not as good, with bad spots, though some good reports are still coming in from the Timmins area.
Below is a report from one of our readers, Bill. He has good pictures and a great video from last weekend at his links! He was riding in the Kirkland Lake area amoung others. Getting a little thin there this week – go a little further north.
“Tom,
Had a great time up in Canada if you click on this link it is our clubs website and I posted some pictures and in my last post I posted a you tube video. http://www.caledoniatrailblazers.com/ctbbb/viewtopic.php?p=1363#1363
Bill”
Thursday, March 19th, 2009:
It’s fun from time to time to browse down this very long page and see what riding was like a month ago, a year ago, or two years ago. It looks from my posts as though riding ended this year in western New York on February 26th.
We were surprisingly consistent the two previous years. We rode until March 20 in 2007 and just about the same date in 2008 last spring, although five or six inches of snow fell in Folsom on March 28th last year with unofficial last minute riding in many areas.
But we started early this year. It feels like we had a pretty good year, and the grooming was very well done by all area clubs this winter when we had snow. We just aren’t far enough north here to avoid the periodic thaws all winter. That’s why northern Ontario is so good – once the snow comes in December, it never melts! It just keeps building until the spring thaws. Sure makes it easier to build and keep a trail base!
Speaking of Ontario, the good riding reports are now coming in only from the far north – the Cochrane, Smooth Rock Falls, and Hearst areas. Even there it will be getting warmer next week. Not surprisingly, motel reservations are VERY hard to come by in that area this weekend! Every last ride sled fanatic in the east – central United States and all of southern Ontario is trying to cram into about 140 miles of trail in that region!
Bush trail riding and “canyon” riding in the far north will continue for a few more weeks. Word is that the Abitibi Canyon is a don’t miss destination for off trail riders. Trail goes north out of Cochrane towards James Bay. Next thing on the map is Polar Bear Provincial Park!
Wednesday evening, March 18th:
Hey, we’re about done. The “decent riding” latitude seems to be moving north at about 40 or 50 miles a day. There are online reports of lots of flowing water and standing water on the lakes in the new Liskeard area. People are riding in spring conditions from there north. Kirkland Lake (50 miles north of New Liskeard) is reported a little rough, but with snow cover still. Good riding is reported between Cochrane and Hearst – go there if you can for the next few days.
There will be riding in the Cochrane area for some time, but even there they will be getting warm temps the beginning of next week with spring sun. Spring conditions and problems for anyone trying to ride long distance. A few guys talked with me yesterday and today and are heading up. I’ll post their reports if they get back to me.
I would call this a good season, even though it ended pretty suddenly here in New York. I got in 900 very good miles right here close to home and another 1700 in Canada. Most ever for me.
Sunday, 10PM, March 15th:
Hey guys & gals,
I’ve been curious about conditions in Quebec. Check this link for a thread posted by some people I trade messages with about their GREAT ride near St Zenon this weekend. Conditions will be decent also in far northern Ontario for at least another week with some warm days and cold nights. Old Forge is now very weak and Tug Hill has lots of bare roads, etc. Go far north!
Saturday, March 14, 3AM: (edited Saturday morning)
After an eleven hour trip (with pit stops), I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at the difference in “snow” conditions. After walking in my front door a few minutes ago with no snow anywhere to be seen in East Aurora, it is a little hard to believe that just this afternoon Meghan and I were flying around the T.A.T.A. trail system in northern Ontario with snow measured not in inches, but in feet.
I think we’ve had our last ride of the season, and it was a good one. There is heavy sled traffic up there for the weekend, and the glazed trails are all breaking down nicely to a fine inch or two of loose snow over hard packed base. Riding nearly everywhere north of new Liskeard should be very good to excellent all weekend.
We tried going south towards Temagami this morning but turned around because the trails south were still nearly all ice. Not enough sled traffic.
Latest forecast for New Liskeard and much of northern Ontario HAS NOW CHANGED – THEY NOW EXPECT SEVERAL WARM DAYS BEGINNING MONDAY. There will be some kind of riding up there into April but spring conditions with alternate thaw and freeze and ice will arrive beginning Monday. Everyone who went north for this weekend should have a fine ride and be glad you went when you did.
On our way home yesterday we passed almost 50 trailers headed north just between new Liskeard and North Bay. And later at night it looked like every 3rd or 4th vehicle headed north was pulling a trailer. Should be a lot of sledders up enjoying the last good riding over the weekend!
Meghan and I had our best ride yesterday out her favorite “corridor”, taking the “A” trail north and west from New Liskeard through Earlton, west past the airport and the VERY fast long field just beyond. ( 105 mph and still pulling like my draft horse when I chickened out!) Then on west on “A” through all the high speed winding forest trails to the railbed and on to Elk Lake. We had a great long lunch at the Eco Center in Elk Lake, then back to Earlton and on home through the fast Thornloe trails and down L188 to new Liskeard. Some pictures are at this link now. Enjoy.
Thursday, March 12, 7PM:
New Liskeard was great today. Click this link for some pictures. Smooth trails, one smooth enough for a 102 mph pass!
We rode 165 miles today from New Liskeard north on some local trails to Earlton (VERY icy but smooth and FAST!), then north on "A" (excellent, very fast, frozen snow was quickly breaking down to a fine sugar snow because of sled traffic and gave good lube and cooling). Then we took L161 to Charlton and then L162 west to the "A".
The local trails today were all very smooth, but had a glaze of ice crust. My 4 Stroke Turbo never threw a temperature warning, but Meghan's ZRT did - it is finicky that way, but it did not really overheat and we continued.
Then back a very fast "A" trail to Elk Lake and the Eco Center for a great lunch and good sled talk with some guys from Pennsylvania. All of the above was bitterly cold, but at least the sun was shining. It warmed up to a balmy 8 degrees after lunch and we took the "A" back to New Liskeard. It was just a little bumpy right near town of New Liskeard. Everything else was table top smooth!
There was a fair amount of traffic on the "A" trail today which was good since the frozen crust from yesterday's flash freeze needed traffic to break it down for better cooling. By tonight the "A" trail was in very good shape. Any speed you want - I have it on good authority that the long field trail just west of the Earlton airport was good for 102 MPH today.
On the way back from Elk Lake it looked like some of the local trails were beginning to get some traffic. That's all they need to be in very good shape. They are plenty smooth enough and just need a little traffic to break down the frozen surface. I bet they will be fine by tomorrow morning.
Hope this is helpful to those of you thinking of coming up for the weekend.
The weather reports for the New Liskeard area and north for the next 7 days show only two days just above freezing (33F), and cold nights. The present very good riding conditions should last at least another week. Load ‘em up!
Wednesday, March 11, 9PM:
Ontario “mini trail report” for highway #11 corridor.
For those of you thinking about riding the end of this week in Ontario, here’s what I saw on my way from Buffalo to New Liskeard today:
No snow south of Barrie.
Extensive snow cover still in Muskoka area, Gravenhurst through Huntsville. The trails from Bracebridge to Huntsville looked very good from the road, though I understand there are some washouts, the roads are bare, and some bare spots on hills. We drove through snow flurries and squalls this afternoon especially in Bracebridge to Huntsville area and a little north, so there should be a little fresh stuff for lube and cooling in that area.
Almost NO SNOW – I mean bare fields and spotty ice base on trails for quite a ways to the south of North Bay. No way to ride here.
BUT just to the north side of North Bay there is again extensive snow cover and the trails look very passable. More and more snow as you go north from here.
My pictures at this link were taken near Temagami just off highway #11. The trails are frozen hard, very smooth with little recent traffic, but the frozen snow seems like it will dust up as a sled passes just enough for lube and cooling. It will be touch and go until a little sled traffic passes, or a groomer chews it up.
I am in New Liskeard tonight and plan to ride from here towards Elk Lake and Timmins on the “A” trail tomorrow. I’ve heard at the motel that there are some trees down on the trails due to the very high winds earlier today. We’ll see. I will report on that and the snow conditions by tomorrow afternoon. There is plenty of snow. Only question is how well it works up to provide lube and cooling.
Wednesday, 9AM:
We took off early last night to beat the 90 Km wind gusts forecast for today on the highways. Drove through continuous rain from Buffalo through Toronto to Barrie, where we stayed overnight. All the rain did not give us a great feeling about what we’re going to find when we get to New Liskeard, but I still believe there will be plenty of snow. I just hope the ice crust from the fast freeze forecast for later today is not so much as to cause poor slide lube and cooling or frozen ruts on the trails. I’m hoping for lots of sled traffic to break up the glaze, and hopefully a full court press by the groomers getting ready for a fine weekend.
I wrote a late post for last night about trying to plan trips with changing weather forecasts, but it looks like I forgot to upload it before I went out the door. Anyway, I think we made the right decision leaving early to beat the wind. We’re taking it easy this morning when the wind is supposed to be the worst and finishing the drive in a short four hours later today. We’ll be good and rested up for getting Meghan’s ZRT started in -10F weather tomorrow morning – LOL!
Actually, we had no problems starting her sled last week after we left it in the trailer overnight with a small electric heater plugged in. Plan on the same tonight. Wish us luck for decent snow on the trails. Might get an inch or two of powder this afternoon – that would really help!
Monday, 3PM:
Well, by gosh, I think I’m going one more time! The forecast for New Liskeard had been up to 46F for Wednesday before getting cold again. Now it’s only for 39 Wednesday. Trails should be mint! We’re heading up Wednesday for riding Thursday and Friday.
Russ from Leroy has been reading our posts and he is planning to go up also. Do any of our other readers want to head north for one more great ride? Everyone plan their own riding agenda, but maybe we can meet up for dinner one of the nights or ride for a morning or afternoon together. There is a kid’s hockey tournament in New Liskeard Friday and Saturday, so make your motel reservations soon for the weekend. We won’t be the only ones to figure out that this is one of the last great riding opportunities, and the motels may soon book up.
Monday, March 9th, 8AM:
Following is a report posted last night on Hard Core Sledder.com by “Newfiebullet” who is in North Bay.
“I rode all day thursday, friday evening, Saturday and Sunday, and conditions were very very good, though the trails close to town were rough by the end of Saturday. We're also starting to get the odd bare spot on south facing hills, and this will get worse with the mid week warm spell that's coming
The A trail that follows the pipe line is starting to get worse, with washouts encroaching on the trails. We're going to start seeing more washouts and cave ins as the warm weather continues.
In short, spring conditions have arrived, which means the weather is great, and the trails are awesome, but they call for more caution then the pristine winter conditions do. The snow can change from very soft to set up with deep, solid ski ruts depending on shade and temperature. As the spring progress' expect to see bare spots at hill crests and washouts in valley's.
Lots of good riding left to do though. I'm betting on another 3 weekends of trail riding, and then a week of two of lake running. Granted most people would probably shudder at the conditions I'll be riding in on that last weekends trail ride!”
Conditions right now (Monday morning) in New Liskeard are bright sun and 10 degrees F. In New Liskeard and north they are going to have one short warm afternoon on Wednesday, then very cold temperatures right through next weekend. Should be awesome riding all this week and next weekend in the far north of Ontario. Then even they are getting a warm spell beginning on Monday, March 16th. They should have decent riding into April up near Cochrane and Hearst, but if you want great riding, this week is the time to head north!
I’m still on the fence – I am sorely tempted to make one more road trip, but our ride up in New Liskeard last week was so excellent that it would be a good final memory of the season. Aaaaaargh!
Sunday:
I’m usually a pretty laid back person and mostly optimistic about life. But now that the season is nearly over, I hope you won’t mind if I write a paragraph long “Rant” about one of my pet peaves on the trails. The most dangerous rider action – the most misunderstood, but well intentioned gesture – the “closed fist”.
Some riders think it means, “I’m the last sled you’re going to see for a while coming the other way. Pick up speed and feel welcome to use both sides of the trail again!”
Well, it doesn’t. It means a lot of things. One of them is, “Hi rider; this gesture is just a little IQ test for you guys coming the other way. If you’re dumb enough to think that just because I am the last rider in my group, and you take off like a scalded cat, then “Natural Selection” may soon take over and eliminate you as a problem rider when you meat someone that I may not know is following close behind me.” The only trouble is that you might take out a perfectly innocent rider in the process.
All joking aside, we are all human and many of us are a bit impatient. If we meet a group coming the other way, hopefully we slow down as we pass them all. (Hopefully – that’s another topic in a moment.) It is only natural to want to come up to speed as soon as the other group passes and maybe hit it a little extra to make up for the lost time. I’ve done it myself. But I try extra hard to always remember that the “last sled in line” signal from an opposing group of riders simply means, “I am the last rider in my own group, and I have no F*&%kin’ idea if someone else is screaming up the trail behind me just around the next corner.” I have seen guys give the closed fist signal when a whole group of riders is right behind them on the trail in plain sight. Sad.
There certainly is good benefit to giving the “sleds following” signal over your shoulder or to hold up X number of fingers if you are the leader of a group. It puts opposing riders on notice. But its no where near as important to have the exact number of sleds behind you displayed by a particular number of fingers. I believe the best action is for every rider in a group but the last to simply use the “over the shoulder” signal or a few fingers indicating following sleds. Then let the last rider in the group give no signal at all. If I come on a group like that and I see the last rider give no signal, I wonder, “Does he not know about signals? Is he being negligent in not giving me a signal? Is he thoughtless? Well, I better be on the lookout since I don’t know what might be around the next bend.” Which, of course, is EXACTLY what you should be thinking. Just my two cents.
PS – Hand signals have their benefit in the woods and on twisty trails or in hilly terrain. How many of you have been riding across a long perfectly flat trail or rail line, met a group of riders coming the other way and watched them all meticulously give signals on how many sleds are behind them – when you can see the whole group and a mile of open trail behind them perfectly well yourself. Well, they are well intentioned, but it looks pretty lame.
I am all for riders thinking “safety” all the time and doing any small thing they can to be courteous. But don’t give hand signals in a knee jerk response to meeting other riders, and don’t think that because you get that silly “last sled” signal, you have nothing more to worry about. And, how about those idiots you meet on hotrod sleds coming the other way and passing you on a narrow trail at 60 MPH without slowing down and trying to steer with one hand while they give you the “careful and courteous hand signals they think make them responsible riders”?
How about really slowing down when you meet another sled/sleds on a narrow trail? Guys, I promise not to think you’re a wuss if you slow way down doing a head on pass. It is not macho to fly by oncoming sleds 12 inches apart – it is stupid. I often pull over and stop to let the other line of sleds by. Why not take a 15 second break to enjoy the scenery and maybe avoid a crash?
End of rant. More to come in the next two weeks.
- Tom
Sunday, March 8th:
Click this link if you’d like to say “bye-bye” to our local trails for 2008-9 season. I took some pictures on Friday morning and what was left is mostly gone now after the rain yesterday.
There is a slight chance of snow late in the coming week. It will be plenty cold enough, but at this point it does not look like there will be enough moisture in the air mass. Maybe, though.
Up north where we went last week, there will be some riding into April and very good riding this week. We might go back this week, but we’re almost resigned to having had our last ride of the year.
We’ll keep posting stuff here for the rest of the month if you want to check in now and then. And then we’ll put this website “to sleep” until next year. We will post updates on the trail conditions up north for the next two weeks.
Conditions will be limited anyplace south of North Bay this week. North Bay area is pretty good. Get north of Temagami and you will be back into very good to excellent conditions!
Thursday, March 5th, midnight:
Well, we’re back home here in tropical western New York. REALLY enjoyed our trip to New Liskeard! Latest weather report for up there calls for a couple of warm days that shouldn’t hurt them much, and then a fifteen day forecast for well below normal temperatures and more snow! Maybe we’ll be going back up next week after all! We’ll see.
(On our way home we stopped in Bracebridge and took a look at the trails there. Many sleds were out and there was still plenty of base, but it was warm and the snow was turning sugary and soon to be slush. Roads are already bare and dirt is showing through some places. Not great.)
Thursday, 11AM:
This may have been it for the year for us. We got up early and took a 74 mile ride out towards Elk Lake from new Liskeard on the “A” trail. Mother nature treated us to a variety of snow from lovely light flurries to near white-out snow squalls on the ride after giving us clear sunny sky the first two days of our trip. Kind of a nice change of pace. We got to ride home on flat groomed trails covered by two to three inches of fresh powder.
We stopped together about 2000 feet from the motel – Meghan knew why I was stopping, and shook her head as if to say, “NO! I don’t want it to be over yet!” We agreed that the next quarter mile was probably going to be our last riding of the 2008 – 2009 season. We lined up and raced up the field to the motel. As usual, Meghan pulled a hole shot on me. I passed her about half way up the field and we rode on in and loaded up. Meghan cried just a little as she shut off her ZRT for the last time this season. Me, almost.
If any of you want to head up here during the next few weeks, I’ll be glad to share more details with you. The riding will be fine even during the warmer weather the next week.
Wednesday, 9PM:
We did a 220 mile day, riding north this morning from New Liskeard to Larder Lake and Kearns on the Quebec border, then west to Kirkland Lake, south on the “A” trail to Elk Lake, and back to New Liskeard. Beautiful forrest trails up and down hills over much of the northern and western parts of the ride and high speed field trails nearer to new Liskeard. For much of the day you could throw in 80 to 90 MPH blasts every five minutes. Grooming was magnificent!
Some of you know that I had my 64th birthday last week. I am sitting in bed in the motel room barely able to move, even with a couple of extra strength Tylenol in me! I don’t know if it is nuts to do something you love so strenuously that it wipes you out like this. Feels right to me.
I’ll post some more pictures here later tonight. Just amazing riding opportunities up here this week. If you’re thinking about coming, they are now calling for slightly warmer temps for the next week. 40 something Friday, then 30’s during the day and well below freezing every night for the next 7 days. Any trails that get soft during the day will firm up again every night. I expect they will keep grooming when it is cold at night. Should be fine riding for another week. Meghan and I are heading home tomorrow and toying with coming back next week. But likely tomorrow morning will be our last ride of the year. What a way to go out!
Tuesday, 10PM:
I’ll post a few pictures from my day riding in the new Liskeard, Ontario area later this evening if the motel internet connection doesn’t choke on all the pictures. We put on 175 miles today on terrific trails in bright sun. They have a lot of wide open trails up here – I mean WFO! Today we rode several different out and back’s from New Liskeard to get acquainted with the area. Tomorrow we plan a long loop from here north to Kirkland Lake and then back via the “B” trail.
We had an exciting moment this afternoon when we were on a canal that had lots of sled tracks and was supposedly part of the trail system. I came around a bend and saw a lot of slush tracks. I decided to turn around and as I did the back of the sled suddenly dropped and there was green water around my ass end. I hammered it and the sled climbed out – thank you “Mr. Turbo”!!!!!! Probably I broke through into a layer of water between thin surface ice and another layer of ice underneath. But it sure looked like deep water as I was sinking into it – scary shit.
I am monitoring the weather at home and it does not look good at all for sledding. It will take an unexpected mid-March storm to get us back in the sledding business in western new York. Possible, but looking less and less likely.
Check the Folsom club website over the next week. Mike is heading back up to Tug Hill and will report on conditions there.
Up here where I am, they are going to have one day just above freezing later this week and then more very cold weather all the following week. They will be riding until April up here and it will be excellent for another week, at least. Too bad it’s 16 hours of driving round trip. Worth it, though, if you can take the time.
Tuesday, 3:30 PM: WOW!
I think I’ve died and gone to snowmobiling heaven! I love riding at home when c onditions are right. I love Old Forge and really like Muskoka and Bracebridge. But this is the first time I’ve been really far north in Ontario. The obvious is that because it is far north it is COLD and winter lasts longer here. But the wide open spaces make for amazing riding.
We have not had a bad trail all day in 110 miles. We’ve often been the first ones on a trail and even the heavily traveled “A” trail is in great shape everyplace.
If you want one more really great ride and can take time off and don’t mind driving 8 hours each way, get your ass up here! YOU WOULDN’T REGRET IT.
I will post many pictures later tonight. I’m headed right back out for my second ride now before the sun goes down and temperatures plunge to frigid.
Monday, March 2, 8PM:
I’ll tell you one thing, New Liskeard is a L-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-n-g drive! But we made it up here this evening just as the sun was going down. The trails we saw from the road driving in looked great and just as we were coming up on our motel, we met a big groomer heading out the direction we plan to take first thing in the morning. We thought that was a good sign!
It is going down to -20 F tonight and I plan to let it warm up just a little before heading out tomorrow. We’ll be exploring various trails out and back from here tomorrow and on Wednesday we plan a more ambitious loop. Meghan needs 340 miles to break 2000 for this season, and that’s her goal for the three days we’ll be here.
It didn’t seem to me as though more than a dusting of snow fell in western New York last night after the talk of 1 to 3 inches. Hopefully a little more came down in some spots for some back yard riding. It still does not look promising for more western New York riding. But the average snow fall in March in western New York is about 12”, so don’t give up yet.
Sunday, 9PM: –
Here is a link to a YouTube video of Steve & I playing in the drifts a little the other day. It is in HD if you have a fast connection.
Sunday, March 1st:
Well, well - - - maybe a little more?
Just when we were ready to pack it in for the season, the back side of the big east coast storm looks like it may bring us a few inches of lake effect from the north east off Lake Ontario. We still have a thin, icy frozen base on many parts of the trails, and just a few inches of new snow would allow some riding again. We may get just enough during the day tomorrow. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear a few sleds buzzing around Monday night and on through Wednesday before temperature rises again in time to wipe us out for next weekend.
I don’t expect trails are likely to be officially opened, so if you do go ride, be sensible and turn around if you come to bare lawns or obviously seeded fields that have thin cover. Ride where you know you are on a well used trail.
Meghan and I are loaded up and ready for an 8 or 9 hour drive to new Liskeard first thing tomorrow morning. We may take a break from the drive and unload for a quick ride in Bracebridge on the way up. We’ll probably update this page most nights from our motel up north. If the conditions are as good as I am expecting (hoping), I’ll try not to rub it in too hard!
Saturday, February 28, 9PM:
Nothing doing around western New York but pockets of snow for backyard and local riding. So I spent some time on the internet this evening to check out various road trip destinations.
Sounds like Tug Hill and Old Forge are open and have snow, but there’s a lot of ice and bare & icy road sections. Wouldn’t be my cup of tea, but it’s an option if you need to go there.
Many parts of Quebec, especially northeast of Montreal & Mt Tremblant Park, and the far north are still very good.
Central Ontario (Muskoka, Pembroke, Algonquin, etc) got hammered with the rain and now have lots of ice. There may be decent riding again there as the ice gets broken up, but early post-storm reports are not great.
The rain line was from just south of Sudbury east along a line just south of North Bay. Everything north of that in Ontario is excellent. Which is why Meghan and I are headed to New Liskeard on Monday morning. Should be sweet – I will do a trail report from our Motel while we’re up there.
The Michigan Upper Peninsula is also supposed to be very good still.
I’d like to thank Beth and Matt for the following lovely letter. Messages like this make what I do worthwhile!!!
Hi Tom-
I have been meaning to email you for a long time, to express my appreciation for your trail reports. I discovered your site in 2007 and check it faithfully for your detailed and accurate reports ever since. You have become a household name among our group of riders …”What does Tom have to say? “Did Tom post a new report”… and from the guys “Are there any new pictures of Meghan?” J. We really appreciate the time you put into your reports as we share you passion for riding. We enjoyed a lot of great riding in your area this winter. Kudos to the clubs and groomer guys that maintain those trails. We also enjoy traveling and have dedicated most of our vacations to snowmobiling. We have towed our sleds all the way to Montana and enjoyed an incredible trip through Yellowstone and Glacier Nat’l Park, and also Idaho. We have also been to the UP of Michigan. We also spend a lot of time riding in Ontario, which is what prompted me to email you today after reading your report. We have a cottage in Sharbot Lake (about 45 minutes North of Kingston) and are heading up on Monday for the week. Our original plan was to ride from the cottage, but I’m afraid our area is lacking in snow. I was on the computer this AM searching for an alternate plan and the most up to date info I found was your report about New Liskard! I don’t know if we will make it that far West this trip, but we will likely head to Pembroke from the cottage and head West from there. I hope you and Meghan find great snow and enjoy your trip! Thanks again for the great reports (even for Ontario)!
Pray for snow!
Beth
Thanks, Beth! - Tom
Friday, 1PM:
Click this link for the depressing pictures of the flood waters and patchy remaining trail base. I especially like the one of “Small Craft Warning on Lake Armbrust” showing the wind driven waves on the flood waters over the trail!
Heavy rain was falling as I started home from my inspection tour. Only scattered flurries are forecast anytime during the coming week when it would otherwise be plenty cold enough for snow. Bright sun for much of next week will finish what this rain and thaw event started. There will be little or nothing left by the weekend of March 7th. Do not put your sleds away quite yet – historically we do get snow storms through mid march, but things are not looking promising locally.
There is still great riding if you’re willing to drive far enough, and Meghan and I will be doing just that on Monday. New Liskeard is a little more than an hour north of North Bay, and they are getting major snow while the rest of us are getting rain today. So far about 16” of fresh snow!! We’re staying at the Quality Inn in case anyone else is looking for good snow next week. If anyone else heads up, let us know – we’ll meet up with your for dinner or something. We’ll be there Monday through Wednesday. It should be great riding.
Friday, February 27th, 8AM:
I’ll give you what is likely to be bad news about the trail base later this morning after I drive out there. The trails are officially “closed”. Here at my farm in East Aurora, the creeks are roaring, taking all our snow downstream to Lake Erie. There is some snow on my more sheltered fields and in the woods. The very cold temperatures coming over the weekend are a hopeful sign, but almost no snow is in the forecast, and warmer weather is coming by the middle of next week.
There may well be long stretches of frozen trail base left tomorrow morning when it gets cold again, but I am afraid that they will be separated by too much bare ground to allow much organized riding. What’s left is likely to be very local opportunities in spring conditions. I hope I’m wrong, but the fat lady may be clearing her throat for “the song”.
Road Trips:
There is a lot of snow up north. But Old Forge and Tug Hill are getting rain today – they will have a frozen mess on their hands by tomorrow. I’ll do some research and report on the riding opportunities left in that area. If any of our readers are headed up there this weekend, please give us a report.
I had planned to head to Muskoka and Huntsville, Ontario early next week. But they are getting very heavy rain right now. They are expecting a flash freeze tonight, and will have ice and washouts everywhere over the weekend. We’ll get reports on how well their base survives and when they begin grooming again.
The line between snow and rain is just south of a line from Sudbury to North Bay. The North Bay area is getting blizzard conditions today!!!!!!! So there is some good news. Riding conditions in northern Ontario have been excellent the past week already and the heavy snows from this storm will let them freshen up the trails and allow riding well into March. I’m probably headed to New Liskard next week. Should be great conditions. It’s a seven to eight hour drive. Do any of you have recommendations on motels there? I’ve driven through but never stayed there.
Thursday, noon:
I took a quick look at the trails this morning. Places that were thin already (Strykersville valley, some south facing fields) are beginning to go bare. But so far, the main snow and ice base on most of the trails is holding up, and there is still snow pack on most of the fields. Nobody is out riding – Thank You!
The big question is how much rain will fall during the next 24 hours. A soaking rain would do us a lot of harm. I also hope the cloud cover holds today – there was spotty sun out while I was driving around, and bright sun would also be a killer. But I think rain is the bigger threat.
Keep your fingers crossed – if you’d like to be an optimist, hope for less rain than forecast overnight and tomorrow, and an earlier than expected passage of the coming powerful cold front which would give us snow instead of rain tomorrow afternoon. Possible – not likely.
For a few pictures click this link.
Thursday, February 26, 9AM:
There is nothing up on the Folsom Club website yet about the trails being officially closed, but responsible riders will stay off them today and tomorrow. I think the base in most places will survive until temperatures plunge below freezing again Friday night, when it will be in the teens again overnight. We should be able to ride again with “spring conditions” on the weekend.
Wednesday, 11PM:
You guys can see the short term weather forecasts as well as I can – not promising. Many of you had wonderful rides yesterday and today. All in all, it’s been a good season, and with luck we’ll have another shot of winter after it gets cold again on Saturday.
Wednesday, 11AM:
Hi again; click this link for Wednesday morning pictures
I did a quick early morning ride around the Bennington Loop. Click this link for a few pictures. Conditions were still good to very good, but it was obvious there was a lot of sled traffic last night. These trails were mint yesterday about noon, and now have small stutter bumps and moguls on the turns. Still a great ride!
C4B heading from Bennington to Strykersville got one pass of the groomer early this morning and they were headed back the other way for a badly needed second pass while I was riding. Welcome news!
Riders were beginning to arrive at Byrncliff when I loaded up at 9:30 AM – I imagine it will be a busy day on the trails. I don’t suppose it matters much – the trails are firmly frozen up with a very good base this morning and even if people ride right through the afternoon, it won’t hurt conditions any more than the soaking rain forecast for Friday. (If the coming cold front Friday afternoon arrives sooner than they are predicting, we could have a significant snow event instead of the rain – maybe wishful thinking, but worth hoping for.)
Temperatures that will be over 40 the next couple of days here are not going much above freezing in northern Ontario. Road trips still looking good into early March, at least! (Old Forge is getting almost the same warm temps we are, according to latest forecast.)
Wednesday, February 25th, 8AM:
Good morning, Guys:
I am not happy about the weather report, especially the bright sun today and the possible soaking rain on Friday before it turns sharply colder again for the weekend (good). Go on out if you are off work and enjoy generally excellent trails all around western New York (Oatka, Tri-County, and all of the north side of the Folsom system), so long as you ride this morning and try to get off the trails when they soften up in the warm weather and bright sun this afternoon. Then keep your fingers crossed that the rain event on Friday turns back to snow sooner than they are forecasting!!!!!!
Thanks again to Steve Aprilano and Matt Russell for playing in the drifts for our video camera – some of it was very impressive and came out great on video! It’s interesting how video productions go – we took half an hour of video, and we’ll end up with about 75 seconds of really nice shots. But that is typical of documentary productions.
Well, keep your fingers crossed for local conditions or start planning road trips. I’m headed out right now for a loop on the awesome Folsom north side trails before breakfast.
- Tom
Tuesday, February 24, 8PM:
I had one of the best rides of the year today. Thanks, Meghan, for keeping me company! We put on 160 miles around the Folsom trails and then down through Silver Springs, Bliss, Arcade, Chaffee, and home.
The Folsom trails on the north side (Bennington Loop) were flawless – fantastic grooming job! Some grooming was getting done on the south side trails, but those on the Strykersville side were still pretty crappy as of 6PM.
Hats off to the Oatka Club – their trails were awesome. We flew while we were on their system. Even their wooded trails were excellent and had been recently groomed.
Tri-County in the Arcade and Chaffee areas also had excellent trails.
The above conditions should hold tonight if you still are going out. Temperatures will be cold overnight, but will quickly rise into the forties tomorrow. And, unfortunately, they are now calling for a mostly sunny day. Bad news!
Anyone who wants a good ride, there is no harm in getting out early tomorrow. Trails in many places will be mint. But plan to finish your riding by 11AM or Noon. It would be good to stay off the trails from late morning tomorrow through Thursday which will also be warm. Then cold weather returns for the weekend.
Many pictures from today are at this link. No captions yet – I am heading out the door for birthday dinner.
Thanks to the guys who did some stunt riding with us this morning. We got some good video. We’ll post some on YouTube tomorrow!
Tuesday, February 24, 7AM:
I will be out zooming around this morning, and maybe I’ll see some of you on the trails. Looks like a great day to ride and I expect a fair amount of grooming got done yesterday and last night. Mike from the Folsom Club reports on his website that everything on the Folsom system should have been groomed by this afternoon! We’ll see.
Thanks to Dan & Kelly Harris who sent in the following report from the trails from their ride yesterday. Click this link for some of their pictures. Looks like they had some fun playing in the drifts! And Dan made a pretty cool photoshop overlay of his GPS track on a map.
“Your report was pretty accurate, did a nice 120 mile loop from Byrncliff,
there is a lot of drifting snow on the trails, the open fields are for the
most part smooth, but the tops are wind blown, overall the trails are in
pretty good shape. It was tough reading the trails as it was overcast and
snowing, and the wind has blown fluffy snow into the dips and whoops, which
at times made it hard to ride as you didn't know what to expect. I saw
Folsom and Oatka out grooming.”
Monday, February 23rd, 11AM:
Just got home from a car tour of much of the trail system. We’re still enduring lots of blowing and drifting snow. Riding conditions today will be fair in places still suffering from the weekend pounding, with moguls and larger stutter bumps, to good on many longer field sections, to very good where groomers get out. At least one of the groomers appeared to be out working this morning on S43 heading over towards Java and the Java branch of the A&A railbed trail.
The blowing snow is a mixed blessing – it puts fresh snow on the trails in low spots and between moguls, but that fresh snow is so fine that it does not pack well when a groomer goes through. The wind also scours all the hilltops and windward hillsides. You may be on a recently groomed trail and not even know it a few hours later in these conditions.
Thanks to Steven Zielinski for sending some great pictures he took out on the trails on Saturday before they got pounded with all the traffic Sunday. They are at this link.
I took pictures this morning without the benefit of the good sun Steve had; they are at this link.
I continue to be cautiously optimistic about the weather for the rest of the week. It appears that it will be cloudy on Wednesday and Thursday when the temperature gets up into the low forties. The sun would kill us with those temperatures! I expect only light rain. I think most of the trails will survive, and then we get another blast of cold air and some snow next weekend. Keep your fingers crossed!
Maybe I’ll see a few of you tomorrow morning for my “birthday blast” around the loop – it will be a brisk ride! Or perhaps for some drift busting video at 11?
- Tom
Sunday, Feb. 22, 7PM:
I went out and did a couple of loops around parts of the Folsom system this afternoon from 1:00 to about 3:30. Conditions were fair to good in places. There was extremely heavy sled traffic. Both lots at BYrncliff were full and people were parking out on the street. If there was any grooming last night or early this morning, it was pounded so you couldn’t tell by noon. Moguls were building everyplace. Long stretches in the fields were still in good condition, but woods trails, narrow sections, and turns were all getting very bumpy.
It snowed almost all afternoon and more is expected tonight. Good news is that next weekend looks to be cold again after a brief warm up Wednesday and Thursday. Winter is NOT over yet, after all!
Wind will slowly be easing up over the next day so grooming should be able to move into high gear soon. Hopefully just in time for my “birthday ride” Tuesday morning! Haha. ( I plan to leave from Byrncliff at 10AM for a quick rip around the Sheldon, S43, A&A, and back to Byrncliff loop. If anyone wants to ride with me, be there at 10AM – I get to lead – it’s my birthday!) I’ll be meeting Meghan back at Byrncliff before 11:00 for a more relaxed ride.
Drift Busting Video?
I’ve been having trouble hooking up with guys who want to so some stunt riding for our video project. I hooked up with the guy who’s picture I took yesterday (who are you? I forgot to introduce myself properly!), but I did not have my video camera along. Today I ran into two groups of guys with performance sleds. One guy really wanted to do it, but his buddy wanted to go home. The other group flat out wasn’t interested. Thanks again to Don Z. for his stunt riding on Friday. Also, thanks to Mike for letting us film them doing maintenance on the groomers in the new shop.
Is anyone off work on Tuesday who would like to do some drift busting and be in the film? We could do it after the 10AM Rip. Email me if interested.
Kenny from Bennington sent in the following trail report. Thanks, Kenny:
“hey tom, kenny from bennington here. we headed to perry from the byrncliff area friday night (that was interesting with the snow) and then out there again on saturday. both days we saw some great riding and some not so good riding. bare fields and mud holes were common the closer we got to perry. they just didn't get the snow we did and it shows. last night was getting pretty rough in the folsom system and it could definitely use a once over in the grooming department. snow today and good temps could make this a good week, or at least monday and tuesday....possibly wednesday. on another note, are you looking for small time action shots or snow cross style, 20ft jumps and drift bustin?”
(Small time AND big time! Whatever – Tom)
A few pictures from today at this link.
Saturday evening, 7PM, February 21st: A few pictures from today are at this link
The “good to excellent” rating I gave the trails after a quick look this morning may have been optimistic or exaggerated. Meghan and I went for a ride from Byrncliff down through Strykersville and Java to Chaffee this afternoon. We had lunch at the Milestone and returned the same way. I would say most of the riding we did was more like “fair to good”. Only fair with building moguls in the woods and on corners, getting bumpy on most narrow trails, and good on longer, wider field sections.
Some grooming was ongoing, especially on the Folsom system, but it was not lasting. We need a couple of groomer passes everyplace with this light powder snow. Snow is very thin in many places. We may get some more snow tomorrow and tomorrow night.
Some Good news for the Long Term!
I have not been optimistic about the long term prospects for our trails beyond the next few days, but the latest runs of the NOAA long term forecast indicate a possible return of well below normal temperatures for next weekend. They aren’t very sure, but the outlook is better than it was just last night.
Thanks to Don from A to Z enterprises for doing some stunt riding for our documentary video project this afternoon. We got some nice shots! We also met one of our website readers out near Java who did some drift busting for us. Check out the picture below and in today’s album. Unfortunately, we were not carrying our video camera, so we still need to film some drift busting – call if interested!
Saturday, noon:
I just got back from taking video at the groomer barn and near Byrncliff. The trails are good to excellent with grooming going on now. In bright sun today, all that snow that appeared to be falling yesterday does not seem like so much. It is enough, but a lot of it is blown up against tree lines and in a few bigger drifts.
Ah, that bright nearly March sun! It does a number on snow anywhere something shows through to allow the heat to get to the ground. Enjoy the great riding this weekend – it may not last long.
Saturday, February 21, 8AM:
Trails are officially open again. There should be a lot of good riding today. Plenty of snow (see my post from last night!)
I understand that the groomers are starting to move. They will have their hands full with all the powder drifts everywhere, so don’t expect smooth packed trails. With this kind of powder, a groomed trail goes to pieces the first time a few sleds use it. It will take some sled traffic to pack the snow and a second or third groomer pass to put things in tip top shape. I am sure the guys will get it done by the end of the weekend. They have done an amazing job this season, and the next few days may be the last really good riding of the year. (Keep your fingers crossed – sometimes there is another arctic front and heavy snow week as late as March 10 to 15th, but you’re likely to have to travel up north for groomed trails after next week.)
As long as you know what to expect today, the riding should be really, really fun in all the powder!
Repeating my comments from yesterday, I hope that all area clubs pull out all the stops and groom like hell Sunday night and Monday so we can all enjoy the great riding conditions coming Monday through Wednesday at their best before an expected warm up late in the week. (Besides, Tuesday is my birthday, and I want some slick-assed riding for my birthday treat! LOL)
Friday, 5PM Update:
Just got back from an afternoon ride around some of the folsom trails from Byrncliff in all directions for five miles or so. Conditions are - - - Winter Storm like! Really wild blowing and drifting snow. We had a blast drift busting right on the main trails. Many two to three and a few four foot drifts right across the trails. Field trails on the down wind side of a hill top have enormous drifts!
It snowed hard all afternoon across the Folsom system. There is plenty of snow now! Riders were starting to appear at Byrncliff as we loaded up to come home. There will be some fun riding tonight for the adventurous.
There is no point trying to groom until this wind dies down a bit. Once it does, there’s lots of snow to work with.
Friday, February 20th, noon:
Riding should be good this afternoon. Don from “A to Z” reports LOTS of fresh snow out in the Folsom trails area, and I have 6” of fresh here at my farm in East Aurora. I expect that grooming is going on today even in the high winds. Most trails on the Folsom system will almost surely have been groomed by Saturday morning.
Although the Folsom club trails are still officially listed as “closed” for liability reasons (some washouts and crevasses), people are starting to ride and enjoy the good conditions. I expect the Folsom trails to be listed as “open” by tomorrow morning – check with the Folsom Club website to be sure.
The Oatka Valley Club website lists their trails in the Portageville – Bliss area on the southwest part of their trail system as “open” and in great shape and recently groomed. One could expect nice riding on the Folsom trails and south to Chaffee and on through Arcade to Bliss, etc, as the weekend progresses.
Long Range Prospects?
Some of the best riding of the year locally is likely Monday and Tuesday, and perhaps a few days longer. I suggest that trail bosses pour your resources into a last great grooming job to top off a season of great grooming on Sunday night and Monday so we can really enjoy these few days of good snow and nice, sunny weather next week.
After next Wednesday, keep your fingers crossed. Another melt down is possible, though not certain. Big March snow storms are not uncommon and we could have another arctic blast. But next week could also be the end of real organized snowmobiling in our area for the year. Enjoy this weekend, and maybe take Monday or Tuesday off – I will see you out on the trails!
There is a TON of snow on Tug Hill and more coming down. There will be some riding there for weeks to come. Old Forge should be really excellent after this weekend.
Muskoka region of Ontario could use a little more snow, but riding is still good. Excellent some places where four to six inches of new snow fell recently. A little further north (Sudbury and North Bay), conditions are reported as very good to excellent.
Thursday, February 19th, 2PM:
Lots of trail news today, and as a “bonus”, I’ll post something I wrote about my Z1 Turbo for the Hard Core Sledder forums at the end of today’s trail report.
Click this link for pictures taken this morning around the trails.
We did a thorough drive around inspection of the trails this morning, dodging in and out of snow showers and the occasional heavier snow squall. What a difference a few hundred feet of altitude can make! With bare grass in most of the Buffalo metro area, it’s hard to imagine that 35 miles away and a few hundred feet higher in the hills, there’s plenty of snow. Even down along rte #78 in Strykersville, snow cover is light with bare and thin spots. But get up along the rte 377 “ridge line”, and there’s plenty of snow.
I rode a loop the other night from Byrncliff over the hills, back across S43 and along part of the A&A rail line, and then around the lower part of the Bennington Loop. Read my story from yesterday, but conditions were excellent (EXCEPT for the occasional dangerous wash out.). even the rail line trail which is usually a problem was in good shape. The only poor conditions I saw this morning were near the Kwik Fill in Strykersville and across the big field next to rte #78 on the south side of Strykersville. Everything up on the hills looked very good.
Remember that the trails are still officially “closed”. That is because of the difficult to see washouts here and there. The club does not want to list the trails as “open” until the groomers have filled in most of those holes. But nobody is going to bust you if you ride at your own risk the next couple of days.
Snow is in the forecast every day until Monday, so riding will get better and better each day, ignoring the inevitable wear and tear if we get heavy sled traffic over the weekend. But the base is so hard that I think the trails will stay in decent shape even with a lot of sleds.
Following is my post about my Turbo which some of you may find interesting. A great sled!
“This is a nice sled! I was away in Florida for almost ten days (during the melt down, which was good timing). So I started riding again yesterday, glad to be back on snow and getting used to the sled again.
I had the clutch alignment checked while I was away. Dealer said, "It was way off, especially the parallelism.", but the guy who worked on it wasn't there so I couldn't query him on exactly which way and how much. Offset is still at 1.655; they didn't know (or didn't want to know) anything about using the 1.507 bar. They did it under warrantee. I had been running an 047 for the past 900 miles and I put on a new 066 after the clutch alignment. I think the 066 is a better match for the sled, at least in stock form like mine. Rpm's are now 7600 to 7700 on a pull and had been just over 8000 with the 047 lately.
I will say that after the alignment, the sled starts off very smoothly, less "clunk" than before. Feels like it's pulling very hard. I did a careful 20 mile break in with this belt - I want to give it every chance for good wear this time around.
Back to the topic of this post - I had almost forgotten during my time away from the sled how very nice it is to ride. I went out solo after our club meeting the other night on a crisp, clear night. One of the groomers was out working, so I had either very smooth or mint trails all to myself, including some long, hard packed fields. It was a really great ride! There were a few nasty washouts, and the chassis handled these very well, also.
Before this sled, I had ridden ZRT 600's for a long time. My wife still loves her 2001 ZRT. We kept my 2002 ZRT600 both as an immediate source of spare parts for hers, and as a "ditch banger" sled for me. I love that old sled and really had planned to ride it frequently. But I have not once taken the ZRT for a real ride since I've had the Turbo. Just can't imagine not being able to hear that Turbo spool up, even for one ride!
Obviously the Turbo is far superior as a trail sled for ride comfort and power. I am sure that younger guys into serious drift busting and jumping would not like dealing with the Z1's weight, but then my ZRT was no light weight, either. I was playing around in a good drift two weeks ago and got in a rather impressive jump, good enough so there was noticeable "hang time"! My wife missed the shot with our camera, and I was chicken to try it again, even though the Twin Spar suspension soaked up the landing very well. And that jump was also a good example of how much instant-on power this sled has. The ramp we had built up in the drift by running through it a couple of times was a little sudden, so I was pretty slow coming into the drift and then punched it as the front suspension started to rise. It was like a sling shot and put me higher in the air than I had expected! Sorry I didn't get the picture.
But it's the trail riding where this sled shines. The trails were mostly smooth the other night and I was able to play around a lot with my favorite kind of riding. Easy cruising at 40 to 50 or less where I wanted to enjoy the scenery, then little blips up to 75 or 80. That 40 to 80 performance on this sled is just awesome! It feels like the motor just shrugs and says, "OK", when you ask it to go. one second you're at 40 mph trail speed and the next second you're at 80 mph fun speed. Just like that. Effortless.
I have the coupler blocks out of mine because I enjoy ski lift under power. They say that hurts the ride, but I notice no difference on the generally good trails I usually ride. And it has been OK on rough trails for relatively short distances. As many have noted on the forum, there is a darting problem, stock. I'm using Cobra Head wear bars with very good results and others here prefer the Slim Jims. Either way seems to solve the darting problem. I'm very pleased with the Chassis.
As I monitor this forum, it seems like all the bugs are getting worked out of this sled. I plan on keeping mine for four years, at least - maybe longer. It suits me and my riding needs VERY well!
I'll keep in touch with developments on the clutch alignment - belt wear issue. I am sure the best solution will evolve. I expect Cat or the dealers will figure out the best spec for the 2010 models and that we will find a way to set up these sleds to that spec. Maybe there will even be an official retrofit, but I'm not holding my breath. I do think, though, that those of us who care will get taken care of.
I haven't blown a belt yet, but my original 066 was throwing cord at 575 miles. Probably due to snow on the belt and perhaps some slipping during my wimpy break in period. I put a filter on the clutch air intake, and that took care of the wet belt problem. Then I went to the 047 and it worked fine for me for just under 1000 miles. It's still a decent get home belt, but is a little worn on the edges. If we're lucky with the weather, I hope to put another 1000 miles on the sled before the end of the season, using the new 066. I'll be interested to see how that new 066 holds up now that I know the sled a little better and a few adjustments have been made.
I'll probably have the tank pulled and check for the rubbing problem after the season. I have the Cat high windshield, and they still don't have the anti-shake brackets in for it, so that's another little thing. Cat is offering a block heater option, which I ordered last spring. The heating element is still on back order, but the other parts are available, so I think it is for real. I will add that after this season. Other than that, I am very, very happy with this sled. I follow the "quest for speed" threads with interest, but "century plus speeds" just aren't important to me. It's that 40 to 80 blast for me, and this sled delivers in spades! If any of you out there are still on the fence about getting one of these sleds now or next season, know that in spite of the teething problems with this new model, many of us are very satisfied Cat customers. Great sled!”
Yippee!
We’ve gotten away with a mostly snow event today and very little rain. Lots of snow looks like it’s coming to our trail system and surrounding areas over the next few days. After a blustery day tomorrow, we should have fine riding for most of the coming week! Sunny conditions with cold nights at the beginning of next week.
Wednesday, 1AM in the morning:
The trails on the Folsom Trailblazers system are still officially “closed”, mostly because there are some very dangerous washouts here and there as you ride the system, and you can easily come upon one unexpectedly and get hurt. The trails will be formally opened soon, after the groomers have had a chance to fill in more of the washouts.
Closed officially, but I took a little ride around parts of the system tonight after the club meeting. I was amazed at how good the trails are so soon after the big thaw last week! Riding was good to excellent! The base survived the melt down amazingly well. That’s the benefit of the groomers working so regularly during the entire month of January when we had constant cold and snowy weather. We’ve now had enough cold weather to freeze up all the water, and the snow the past few days was enough to make a soft riding surface over the very hard base. It is also very decent snow for grooming, and the groomers have been out the past couple of days and were working tonight.
I had a really amazing ride, solo, when I went out after the club meeting. I do caution anyone riding during the next couple of days to watch VERY CAREFULLY for the washouts and the unexpected uneven ice sheets you will come upon.
As mentioned in my post last night, plan to stay off the trails for most of today when the temperature is forecast to ride to the low 40’s. But as soon as it freezes again early Thursday morning, have at the trails. Snow is expected right through the weekend, and there should be great riding!
Fire in the Sky:
I had my own treat tonight on my first night back in the cold of western New York winter. I certainly enjoyed being down in sunny Florida for a week, but I was glad to be back where I can ride.
I took my snowmobile out on the trails for a short spin tonight. I enjoy snowmobiling partly for the fun and excitement of riding fast over hill & dale and through the woods on a powerful machine. I did that tonight. But I also enjoy the sport because it gets me outdoors in the winter surrounded by the beauty of nature.
I was headed west onto the trail system at about 9:45 this evening looking up at all the stars in the clear night air. Suddenly there was a bright light as a flaming meteorite streaked across the sky headed west away from me. Perhaps you've seen one of the video clips on the national news programs this week showing the big meteorite that fell in Texas the other day. This one was not quite that big or bright, but it was one of the best I've ever seen, with a flaming tail very similar to the one in Texas. It was an exciting experience to see it fall! I will treat it as a special early birthday present to me from mother nature. My birthday is next week, just 6 days after Meghan's.
Tuesday, February 17th, 5PM:
I just got in from Florida a few hours ago. I’ll be out and around the trails tomorrow to check things myself and make a report here.
I stopped at Jancen this afternoon to pick up my sled after some work. Guys there had been riding the Colden Trail Riders system today and points to the southeast towards Holland and Sardinia and reported good snow conditions. I have plenty of snow at my farm in East Aurora.
Read the trail report on the Oatka Valley website at my link above this paragraph. They have been grooming and report very good riding conditions in the Bliss and southwestern parts of their trails.
So you should be able to find decent riding tonight. Tomorrow is another story, with mixed snow and rain and temps rising to above 40. Stay home and let the trails alone. We then have a snowy and colder period coming the rest of the week and should have good riding most places in western New York through the weekend, at least.
Road Trips:
Old Forge reports good riding conditions, and so do many parts of Tug Hill. Their trails are hard from the thaw and freeze, but with wide spread snow coming over the next few days, there should be good to excellent riding at Old Forge and on the Hill. They will be a few degrees colder than we are here in Western New York and should get more snow than rain tomorrow.
Ontario from Muskoka north still has decent snow on most trails. They, too, have some hard trails, but they will be getting the same snow system we are this week and even colder temperatures. There should be very good conditions from Bracebridge and to the north. North Bay and Sudbury should be very good!
Monday, February 16:
I am flying home from Florida tomorrow just in time to check out the trails at home and not so close to home and write about riding options for the rest of this season. Except for a possible mixed precipitation event Wednesday night and early Thursday, the weather forecast is promising for western New York. Even more promising for Old Forge, Tug Hill, and Canada.
Check Mike’s posts over on the Folsom Trailblazers website to see if he has opened the local club trails today or tomorrow. I know he was out looking things over this morning.
I’ll be out myself for a first hand look and some pictures on Wednesday. I will post a more extensive discussion of trailering options tomorrow night. Think snow – winter is not over!
Saturday, February 14th:
Well, I’m sitting at a café down here in sunny Florida with 80+ temperatures. I’ve been reading about the weather at home and the massive melt down. Sorry. I guess I chose a good time to be away on vacation.
Sounds like we do have winter weather for the next couple of weeks, but need more snow locally.
There is riding on Tug Hill and at old Forge, and most trails in northern Ontario survived the thaw and rain, though you will have to drive a bit north. I will be home on Tuesday and will do some research about the best places to ride.
With a little luck, we’ll have another month of riding this season. Keep your fingers crossed!
Saturday, 9PM:
Farewell guys,
I’m leaving first thing in the morning for a week’s trip to Florida planned some time ago. I guess I couldn’t have timed it much better. With luck, we’ll get just enough snow next weekend so I can join you on the trails (or what’s left of them) when I get back the following week.
Check in for any unexpected developments on the trails with Mike’s trail report at the Folsom Trailblazers website listed just above on this page. But the weather does not look promising. I was amazed at how much snow we lost just today. So it may not even matter if guys were riding on the trails today, but it is too bad that many were. I did visit Byrncliff late this morning and only four trailers and a few sleds were there at that time.. But more may have ridden later today. I got the following message from Kenny, a regular correspondent here:
hey tom,
kenny from bennington here again. I was heading into the city today driving on the 400 and saw an alarming amount of loaded trailers heading our way. I can probably assume the majority I saw on 20a too were heading to byrncliff. we need to do something proactive about this if we're ever to control the trail destruction that's going to occur on days like this. there are way too many sleds on the trails today. all the road approaches are a mud mess and I can only imagine what the turns and hills look like. I understand many people have been hoping and planning all week to trailer out and ride but this is not the time.
now I know you are in a "influential" position with this all too valuable website and involvement with the folsom trailblazers. perhaps an agreement could be made with byrncliff to close down the sled launching on days like this. maybe a flash across their sign that the trails are closed? sure it would take awhile to catch on but maybe, eventually it could work.
thanks again Tom for all the hard work,
kenny from bennington (venting)
Kenny suggested that a further part of his message with some of the “venting” not be published – LOL – But I agree with Kenny’s thoughts. Sometimes whether to close the trails or not is a close call, and it is not clear who has the authority to make the call. I would think Mike (club president) does. Maybe this should be discussed in a meeting. Thanks for the suggestions, Kenny!
I do get email while I am traveling, so send me details of the “disappearing trail system” as it vanishes this week. See you all in 9 days!
- Tom
Saturday, 9AM:
Temperature situation is looking a little worse now. With temps to be pushing 50 today, please consider all western New York trails CLOSED until further notice. Pass the word.
Even Monday now looks to be in the high 30’s and Wednesday could be pushing 55 to 60.
The only good news is that winter looks to return Thursday night. If we stay off the trails until then some base will survive and it will be flat still and quickly rideable with just a bit of snow. The result of this week’s event pretty much depends on how much rain comes with the very warm day Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed!
Friday, 11AM:
We’re headed out to the trails in the Byrncliff area in half an hour or so. We’re hoping to get some good sledding video for the documentary we’re filming. If you see us with the camera, stop and say hello, especially if you’d like to do some “fun” riding for the project!
Groomer guy, Jim, emailed us a copy of the law requiring riders to give the right of way to groomers if you meet on the trail. Common sense. Shouldn’t need to be said. But for that tiny group who are thoughtless, remember – it is THE LAW, not just common sense.
Slightly good news – the temperatures forecast fo most of next week have dropped a couple of degrees from what had been forecast a few days ago,. It will still be quite a bit of a melt down, but maybe not a total disaster. Please DO NOT ride when it is above freezing this weekend and next week. After today and tonight, Monday looks like the only legit riding day for the next week. A little sacrifice this week may mean the difference between having great trails again soon after the warm spell, or not.
Thursday evening, 8PM:
You did not get any trail updates from this website or the club’s today because Meghan and I went for an all day ride with Mike and Mary Kehl. Mike is president of the Folsom Trailblazers club and does their trail condition reports. We had fun comparing notes all day at stops.
We rode 100 miles around part of the Folsom system, down to Chaffee for lunch at the Milestone, down through Arcade, east on C3 along the railbed trail, then through Gainesville and back the C4 trail through Orangeville and Varysburg to Byrncliff. We saw maybe a dozen moguls the whole way! Not much of an exaggeration. The trails are flat out awesome pretty much everyplace.
Our hats off to the Folsom Trailblazers, the Oatka Valley club, and the Tri-County Drift Hoppers, all of whom had fantastic trail conditions. You would have to go looking to find a bad trail tonight. There was quite a bit of traffic, so conditions may be a little worse tomorrow morning, but will still be good to excellent most places..
Plan to ride your heart out Friday and Friday night. If the weather is what is forecast, we will be calling the trails “Closed” all this weekend to try to hold onto the great base we have now. It does not take much sled traffic during 45 degree + weather to beat the base right down to the ground. And even though all area trails have flat, solid base now, that base is pretty thin.
It will be tempting to ride Saturday – the trails will look great in the morning. But PLEASE stay home – go to a movie – drink heavily – shack up with your @@@@@. Anything but tear up the trails!!
Click this link for some nice pictures today, including “Jumpin’ Mike Kehl”!
Thursday, February 5th, 8AM:
As noted below, I was nursing a sore body yesterday and did not personally get out to the trails. But we have several reports of good to excellent riding conditions around the Folsom system. I expect that’s what you’ll find today if you DRESS UP VERY WARMLY! I was planning to head out for a ride later this morning, but I am not so sure. I’m going to wait and see how the wind picks up and whether the sun stays out (partly sunny here in EA at 8AM). I do ride in below zero weather up in Canada; somehow that just sounds colder when it’s that cold here in western New York.
I will be riding most of the day tomorrow, and we do plan to be filming for our video production in the Byrncliff area and nearby trails from noon until mid afternoon. We’ve had several messages from interested riders!
Long Term Outlook for the Trails:
I am optimistic that we will not completely lose the trails during the warm up this coming week. But it’s going to take some sacrifice from the gung ho riders. Looks like it will rise to the mid 40’s or even 50 on Saturday, with temperature still a little above freezing through Sunday. The trails should be considered closed this weekend – we’ll wait for an official word from the club. It would tear the hell out of the solid, but still rather thin base we have if guys ride this weekend in warm temps.
Sunday night we have another cold front to stabilize the trails. No reason you can’t ride on Monday if that forecast holds up. Then rising temperatures the rest of the week, with a possible major warm up with rain on Thursday – Friday. So plan on not riding from Tuesday through Friday. Although it is a week away and hard to predict, it looks like another big cold front and back to winter next weekend. Depending on just how hard we’re hit with the late week warm up and rain event, I believe most of our base will survive and we won’t have to start all over the following week, even if many of the fields go bare. But spread the word – stay off the trails completely during the coming week whenever it is above freezing!
Wednesday, February 4, noon:
I did not check the trails myself this morning, but I rode everything last night, and riding conditions should be good to excellent today. Scroll down for my report from late last night for details. (Hopefully C4B from Bloecher Road to Strykersville and the trail through the woods at the Beaver Meadows camp ground will get groomed today.)
Click this link to see a sample video from the documentary we’re making on snowmobiling in western New York. It is being shot in HD TV. We hope to show it at a club meeting later in the season. We’re hoping to shoot some drift busting action and stunt shots this Friday afternoon. Call if you are interested!
When you watch the YouTube video today, look at the right side of the viewer right under the picture. There is a link to “View in HD”. It is amazing if you have a fast broadband connection and a newer computer. The HD picture will have glitches on slower computers.
Tuesday, 10PM:
Hi again. After watching the guys do so much grooming this morning I had to go back out and ride. I went out for two hours after dinner and did pretty much all of the Folsom trail system. Yes, I was moving along at a brisk pace!
Conditions tonight and tomorrow morning are generally good to excellent. My “diamond” award is for the short section of trail from the groomer barn to Byrncliff and then S41 over towards Sheldon Road through the woods. This short section of trail was smooth as can be – just perfect.
My “gold” award is for most all of the Bennington Loop. These north side trails are groomed flat and wide. I had the Turbo singing for much of that ride. Sweet.
S43 up over the hills between Strykersville and the rail bed trail was smooth as it usually is and was a VERY fun ride.
The trail from Sheldon down to Strykersville was starting to get bumpy and needs work soon. I had to stand up for much of this. Some of the trails through the Beaver Meadows camp ground were really moguled up. Just a short section, but pretty bad.
Want a fast, smooth ride tomorrow morning? Leave Byrncliff, take S41 up through the woods across Sheldon Road, then take C4B across #20A, and S46 up to Bennington,then C4 back to Byrncliff.
I am working on a YouTube video of the groomers.
Tuesday, 3PM:
Check this link for some pictures out on the trails today. All three Folsom groomers were working the trails today – well, 2 ½ - the Tucker crapped out due to an electrical problem and we witnessed Jim helping make arrangements for a rescue mission. It’s something you don’t always think about. The groomers are machines working in harsh conditions, and they don’t always fail in convenient locations. The Tucker shut down at the top of a very steep hill on the C4 trail north of Byrncliff almost a mile from the nearest road. We were with Jim, Adam, and Chris and the two other groomers over in Varysburg when Mike called after the Tucker quit. It was a choice between sending one of the New Holland machines 2 hours out of it’s way to rescue Mike, or finding someone with a booster battery pack and a snowmobile that was home from work and able to run the rescue mission.
Poor Mike waited patiently as many calls were made on cell phones and Jim finally found someone off work, with a booster pack, and a sled. The rescue was dispatched and the two New Holland machines went on about their business.
Which was interesting! Usually the groomers work independently so they can cover as much ground in a shift as possible. But today both of these machines were working in tandem which makes for a great trail. Too bad we don’t get ahead of the grooming schedule more often, because it was very impressive watching the two machines work together either double packing or else putting down a two-wide pass all at once.
Meghan and I are making good progress on our documentary film about snowmobile trails and grooming in western New York. We got some outstanding scenes today with the sun out and the two groomers. We are still looking to hook up with some “adventurous” riders soon to get drift busting action shots for the film. Jim, Adam, and Chris may well take us up on that! Call or email if YOU are a wanna-be stunt rider!
The completed film will probably be shown at a Folsom club meeting later in the spring. It will be in HD video.
Check back here later today. I may have a YouTube video clip of the two groomers working together.
Tuesday, February 3, 9AM:
We just had as call from Jim at Folsom telling us two groomers are headed out to work the trails. With the good grooming we saw yesterday, this should put things in very good shape! A fluffy snow is falling here in East Aurora – if the same thing is hitting the trail system, it will make a fine finishing cover for the groomed trails. Should be widespread good to excellent riding today.
Monday, 5PM:
Hats off, once again, to the groomer crews from the Folsom Trailblazers club. Many, perhaps most, of the club trails were groomed today, many of them getting more than one pass. Your riding conditions tonight on the Folsom trails and many surrounding trail systems will be good to very good. Many Folsom trails have just been groomed. Some of those are excellent, and others just good to very good because of chunky and crusty snow left from the melt down on the weekend and freeze up overnight. As the trails all get another grooming pass or two over the next couple of days, we will have excellent mid week riding!
Meghan and I rode this morning from Byrncliff up over the hill on C4, down the A&A railbed trail and back (very good, just groomed), then out C4 through the Oatka trails (very good in fields, not so good in the woods), then C4 to Silver Springs, then C3 to Arcade (the rail trail, S30, was good with light stutter bumps); then we rode up through Arcade to Chaffee with some fresh grooming, some moguled sections, but generally good trails.
We had lunch (great!) at the Milestone in Chaffee and then rode the trails (good to very good) back up to Java and the Folsom System, where we hit fresh groomer tracks everyplace.
We talked to a group in Chaffee that had just ridden through Holland and Sardinia trails to Chaffee and they reported all of those trails to be excellent.
Click this link for some pictures I took out on the trails today. Enjoy good riding tonight and tomorrow!
Monday, 7AM:
Patty and Rick sent in the following ride report from their experiences on Sunday.
Hi Tom,
I just thought I would send you an email in regards to our riding this afternoon. We rode the Folsom trail system today from Byrncliff to North Java and over to Strykersville. We set out at about 1 pm and were startled to see only a handful of trailers in the parking lot at Byrncliff.
Trail conditions varied greatly on our ride but the bright sun proved to have an extremely harsh effect on the quickly melting trails. Hilltops were beautiful with lots of powder covering them. The wooded areas were not bad in the morning but by afternoon had turned into a disgusting snow/mud mixture with lots of exposed icy areas. Intersections at roadways were also extremely "gross" with water, rocks, ice, salt and LOTS of mud. By the time we headed back the trails had quickly gone from a good amount of snow with a fantastic base to open fields with lots of slushy areas quickly developing and many bare spots.
If anyone plans to ride tomorrow they can most likely expect pretty poor conditions around the Folsom system. The slushy areas that are quickly growing seem quite dangerous because they're sometimes hard to see and hitting them at high speeds seems to send the sled into a sort of fish tail motion that is hard to control (Unfortunately I know.)
Overall all I can say is lets pray for some heavy snowfalls this week!
Patty (and Rick)
Thanks, Patty and Rick. Meghan and I are planning to hit the trails today. We’ll be interested to see what they’re like. Temperatures dropped below freezing again overnight, but are predicted to ride to the mid 30’s again today with more sun. Stay tuned. Cold weather returns for mid week with some chance of snow.
I suggest investing the time to groom whatever we have left the minute temps drop below freezing this afternoon and evening so we can take advantage of what riding we have for the rest of this week. The NOAA guys are increasingly confident that we’re facing the “BIG MELT” beginning next Saturday.
Sunday night:
This looks like another fine week of winter weather with great riding opportunities, including another shot of Arctic air mid-week. Enjoy it.
Because – the long range forecast is once again hinting at a possible major melt down beginning next weekend. There were similar long range forecasts a week ago for a warmup that did not happen, so keep your fingers crossed. But this time the weather pattern looks more likely to result in above average temperatures beginning in 6 or 7 days and perhaps lasting 8 to 10 days. Make your long range riding plans accordingly.
Superbowl Sunday, 8AM:
Go Arizona!
It’s already 37 degrees out this morning. We often put out “please don’t ride today” notices when it’s this warm, but since it’s the end of the weekend and it has been cold with a good base, we won’t do that today.
Conditions will be fair to very good on the trails depending on how beat they got yesterday and whether any grooming was done last night, which I don’t know yet. Enjoy some warm weather riding for a change! (It will be windy)
Saturday, January 31, 1PM:
Riding conditions on the Folsom area trail system this afternoon and this evening will vary widely. Generally fair to good conditions will prevail with blowing and drifting snow. Conditions where trails were groomed this morning will be very good to excellent in some places, but those conditions are rapidly deteriorating with the sled traffic and blowing and drifting snow.
Many trails are showing slight to moderate stutter bumps, drifted snow, and small moguls building in the drifted areas. Most woods trails were recently groomed and are fair to good.
I used up more than my share of those excellent conditions myself on a 75 mile tour of the whole trail system. I got in about 1/3 of my ride in the bright sun that was out for a while this morning before the clouds and snow flurries moved in restricting visibility. Click here for a few of my pictures of the best conditions. Once it got cloudy and conditions weren’t so good, I didn’t take many more pictures.
FYI, nearly all the trails in the system were groomed yesterday, last night, or this morning. I saw the groomers working myself. But they are fighting tough conditions with all the soft snow on the trails from the recent storm, as well as rising wind today causing major drifting, especially on trails that are crossways to the wind. I saw many places that had just been groomed that already should have had another pass or two. It will be a losing battle until the base gets better packed over the next few days, and the wind drops.
The best conditions as of noon were trail S41 and part of C4B west of Byrncliff; most of S43 near Perry Road; C4A from Strykersville to Java Center; the A&A rail bed trail was pretty good with mild stutter bumps; C4H to Attica and the other Bennington loop trails had been groomed recently, but were quickly getting rough from drifting snow.
If you’re headed out to Byrncliff this afternoon, treat yourself to the ride from BYrncliff over S41 past the groomer barn, through the woods across Sheldon Road, then northwest on C4B towards Marilla. This was all well groomed and holding up pretty well to the drifting. The trail towards Marilla and Kodiak Jack’s was in good shape, so maybe a ride there would be a good choice.
The trails most in need of improvement as of lunchtime today were the Bennington Loop trails that were suffering a lot from blowing snow; C4B from the S41 junction down to Strykersville; and C4A from Beaver Meadows over to North Java.
Friday, January 30, 1PM:
Riding conditions this afternoon will be good to very good and excellent where the groomers have just been. The groomers are out working as I write. We passed the Tucker doing its thing next to rte #77 an hour ago. Almost half the trails have already been groomed since the storm, and most of the rest will probably be done by tonight. The grooming is most recent north of Byrncliff on C4.
The only thing that will prevent generally excellent conditions is that there are already quite a few sleds out on the trails. Even where the trails have just been groomed, they will be on the soft side because of the fresh snow. They will get beat up in a hurry.
Trails all weekend should be decent, thanks to the great base the Folsom Trailblazers crew built up before this week’s snowfall.
Click this link for a YouTube video taken while we did our trail inspection this morning. It will not actually be viewable until later this afternoon.
Want to be in an Action Video?
We are making a short documentary video on snowmobiling in our area. We took some shots the day of the Dice Run last week. We will be filming on Sunday from noon until 3PM if weather permits, trying to get some action shots of guys jumping and drift busting. Call Tom at 716-652-9495 or email me if you are interested in being in the video or if you have a good secret spot to do some jumps and drift busting!
Thursday, January 29, 10PM:
So, you guys think we have enough snow now?
Meghan and I just got home from Ontario and had to spend a half hour digging out the end of our driveway just to get in off the street. We’ll try to get some reports tomorrow morning on any progress with grooming the trails. We should be in for a sweet weekend of riding!
Wednesday, January 28, 8AM:
Meghan and I are still up in Canada, where we put in a 200 mile ride yesterday. (A little sore this morning, even though conditions were excellent) Click this link for some pictures from our ride.
Closer to home, we’ve had reports that most trails on the Folsom and surrounding systems remain pretty good, with some bumps here and there. Trails are getting hard and a bit thin. But today’s storm is coming at a perfect time. The groomers everywhere need some fresh snow to work with. The storm should move through today and grooming conditions should be good Thursday to get ready for another weekend of excellent riding conditions.
At least on Friday night/Saturday. Sunday looks like a rare warm day in western New York. But with the trails in solid condition and it being the last day of the weekend, we should look at it as a rare opportunity to enjoy a day of warm weather riding. The trails will survive fine. Not a bad winter shaping up!
Monday, January 26, noon:
Click this link for some pictures from today. The Folsom area trails are good to excellent this morning. Even where they have not been touched since the heavy sled traffic over the weekend, they have held up surprisingly well because of the solid base the guys built last week. I imagine you may find some bumpy spots and only fair conditions some places in the woods. There was a light dusting of new snow on the trails overnight and some blowing snow, so there is decent slider lubrication in spite of the firm base.
The groomers were already rolling this morning, as you can see from my pictures. You can expect very good riding conditions all this week. A partly sunny, lovely riding day Tuesday, the nanother nice shot of snow Tuesday and Wednesday, then scattered snow each day the rest of the week. Fine winter riding conditions!
With such good riding around here, I don’t quite know why, but we are heading to Ontario again tonight. Our trip last week was cut short by a minor breakdown on my new sled, so I still need a “fix” of great Muskoka trails.
Pat, or anyone else, fell free to email me trail reports over the next few days and I’ll post them from the road. Or check Mike’s report over at the club website here. Doesn’t really matter this week – good conditions should rule all week long!
Monday, January 25th, 8AM:
Congratulations to the Folsom Trailblazers Club on another successful Dice Run & Vintage Sled show yesterday. The trails were very good and held up well to the heavy traffic. Lots of people turned out, though attendance may have been a little less than recent years because of the bitter cold.
Here is a link to a YouTube video showing some of the action. You can view it in HD if you have a fast connection.
Trails today will remain fair to very good. There was a very light snow overnight which helped a little, but we could use more snow. Much of the riding will still be good to very good.
Sunday, 1PM:
I did a good drive through of the trails an hour ago. Riding is good to very good, excellent in many places. The grooming was magnificent this week. Only the hard snow and lack of fresh powder keeps conditions from being excellent throughout. But a good, firm solid base and the heavy sled traffic today is loosening up that base so there is a couple of inches of granular powdery snow on the trails in most places. Enjoy.
If you see a guy with a big video camera beside the trails this afternoon, it is me. I am working on a documentary film on snowmobiling in our area. If anyone’s interested in doing some drift busting and jumping for the action portion of the film, get in touch with me!
Sunday, January 25, 9AM:
Enjoy the Dice Run and vintage sled show at Byrncliff today. It is always a great time and a fine sled and people watchi9ng opportunity. Riding conditions on the trails should be good to excellent today early. Even with the heavy sled traffic expected, the base is so solid that the trails should hold decent conditions until late in the day. Enjoy! (My favorite trail last night was S41 west of Byrncliff going through the woods over to the C4B junction. It was flat smooth all the way through the woods. Really a fun ride!)
Saturday evening, January 24th: Today’s pictures, click here
Meghan and I just returned from a 105 mile ride around all the Folsom Trailblazers trail system, out onto a part of the Oatka system, and over to Kodiak Jack’s in Marilla. Riding conditions tonight and tomorrow morning will be good to mostly very good, and excellent in many places.
Hat’s off to the Folsom Club groomer guys. They had nearly all the trails groomed flat. By mid day there were a few ripples appearing here and there, but the base is smooth and solid. Our only problem early in the day was that the hard freeze after yesterday’s warm temps left the flat trails very icy and hard. We had some overheating problems until sled traffic began to break up the ice and turn it into a sugary snow that worked fine for cooling and track lube. Word is that some of the groomers will be out again tonight freshening up the trails for the Dice Run tomorrow.
It was cold, and may be colder tomorrow for the Folsom Trailblazers Dice Run and Vintage sled show. Don’t miss it, though. The turnout is usually huge!
Once again, very good to excellent trail conditions prevail.
Saturday morning:
Conditions should be very good on the trails this weekend, depending on how heavy the sled traffic becomes. Watch out for icy conditions this morning until a few sleds have been through breaking up the glaze of ice we picked up with the plunging overnight temperatures!
Meghan and I will be on the trails this morning. We’ll report again later today. Don’t forget the Dice Run tomorrow!
Long range weather report is looking a little better than yesterday. The warm up late next week may be only one day and not as bad as I thought. Then another cold front – yippee!
Friday, January 23rd, 4PM:
Thanks to MOST of you for staying off the trails today! A few guys were out zipping around this afternoon leaving ruts in the very soft trails during the warm afternoon. But by and large, the trails held up, thanks to the great job the Trailblazers did early in the week with the base. Riding conditions are still very good to excellent most places, though I saw spots of dirt or grass showing through here and there. The base is still not very deep, but it is packed hard.
Word is that the groomers will hit the trails again late tonight or early in the morning after the temperature drops. I expect conditions will be good for grooming by nine or ten PM. Just a guess.
We should have gorgeous mid winter riding conditions with some sun each day early next week. THEN, keep your fingers crossed. Things could still work out all right weatherwise, but there is a good chance of a major warm up and melt down beginning next Thursday. So plan accordingly. Hopefully we’ll have extra groomer time budgeted early in the week while it is cold so we can all take advantage of the primo weather and trail conditions before we face the possible late week melt down.
Plan your rides for this weekend and then Monday through Wednesday and into early Thursday. - - - And hope that I am wrong about the long range weather!
Thursday, January 22, noon:
Very good to excellent riding conditions continue over the Folsom area trails – enjoy! A brief warm up to temperatures of mid to upper 30’s is expected tomorrow. My personal suggestion is Please stay off the trails during the day Friday. The Folsom Trailblazers grooming crews have done a wonderful job putting the trails in first class condition for this weekend, and they could take a beating with much sled traffic during the short warm up. Temperature should plunge after dark Friday, so I would expect Friday night rides to be fine, but watch the temperature and don’t go if the snow isn’t crisp again.
Conditions will not be good for the groomers during the Friday warmup, so if they are going to do any final tuning of the trails for the weekend, it will probably have to be during the night Friday night or early Saturday morning and anytime over the weekend. Watch out for groomers on the trails this weekend.
A new round of Arctic air returns for the weekend, including Sunday and the Folsom Dice Run at Byrncliff. Riding conditions should be primo, but dress warmly!
Wednesday, 6PM:
I had a chance to drive out and take a quick look at the trails where they crossed roads near Byrncliff this afternoon. Click this link for pictures. Riding tonight should be very good to excellent! There has been strong wind on the hills in Wyoming county, so there is snow drifted across the trails in many places on top of fresh grooming. For my riding style, powder drifted onto a well groomed trail is still “excellent riding”. But there will be drifts here and there over the recent grooming.
PS – Here are some pictures taken in Muskoka yesterday of Meghan and I
Wednesday, 3PM:
Folsom Groomer operator, Jim S. (Mr. BRAAAAAAAAP), called and told us all Folsom trails have now been freshly groomed. Conditions today should be good to excellent around the system. I should have some pictures and a personal report from the system tomorrow.
Wednesday, January 21st, 8AM:
Here’s a report sent in by Pat late last night with first hand riding reports:
Tom,
I just returned from ride around the Bennington loop. The trails were generally in great shape. At the time of this report the temp is 9 Deg F in Sheldon and the barometric pressure is rising. The trail conditions are as follows:
C4B north of Centerline Road to trail junction 73: In in Good condition with approx. 1' moguls. (Don't think it has been groomed since the weekend)
S41: Is in excellent condition (recently groomed)
C4 north of Byrncliff to trail S46: Is in excellent condition (recenly groomed)
S46 from junction 76 to junction 75: Is in A++ Excellent condition (recently groomed and very flat)
Portion of S46 that heads to Cowlsville (Pine Lounge): Is in Fair condtion with 1'-2' moguls (has not been groomed recently)
I will be heading out on Thursday towards Bliss and Java, I will send you a report when I get back from the ride.
Thanks, Pat
Meghan and I are returning from Muskoka today and will be able to do reports again tomorrow. I welcome guest reports to give more information than I can by myself. Keep them coming!
Tuesday, 8PM:
Mike Kehl, Folsom club president, sent me the following update. He asked me to remind everyone on this website that the Folsom Trailblazers Dice Run and Vintage Sled show is this weekend at Byrncliff. It is a good time with hundreds of sleds showing up! As Mike says (below), the Club is pulling out all the stops on grooming to try to make a positive statement this week. Here’s Mike’s message:
Hi Tom,
I bet your having a great time in Muskoka. Trails here are getting back in shape quite nicely. It's 11 degrees tonight with lt snow here. The groomers have been and are out and just about everything will be done by tomorrow. My Tucker was down waiting for a couple track wheels but I received them today so I will have it back on the trail tomorrow. With the dice run this weekend we really want to make a statement about our trails so expect some decent conditions this weekend even with the heavy traffic. Meeting night tonight so i'm tied up with that or I would be fixing the groomer tonight. If you could give our dice run a plug on your site, we would appreciate it. Hope to see you there if you’re back in time.
Mike
Tuesday:
The groomers have been out and trails are reported to be getting back in shape after a weekend of heavy traffic. Pat is sending me a trail report tonight which I will post.
Meghan and I are enjoying a day with absolutely perfect conditions up here in Muskoka!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday morning, January 19th:
My trail reports will be spotty this week and I'll be relying on you readers to send in your riding reports. I'm getting ready to leave for Muskoka Ontario later today for much of the week. But riding here should be good to excellent after grooming sessions during the week. Conditions will be good for grooming every day but Thursday (when it will be just above freezing). I am guessing that most of the system will be groomed today and Tuesday, and again on Friday after the cold air returns, just in time for great riding again next weekend.
The sun is out this morning and I would be heading out to ride if I weren't preparing to go up north.
While I am gone this week, check Mike's report over at Folsomtrailblazers.org .
Sunday, January 18, 1PM:
We took a very quick drive out to Byrncliff this morning. Moderate sled traffic already and more trailers coming out #20A as we drove home. There were about 20 trailers between the two Byrncliff lots.
Your riding should be "good" today. We did not see any signs of grooming since Friday, but there may have been some we did not notice. Talked to a few riders in the Byrncliff parking area who had ridden in who said it was getting "a bit bumpy". Our observations at trails crossing the area roads showed some very smooth trails with blowing and drifting fresh snow, and other areas where small stutter bumps were building on the trails. With all the loose snow on the trails, some moguls are bound to be building up where lots of sleds slow down or speed up.
More snow is coming today and tonight. Monday is a holiday for some so expect more sled traffic on the trails. Grooming conditions should be good Monday, Monday night, and Tuesday. With light snow most days this coming week there should be more prime riding conditions!
Thanks to Kenny from Bennington for the following nice message and a guest trail report:
"Hey Tom, Kenny from Bennington here,
Let me start out by saying what a great job you've been doing with this website and keeping us informed and up to date. I don't know of any other source for getting this kind of accurate info right away. Thank you.
I should also point out that myself, and many others as well, have noticed and appreciate the total turn around of Folsom's grooming operation. The last few years have not been great winters for sure, but Folsom's grooming left much to be desired and left many of us scratching our heads. Not any more. I'm not sure exactly what the new recipe is but I like it. This is the best I've seen this trail system and they are now a real pleasure to ride.
Ok, trail conditions. I did a loop yesterday from Byrncliff to Attica, then to Warsaw onto Perry and the Sportmen's Club. Trails were excellent in most areas. There were a couple bare spots in the fields but that's to be expected anywhere in this area. We then headed back on C4 and conditions were basically perfect all the way to the end of Oatka's trails then they got a little choppy (nothing bad) until we got back to the Byrncliff area. All in all, it was an awesome day of riding and traffic was much lower than expected. We were back home by 3PM and the lower parking lot was pretty full. Hopefully the trails held up."
Saturday, January 17th, Noon:
Riding conditions today will be good to very good. All trails on the Folsom system have been groomed in the past couple of days, providing a smooth, firm base. But you won't know it when you go out riding this weekend.
We've had three to five inches of new snow during the lake effect of the past 24 hours, much more where it has drifted in. This will quickly get beaten up with sled traffic, but it will remain pretty soft and fluffy at least through today. Fun riding conditions!
More snow is coming tonight and tomorrow and with temperatures remaining below freezing until the end of next week and beyond, it will be just what the doctor ordered! Enjoy the riding.
Sled traffic this morning was only moderate. Far less than last weekend when EVERYONE was out riding. At 10:30 AM there were only about a dozen to fifteen trailers in the Byrncliff lots and we saw relatively few sleds on the trails as we took a thorough picture taking tour of the trail system.
Today's pictures at this link. It was cloudy with very hazy sun poking through, so the contrast was poor for photography - poor for riding visibility, also. That plus the temperatures ranging from only +3 to +6 degrees all morning perhaps contributed to the low rider turnout. Considerably warmer tomorrow, so I would expect a lot of riders on Sunday. Ride early!
Friday, January 16, 2PM: today's very snowy pictures here !
Kudo's to the Folsom Trailblazers grooming crews! They are out grooming today in lake effect snow squalls putting the already good trails in good to excellent condition for the long weekend. This is some of the best grooming done by this club in several years. As I have mentioned recently, the club now has three groomers and they're all being used.
Groomer operator, Jim S. (Mr. BRAAAP), called this morning and told me that all of the Bennington and Attica trails were groomed last night. Strykersville was being groomed this morning and anything remaining will get done tonight. The base will be very good for the beginning of the weekend.
But keep in mind that we've already had 6" or more of blowing and drifting snow today with more coming down. Many of the freshly groomed trails will be drifted in with fresh snow. Over a good base, that will make for some very fun, drift busting riding, if that's your thing. But don't expect all flat packed trails.
NOTE: Dangerous driving this afternoon; I drove much of the trail system by car this morning checking trails and taking pictures. There were white-outs in many places and the granular snow coming done was VERY slippery on the highways. I saw many spin outs and stuck vehicles. Tractor trailers were not making it up out of the hollow on #20A where you enter Byrncliff. It was a mess. If you're thinking about trailering out to ride this afternoon, maybe you want to wait until tomorrow?
My pictures from today at this link are snowy! Hard to see much, but they'll give you an idea of what it's like out on the highways and the trail system today.
Friday, January 16th, 8AM:
We'll try to get you a first hand report from on the trails later this morning, but radar indicates that the present persistent lake effect plume is falling directly over our Folsom area trail system. The snow here at my place in East Aurora is a small flake that should pack and groom pretty well. Let's hope for a good dump!
Long range weather pattern suggests a warm up to just above freezing by the middle of next week for a day and then another possible cold front. Good news for the long term good of the trail system!
Thursday, January 15th:
I did not inspect the trail system this morning myself, but riding conditions should be very good most places. Check my first hand ride report from yesterday below. Grooming was in progress yesterday afternoon and sled traffic was quite light. Conditions should still be good today.
It sounds like much of the lake effect snow forecast for the next two days will fall a little south of our riding area. Keep your fingers crossed that we get some of it. Our trails could use just a little more snow.
Wednesday, January 14, 4PM: - Today's Trail Pictures here
80 Miles with
Whoooooooosh!
Z-rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-t!
And BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!
That would be me on my Z1 Turbo, very quiet like a gentleman rider; Meghan on her slightly hot ZRT making just a little more noise and - well you can probably guess, especially if you're part of the Folsom Trailblazers Club. Yes, it would be Jim S., groomer guy and resident "hot-dog"! We had a good ride through much of the Folsom trail system this morning (good to very good and excellent in spots that had just been groomed late last night and this morning).
Below: Jim on his "BRAAAAP machine!"
We also rode out through Weathersfield on the Oatka trails, some of which were beautifully groomed. There also seemed to be a bit more new snow to the east of the Folsom system and Jim and I enjoyed playing in a lot of powder.
If you're headed out to ride tonight or in the Frigid weather Thursday, you'll find generally good to very good to excellent conditions on the Folsom trails. A few sections were getting beat up already even though everything has been groomed in the past two days. The northern part of the A&A railbed was the best I have ever seen it this morning! S-43 was excellent, and the groomers were out today.
I'll give you an example of how fast trails deteriorate with the heavy traffic we've been getting. C4 headed north from Byrncliff towards Bennington was groomed twice in the past two days, at least - I saw it happening. Already this afternoon, though it was still "good", stutter bumps were appearing and a little snirt was visible here and there. And that's with great attention to grooming.
Some good news is that with the multiple grooming passes over the past few days and the very cold temperatures, we're getting a much better base. With the good base, the trails hold their set longer after a grooming, and the next time they are groomed it doesn't take as many passes to get excellent conditions.
Today's pictures here.
Oh - one more thing! You know how when a couple of Arctic Cat people deign to go riding with a "Doo" guy there can be a little trash talking? Well, I won't say much except that one of us had to call for a rescue to get trailered home from the trails, and it wasn't a black sled!
Tuesday, Jan. 13th, 5 PM Update:
Jim S. called a couple of hours ago from the cab of one of the groomers as he was crossing Maxxon Road. He told me that they have been out for much of today and made multiple passes over many of the worst areas, including the A&A rail trail south of Varysburg. He also confirmed that sled traffic is very light today, so all the grooming should have a nice chance to set up.
I would like to take a moment to commend all the guys doing the grooming this year for the Folsom Trailblazers club. They are off to one of their best starts in the past few years. They have three industrial groomers this year, and they are using them. I have often lobbied for more aggressive grooming and I have not been shy about reporting bad trail conditions. This is good work. Keep it up, guys!
Tuesday, January 13, 8AM:
Mike over on the Folsom club website reports that more grooming was done last night after my ride and report (see below). That should put the trails in good to very good condition all around the Folsom system for today.
Today - This is one of those days that separates the die hard riders from the "wannabe's". Trail conditions should be great. My sleds were loaded still from last night and I had planned on a good ride today to enjoy that fine, fresh grooming! But the snow and wind that was forecast for after lunch today has already set in. Visibility will be deteriorating rapidly. I hate to admit it, but I am going to wimp out and wait for tomorrow when the wind will be much calmer.
Here are a couple of second hand trail reports from surrounding areas and an "atta boy, Tom" email. Keep them coming. It's good to know that somebody out there finds this website useful.
I check your website just about everyday. Thanks for the updates. Had the day off today, Monday Jan.12, 2009. Maded the drive to Byrncliff. Did not know what to expect. The ride today was one of the best rides in two years. Hats off to all the groomer operators. What a quick recovery from a busy weekend. I live a hour North and the website is great, to know what to expect when u get there.
THANKS to all who make it happens
Thanks
Joel
Hi Tom,
Just a quick note most all our trails will be done tonight and if not by tommorrow. We should have some sweet riding this week!
Mike Kehl
Hi Tom,
I just found your web site on the trail conditions last week.
Great job I have been checking it on a regular basis now.
I rode between from Eden to West Valley and Arcade yesterday then back to Eden about a 110-mile day. Not my entire ride is in your area but here is the report.
Eden to Langford needs more snow. Langford to Zoar just plain rough.
When you get into Zoar Valley in Catt county lots of snow trails from Cookies Rest in Zoar to West Valley were very good lots of snow.
West Valley to Machies Junction were very good.
Trails from machies junction to Arcade were very rough but good snow cover.
They had not been groomed yet. Rail bed to Bliss was rough also not groomed yet.
With the cold weather this week and with grooming trails should be stellar.
Trail through Sardinia rough and not groomed yet Erie County forest not groomed yet
Very rough trail all the way to Springville.
Springville to Boston had tons of traffic and was beat down to snirt.
Boston to East Eden beat up from to much traffic and low snow cover in the open cornfields.
East Eden Back to Eden rough going through the dirt farm fields.
Thanks for your reports and photos
Dave
Tom again: I talked to a fellow rider at Byrncliff yesterday who had ridden in from the Warsaw area the back way coming in from Perry. He said the snow was thin in places, but not a bad ride with some hit and miss grooming.
Monday, 6PM:
I felt the "need" this afternoon and took a quick fifty mile spin around parts of the Folsom trail system. Conditions tonight range from fair to near excellent. Lots of grooming is getting done - most of the system will probably have been hit by tomorrow. Some freshly groomed trails could use another pass or two, because of the very heavy traffic over the weekend. We are beginning to build up a satisfactory base, but we need more snow in some places - snow which is coming soon!
I took S41 out of Byrncliff, and it was good in most places, not freshly groomed, but still good. Trail C4B down towards Strykersville was fair to good most of the way but not groomed yet today. Then I ran into Dave working the trails on that side of the system. Most trails in Strykersville are good to excellent tonight, though some need more snow.
Everything out in Java Center has been freshly groomed today and is good to excellent. C4A through the Java woods had not yet been groomed in places, but likely will be soon. It was fair - bumpy and thin.
S43 was freshly groomed and good to very good (thin snow in many places still). C4a and C4 along the old rail bed towards Varysburg had been freshly groomed and were generally good but need another pass or two of the groomer because of the heavy traffic over the weekend.
Some of the best riding on the system was on C4 north of Byrncliff towards Bennington and Attica and on parts of C4H that I rode. These trails had benefited from being groomed yesterday morning and again today. They were very good to excellent!
All in all, the grooming guys are working hard to put the trails right after a weekend of heavy sled traffic pounded the trails. More snow is on the way. I expect that we'll have outstanding riding this coming weekend!
Here are a few more pictures from my afternoon ride. I might have taken more, but I was having a ball! My new Turbo passed the 500 mile mark on the ride which is a break in point. It was running strong! And by coincidence, I ran into Bill K. on the trail who is a fellow Z1 Turbo owner - we were both out solo and just happened to meet up.
Monday, January 12, 1 PM:
The Folsom Trailblazers grooming crews are right on the ball after a weekend of very heavy sled traffic. On our tour of the trails this morning, much of the south side of the system including most of the Java to Strykersville trails were already groomed. There was action over in Varysburg at the groomer barn, so the rest of the trails may also get groomed today?
I met Dave with one of the groomers, and he said his only concern was how many sleds were already out this morning before the trails could "set". SO if you are going out today (I am), take it easy and ride smoothly on the freshly groomed trails.
Today's pictures here. I am leaving to ride in a few minutes and will post pictures from the trails later tonight.
Sunday, January 11th, Noon:
Meghan and I just got back from riding nearly the whole Folsom trail system this morning. Your riding conditions this afternoon will vary widely, from only fair in many wooded sections where moguls are building (also on the A&A), to very good in field sections to excellent on the trail from Byrncliff up to Bennington, where Mike groomed two fresh passes just this morning.
FYI - the entire trail system was groomed over the past 36 hours. But extremely heavy sled traffic yesterday and again this morning has pounded many of the trails. Just think while you are riding how much worse it would be if the groomer guys had not been out at all. Their work over this weekend has packed in a good base and with winter here finally, things will only get better over the next week.
Click here for some pictures around the trails from this morning. I'll post another report later tonight.
Saturday, January 10, 4PM: pictures from this afternoon here
Can you spell "Pent up demand"? The Byrncliff parking lots and the trails were jammed today. There was grid lock in the parking lots, and there were many groups of ten or fifteen riders on the trails. Seems like everyone has been waiting for a snowy weekend. I rode most of the southern half of the trail system.
Riding today and tonight was and will be fair to good. I passed a groomer three times, so they are out there working the thin snow. There are still a few open water holes, but they are freezing up. Some places where the groomer has been, they have kicked up dirt because of the thin base. Where snow has drifted in or settled, riding is good. Where it is blown thin, conditions are very marginal and bumpy on corn stubble or plowed fields.
Snow is coming down pretty steadily over a wide area as I write. Four to eight inches is expected. We will have a pretty good base after this weekend, but the very heavy sled traffic will have it packed thin. That's probably good for building a base.
Because of the grooming and the thin snow, few moguls have built up. Any bumps are from no snow cover over uneven ground.
Expect these same conditions tonight, with LOTS of sleds out. Visibility is already marginal because of the heavy snowfall, so keep that in mind when making your plans.
Sunday the snow will end early and riding conditions should be good with more snow on the ground. Moguls will be building if there is very heavy sled traffic again tomorrow, which I would expect. Pictures here
Friday, January 9th, 1PM:
I took a long drive around the Folsom trails this morning. Click here for some pictures.
Riding conditions are fair to quite good in many places. There have been a number of sleds out and pretty much everyplace, the 8" or so of new snow has been packed down a bit on the trails. But it is still pretty soft, powder riding where the snow is deeper. Looked like fun! There will be thin spots on west facing hillsides and I saw a few slushy areas that had not completely frozen up.
There were five trailers already at Byrncliff by late morning and I passed several groups of riders while I was taking pictures.
It looks like the majority of today's lake effect may miss our riding area to the south, but there will be some snow every day for the next week or more. Things will get better and better. I would expect the groomers to be out over the next few days, certainly right after what looks like a busy riding weekend! Next week should provide us with some primo riding conditions. (How about it, Groomer Boys? - a big Monday push to clean up the weekend mess and give us some great riding during next week?)
Thursday, January 8, 4PM:
With 8" to 10" of new snow across the area along with strong winds, the trails are now open again, with widely varying conditions. Some hillsides are near bare others heavy snow cover. Water and mud holes are still open in some places but should be frozen up soon. Some snow is in the forecast nearly every day for the next week, including a couple of significant snow events. Things will be getting better and better! We'll post some new pictures and a first hand report tomorrow.
Wednesday, 9PM:
Finally! Winter seems to be arriving for real over the next few days and will likely stick around for a while. The trails should be useable again by tomorrow (check the Folsom Club site to see if they have reopened officially). Snow is expected nearly every day for the next week, so conditions will get better and better.
The long range weather discussions on the NOAA website talk of a serious arctic air mass coming our way from next Wednesday or so through the following week. Their wording is that this may lead to "some impressive lake snows". Bring it on!!
Tuesday, January 7th:
Local trails are officially closed until we get more snow. Not that many would want to be out in this mess tonight or Wednesday, anyway! Sleet and freezing rain will continue overnight and for much of Wednesday. But better things are on the way. Winter returns tomorrow night and wintry conditions, including some lake effect patterns, will persist for the next week. I see a good chance that we'll have good riding conditions this coming weekend!
In the meantime, Meghan and I got tired of waiting and took a quick one day trip to Old Forge today. Click this link for a few pictures. Riding was very good, though the base was very icy. They sure do a nice job of grooming up there with the amount of snow they have to work with. If you're thinking of going, they do have a solid base on all the trails and just need a little more new snow for excellent conditions. That may be coming tonight, with a possible 6" to 12" or more.
Monday, January 5th, 11AM:
The Folsom club trails are for all practical purposes "closed" until further notice. Lots of you have been out riding in spite of the marginal conditions and the thin base has been pounded. Trails are turning to "snirt" in many places or even bare. Time to lay off completely until we hopefully get some new snow later this week. Perhaps by Thursday?
Meghan and I are loading up this afternoon for a one day visit to Old Forge. We'll post a report when we get back Wednesday morning.
Sunday, January 4th:
No changes to report, no new snow, but didn't lose any either. Riding conditions will continue "fair" with thin base over the next few days.
A wintry mix and some rain is likely Tuesday night into Wednesday. With night temperatures remaining below freezing and daytime only getting to the mid 30's, we should keep most of our base on the area trails. A few already thin southwest facing hillsides may go bare in places. A snow event returns on Wednesday night and Thursday, hopefully giving us just enough to continue with marginal riding conditions into next weekend. Keep your fingers crossed, as a slight change in the path of the mid week cold front could give us more or less snow.
Really in need of a riding fix? Old Forge is holding fair to good conditions. Tug Hill is variable, but we have some reports of good conditions in places. Muskoka area in Ontario where I ride most often needs more snow and trails are still closed most places. North Bay area and North is beginning to open up with good riding on some trails, but still spotty.
Good riding is reported in "the Ganny" (Ganaraska Provincial forest about an hour and a half east of Toronto.)
Upper Michigan has had trails open for some time, with variable conditions.
Write me if you have any other reports, good or bad, from distant snowmobiling destinations and I will post them here.
January 3rd, a nice day, but:
Thanks to Paul R.Z., you all get an "extra" trail report today. I wasn't going to go out and check the trails today, since indications were that very little new snow fell since yesterday. But Paul sent me the message below, and how can you not go out and do a fresh trail report after reading something like that? Thanks for the kind words, Paul. You cost me a few extra gallons of gas!
Today's trail conditions? Just about like yesterday, but whiter. Fair riding with thin snow on a very thin packed base. Very bumpy on many field sections. Some fields are good; some hillsides drifted in and fun riding. Most water holes beginning to freeze up.
We did get a dusting to maybe a little over an inch of new snow in most areas. The lake effect plume last night settled just to the south of our riding area and did not help us much. The bright sun on the thin new snow cover this morning made for good pictures. See this link. I made them bigger than usual today since they looked so good!
The present cold weather will hold overnight tonight, so the current fair to occasionally good riding conditions will be there for you. Light rain expected tomorrow morning, but barely above freezing and not lasting long, so it should not wash us out. Next significant snow is expected Tuesday night and Wednesday. Stay tuned.
Here's Paul's note:
Hi Tom,
I saw in your photo link from today something about "where the Pub used to be - we will miss them." I hope that the Strykersville Pub is not gone! Tell me it isn't so.
Your reports just get better all the time. Thank you for all your hard work to help us stay informed about conditions. Your site is a fine example of accurate, current and dependable communication for the sledding community. I have and will continue to spread the word of your web site.
Hope to see you on the trail,
Paul R. Z.
January 2, 10PM:
Any lake effect out on the trails?
Here on my farm in East Aurora, there is only a disappointing dusting of new snow. But the radar has shown a pretty active lake plume just south of here and spreading out to the southern parts of our riding area all evening. If anyone's out there, pop me an email and let me know if there is much new snow on your part of the trail system.
PS - Thanks to Paul for the nice words - yes, the Pub has closed its doors. It has been sold to new owners who reportedly are planning to reopen as a restaurant again. But we will miss Dawn, Mich, and the rest of the old Pub crew. It was a fine place to stop on the trails!
January 2nd, noon:
I'm going to quote below Mike's Trail Report for today posted over on the "Folsomtrailblazers.org" website. It's just what I would have written for today:
" Friday Jan 2 2009 9:00AM 28 Degrees Cloudy
Happy New Year!
Most trail conditions are in fair shape as of now. I have gotten reports of some good areas but for the most part we have no base, so fair conditions will be the norm. Snow is in the forecast for today and tonight so maybe if we do get it we can do something with it with the groomers. The trails I seen look to be well packed down in areas so maybe we can get a base established once again. In the meantime if you do get out there, be prepared to deal with the stones, pebbles and whatever else is under the slim cover of snow we have out there, so be careful."
= = = =
Meghan and I drove around through Strykersville and Sheldon this morning and took a few pictures (this link). There was pretty heavy sled traffic yesterday and all the trails are pounded flat with some dirt showing through here and there. Very thin base now, but at least there is something to freeze up. If we get towards the high end of the 4" to 6" inches of snow forecast for the next 24 hours, there might be just enough to groom.
We'd also like to thank Jim, a rider from the Rochester area who we met at Byrncliff yesterday for sending us the following report:
"Hello – I just wanted to let you know that I did check out your website today. It took me a little while to remember the URL but I did it. I was the short guy with the blue and black Polaris jacket that you were talking to yesterday. Nice writeup about yesterday. We went back to Letchworth a different way – took the trail from Varysburg east (can not remember what it was – new trail just before the Citgo) then we caught up with I think 40 and then back to Silver Springs. Much better than down by Java. The further north it seemed to be better.
Keep the reports up and maybe see you again.
Jim"
January 1, 2009, 4PM:
Happy New Year! (Today's pictures at this link)
Meghan and I just got back from riding some of the Folsom Trails. Riding conditions are generally "fair" with a few good spots here and there. All that fresh white fluffy snow is inviting to look at, but there is NO BASE anywhere. You cut down through the 8 inches of powder and your carbides are constantly snagging rocks and gravel. The corn fields are brutal.
If you feel patriotic about the snowmobiling nation, yes, you should be out there now packing this mess down to a solid base. If you feel smart, stay home and let someone else pound their sleds! Better riding conditions are coming soon, with another 3 to 5 inches of snow tomorrow night.
Meghan and I did actually have a fun ride today. In spite of the marginal trail conditions, it was a gorgeous sunny day with lots of fresh powder on all the evergreen trees. (Lumplets, Meghan calls the snow on the trees) We rode up over the hill from Byrncliff, down the rail bed, and out through the Java wooded trails which were lovely. Many field trails on that side of the system are pretty good and the A&A trail is just starting to mogul up.
If you are thinking of going out tonight or Friday, there is "ok, fair condition" riding. Just be ready for the stuff you'll snag as your skiis kick up rocks and pebbles.
The Grooming Dilema:
To groom or not to groom, that is ALWAYS the question. There was decent sled traffic all around the Folsom system today, so the powder has been beaten down a bit. It could benefit from dragging and packing. But grooming conditions are marginal; there will be several more inches of new snow tomorrow afternoon and evening, so there is an argument for waiting another day or two. So, you sledders out there, that's the kind of decision facing your trail bosses and groomer operators. Those of us who ride and don't help maintain the trails would always prefer the extra groomer runs if it were up to us. But the guys doing the work and keeping track of budgets have to make tough choices sometimes. Just over a week ago, the Folsom grooming crews put all their trails in excellent shape right before a thaw. There was a day and a half, maybe, of fine riding! Then it all melted.
I was one of those who got a chance to ride on some of those fine trails, so I'm glad they did what they did.
To achieve the best possible riding this weekend, the guys would have to go out and drag the thinly covered powdery trails tonight and tomorrow to help prepare a halfway decent base, and then do it all over again tomorrow night and Saturday after the new snow falls. And the weekend trails then would still only be fair to good with a thin base. Is it worth it? Not my decision.
December 31st, 1PM:
Click this link for a few pictures taken out in Sheldon near Byrncliff this morning. A few solitary sleds had been through the trails sometime this morning. There is 6" to 8" of new powder snow, with more coming down in scattered snow squalls which are expected to continue for much of this afternoon. A few inches more expected tonight.
Today there are blustery winds and occasional white outs. Drive or ride carefully in Wyoming County.
We saw some open water holes. Watch for washouts and down trees from the wild weather the past week. Call in trail damage reports to trail bosses or email them to us and we'll pass them on. Stop and drag fallen branches off the trail as you ride. Every little bit helps.
Cold nights and day temps at or below freezing for the next week should put the trail system back in business!
We plan to ride tomorrow after the wind dies down and some of YOU break trails for us!
December 29th:
Think snow and keep your fingers crossed. 3" to 5" forecast for much of western NY tomorrow night. Five inches might marginally get us back riding!
Expect significant problems in the woods due to the major flooding all across western New York and the high winds the past few days. If you can volunteer some help, get in touch with your club officers or the trail bosses.
December 26:
Surprisingly, there is still a snow and ice base on many of the trails. Nothing I'd want to ride on, but there were tracks here and there indicating a few hardy souls have been out to try some riding. You all have heard the weather reports; high 50's over the weekend and that will be the end of any kind of trails for a few days. The colder weather returns New Year's Eve and we'll hope for some more snow. I probably won't report anything until then. Click this link to see a couple of pictures taken this morning on C4A in Sheldon.
Christmas Day:
Happy Holidays to all of you. I did not go out and check any trails today, but the rain and warm weather yesterday were brutal on the trails here on my farm. There may be a little fair condition riding here and there on the marked trail system tonight and early tomorrow, but then it goes up to near 60 Saturday! Next sustained cold weather is not until New Year's Eve day, and not much snow in the forecast even then. Take a week off or travel.
Wednesday, December 24,
10AM:
PLEASE stay off the trails today while it is warm and raining. If we leave them
alone today (you should be doing your last minute shopping, anyway!), they
should still be in decent shape for some good to very good riding on Christmas
day when it will be below freezing again with a little fresh snow. Temperature
will drop to 19 on Thursday night and freeze things up nicely for a fair to
good riding day on Friday with temperatures in the high 30's. Weather
conditions Thursday night may even justify grooming again.
Saturday? Do you really want to see it in print? High near 60. Enough said.
Tuesday, December 23, 5:20PM:
I will post a much more complete trail report very soon. In the meantime, if you're considering a ride on the Folsom area trails this week, get on out there tonight or very early tomorrow. Nearly all Folsom trails were groomed yesterday, last night, or today. Riding conditions are good to excellent nearly everyplace on the system. Riding conditions in Western New York will rapidly deteriorate the rest of the week with very warm day time temps, rain, and night temps barely below freezing, if that. Tonight is the night!
OK - now for some details. I wrote the above paragraph after coming in the door from riding nearly all of the Folsom system today. Then jumped in the shower and feel much better now! Click here for an album of pictures from around the trails today. The conditions reported below may have gotten worse from the sleds out there this afternoon, or better, since some of the groomers were still working today. I will report very well groomed trails as excellent even if there are still a few open water holes (which there are - see pictures!); we are still in early season conditions.
We left Byrncliff about 10:45 this morning and took S41 west (good conditions in the morning; excellent in the afternoon after another grooming). We came on fresh groomer tracks and turned north on C4B towards Folsomdale, with more excellent conditions, except for the very thin snow and bumps on the west facing Hillside near Dutch Hollow Road (still excellent tonight with another groomer run). We followed the trail towards Marilla until we caught up to the groomer. This trail was groomed to the end of the Folsom system today (two passes) - excellent conditions.
We came back the way we came and took C4B south towards Strykersville (good to very good conditions from grooming yesterday).
Then took S43A through the woods (good conditions) and down into Strykersville (excellent conditions; fresh grooming). Turned around and ran C4A from Strykersville to Beaver Meadows and the camp ground (very good to excellent with fresh grooming.)
Then took C3C south towards Java Center and Arcade - more excellent conditions on the Folsom trails right up to the end of our trails, then no more grooming on the adjacent club system.
Returned and took C4A through the fields and woods towards North Java - EXCELLENT conditions! Lots of snow on the pine trees in the woods - just beautiful riding!
Then we ran C4A and C4 north up the railbed towards Varysburg. Good to very good conditions. The railbed had been groomed quite recently, but the base is not fully setup and it starts to get bumpy again quickly. There were quite a few sleds out today.
Back over to Byrncliff on C4 with conditions ranging from good to excellent. The restaurant has not started opening for lunch on week days yet, so we saddled up again and took S41 again towards Sheldon (now freshly groomed and excellent; then rode all the way to Kodiak Jack's in Marilla, with excellent conditions on the Folsom system, but very bumpy on the Marilla trails - heard their groomer is broke.
We rode part way to Bennington on excellent trails, but heard at mid-day that not all trails in Bennington were groomed yet, and we did not check ourselves.
Summary: Hat's off to the trail bosses and groomer crews for an excellent job of early season trail grooming! They easily could have decided not to groom at all. A lot of money was spent grooming trails the past two days and it's all very likely to melt down over the rest of the week. But here in western New York with weather the way it has been in recent years, you MUST seize any opportunity to groom when you can have even a day or two of great riding.
And maybe the weather reports will turn out to be too pessimistic. Maybe it won't quite all melt and we'll have a good base when it gets cold again. Anyway, I approve of the decision to invest the time and money now.
Tonight (Tuesday night) the trails are in very good to excellent condition most places. Watch out for the occasional open water hole and other early season obstacles, down branches, etc. Light snow will fall all night until it turns to rain around 3am, so watch the poor visibility.
Click this link for today's pictures.
Monday, December 22, 3PM: Today's pictures at this link
Thanks again to Jim from the Folsom club for calling in progress reports on the grooming. He called around noon and said that the groomers were working the Sheldon area this morning (which I saw - see pictures from today here). He also said that all the trails in the Folsom system would be groomed by tonight.
Atta boys! It would have been easy to decide to punt on the grooming this week since we're likely to have a big warm-up from Wednesday on. But I think it was the right call to go all out today. I drove my car around the system taking pictures and checking on the trails - I nearly got a woody when I saw the fresh groomed part of C4B next to Dutch Hollow Road!
We should have excellent riding conditions tomorrow (Tuesday), and it will be wonderful to have the whole trail system groomed up for that day. And it will pack in a base that just MIGHT hold up until it gets cold again.
Today's riding conditions will range from good most places with fresh powder on the trails to excellent where the groomers hit. Do remember that we're still in the first few days of riding for the season and watch out for open water holes or other obstructions on the trails. Ride defensively. It is still very windy in the Folsom area today and even on fresh groomed trails, expect drifting. West facing hillsides will have thin snow because of the prolonged period of high winds.
How much snow is there? It's nearly impossible to say with all the blowing and drifting. I've had reports of nearly two feet, but I doubt there is anywhere near that most places. I measured only 6 to 8 inches in Stykersville this morning and the plow drifts along most of the highways were not that impressive. I would say most of the trail system got less than a foot of new snow on average. But that is enough.
Plan to ride tomorrow before the big warmup on Wednesday. Stay off the trails during the warm spells this week, and they just might hold up until it gets cold again. Most nights this week will get below freezing, so night riding should be OK. Have fun!
December 21, Sunday, 2:30 PM:
I just had a call from Jim S., one of the groomer operator/trail bosses for the Folsom Club. He was calling from the groomer just as he was finishing grooming from Byrncliff over the hill through Varysburg and down the rail bed trail, then back over S43 to Rte # 77. The groomer was soon going out with another operator to finish the southern half of the Folsom trail system. Jim told me that one of the other club groomers was gone from the shop when he started, and he thinks that it is working the trails on the Bennington side.
Jim tells me the groomers will be running every day except Wednesday when temps in the 40's are forecast. Based on these reports, there should be very good riding Tuesday after the "storm" (not such a storm so far), and not bad the rest of the week so long as we don't get too much rain when it is warm.
Tuesday will be your best day to ride, then at night when it is below freezing most days the rest of the week. Try to stay off the trails Wednesday when it is supposed to be very warm and with possible rain.
December 20, Saturday, 5 PM:
Trails are open and Meghan and I made a couple of short loops. Riding conditions this afternoon typical early season fair to good in spots. Click this link for an album of pictures from this afternoon.
The groomers were out on some of the trails, especially near the new groomer barn. It helped and was good for packing in a base even though the snow is thin. The ground is snow covered most places except for corn stalks showing through, some plowed fields, and on west facing hillsides where the strong winds the other day scoured the hillsides.
Generally, there was enough snow for good riding, and except as noted above, many trails were early season good. The problems were the open mud and water holes. Everything was thinly frozen first thing this morning after a cold night, but not thick enough to stand up to sled traffic. By mid day nearly every water hole was wide open and you needed to water-skip across or find a detour around.
If you're planning a ride tonight or Sunday before the storm, we recommend heading out of Byrncliff on C4 and C4A towards Java. Meghan and I rode part of that and met riders who saidf the rest to Java was pretty good. We also had a good ride on C4B and S43 from south of #20A towards Strykersville. (S43 is closed from Bartz to Parry Roads temporarily)
We ran into the worst water holes on C4B where it loops north of #20A. Other riders reported a lot of mud towards bennington.
There was a decent amount of sled traffic on the trails, with 15 to 20 sleds parked at Byrncliff much of the day. We saw lots of sleds on the trails. Oddly, there were only two trailers at Byrncliff all afternoon, so most of the riders rode their sleds to the trail system or were locals. The heavy traffic packed the trails well, and they should freeze up much better by the time the new snow arrives beginning tomorrow. Lots of it, it sounds like! Should be ten to fifteen inches over the next 48 hours. We should have nice riding Tuesday after the storm lets up.
Then, unfortunately, another warm up - what's new? Depending on exactly what happens, we may keep much of the snow until the next cold front - stay tuned on that, but plan to ride Tuesday, and then at night for the rest of the week.
December 18, Thursday:
The thin snow cover over most of our riding area seems to be holding up well with colder night time temps. Hopefully we'll get some frost in the ground before the more significant general snow fall tomorrow and Saturday. I wish it were just a little colder today. But it looks like we will have temps in the teens at night for a period of four or five days beginning Saturday, so if the trails are opened and get heavy use this weekend (likely), we should have a decent frozen trail base by the beginning of next week.
Check the Folsom Trailblazers club website to see when Mike calls the trails as "Open". I have fixed the link to the club website, which changed from last year to a .org web address.
December 17th, Wednesday:
There was a widespread light snow across western New York last night, with barely two inches near my farm in East Aurora, and only a little more here and there around the Folsom trail system. The trails formally opened today, but conditions will be marginal with thin snow and open mud holes. The Folsom club website calls the trails "Closed" still.
Still - as soon as the Folsom club announces the trails "Open" or "Limited", it would be a good thing if some of you eager beavers got out and started packing them down . The base will freeze up better if there's been a little sled traffic. Temperatures will be dropping over the next five or six days and there are TWO significant snow events forecast - one Friday and another Sunday night. If we keep packing in the trails as some of this snow comes down, it will help give us a nice base in case winter stays a while!
Remember, after the trails are announced "Open", it is early season riding. Be very careful. And watch for detours in the trails where some land owners have not harvested a late corn crop. Most of those spots will have signed detours or obvious ways to ride around the edge of the corn field and pick up the trail again on the other side.
Soon you will be able to enjoy, carefully!
December 16th:
Well, looks like some decent snow coming this week after all! But we are exactly on the line between all snow and mixed precipitation. Luck will tell whether we have marginal riding or lots of snow for the next week. Keep your fingers crossed. After this weekend the outlook is for an extended cold snap, so whatever we get may stay around for a while this time. Decent storm forecast for Friday. We may even get groomed trails over the weekend!
December 13th:
Want to ride? Well, if you have a friend with a farm in the Folsom area, you can blast around tomorrow (Saturday). Then it's up to the 50's and it will all melt on Sunday and Monday. Cooling off again next week just as the trails in our area officially open, but it does not sound like there will be much snow for opening day on our trails. Time to travel if you want to ride NOW.
Old Forge is open and grooming. This is Snodeo weekend there, so it will be packed.
Tug Hill has snow, and spotty conditions, with trails, I believe, not yet officially open.
Muskoka region of Ontario has tons of snow and a few trails are beginning to open, but most are not yet listed as open because the swamps and lakes are not yet frozen.
A lot of guys are getting in riding in Michigan, both the lower part and the UP.
December 10, 2008:
If this week's weather forecast has a familiar feel, it's because it's about like what we had two years ago. Some great early December riding, and then it all melted just as the trail system opened. Sure enough, after getting in 5 good hours of riding on my own farm to break in my new Z1 Turbo (yeah!), we're in the middle of a soaking rain that should melt everything in western New York. Another sharp cold front comes the next few days to tease us, and then another big time warmup. Does not sound promising for local riding anytime soon.
NEW - Hubba - Hubba!
First riding of 2008 - 2009 season?
Here in East Aurora we had our first snow flakes of the 2008/2009 season last week, and a few of you may actually be riding around fields in the higher elevations Tuesday and Wednesday of this week! Get your sled fired up if you live in hill country. The lake effect machine may fire up in the higher elevations. Hopefully this will be a good omen for the coming season.
I hope so! I've got a 2009 Cat on order.
Video: Try this link to see a video of riders on one of the trails yesterday. If you have a fast broadband connection, click on "Quicktime" for a higher quality video. Email me and let me know what you think and if the quality is good enough, we'll post more online video next season.
Thank You Notes:
I put a lot of time into this website during the riding season, and I enjoy it. When I hear from guys who have found the information useful, it makes my day! Thanks go out to these guys who have taken the time to write me!
Mike O. wrote:
Tom,
I really appreciate your web site. I check
it everytime before I go out and you're very honest & accurate with your
trail conditions. thanks........... Mike
This below came in from Paul Z - thanks, Paul!:
Tom,
Thanks for the very helpful website. Your up-to-date information has allowed my
friends and me to take advantage of some great riding conditions. Because of
your hard work and skillful reporting, we were able to ride and enjoy your
beautiful area much more than otherwise would have been possible. if other
areas of WNY had dedicated snowmobilers such as yourself willing to give very
current trail reports (along with those great guys in the groomers), I'm sure
far fewer trips would be made to Ontario, The Hill and Old Forge.
The pics are from today, and I'm sure you know where we were.
Thanks again,
Paul
Paul added: By the way, will you be doing road reports for Wyoming County this summer when I'm out on my motorcycle? Just kidding.
Har, Har, har! My wife is still laughing her ass off six hours after reading that, Paul! She thinks I am just about addicted enough to our morning drives that I might fall for that!
Mike S. writes:
Tom, I am relatively new to snowmobiling and ride the Folsom trails often. I have come to depend on your daily reports in deciding when and where to ride. Thank you for your tireless efforts in providing such an excellent and important venue to get the trail conditions. Hope you will do it again next year, Mike S.
Thanks, Mike. I probably will again, but I will be asking for help if anyone else is interested in doing it part time. We'll also try to expand our coverage to some of the adjoining club trail systems.
Think snow!
NOTE: The Folsom Trailblazers club website also posts some trail condition reports here. Using our more frequent reports, along with those on the club website, you can confirm or get different impressions of the conditions.
Update, March 28th: some pretty snow pictures from today
Winter just won't go away! Although local trails in western New York remain officially closed to my knowledge, there will be plenty of chances for local riding around the region this weekend. Thanks to up to five or six inches of snow in areas last night, and temperatures down to 20 tonight and tomorrow night, you'll be able to find plenty of good spots to play if you live in the country. Respect landowners and only ride where you know you're welcome.
If you want to travel, it looks like one more weekend of generally good to very good riding in Ontario. There's still plenty of snow on the trails (bare roads, though). Temperatures will drop to the low teens at night over the weekend before rain and much warmer weather finally reach Ontario next week.
Click on the link above or here to see some "winter wonderland" pictures Meghan and I took on a morning drive today (not on the trail system). I'm headed out of town for all of next week, so this may be my last official "trail report" of the year. I will be writing articles about snowmobiling and reorganizing this website in the coming weeks, so stop back and visit from time to time! Thanks for being part of this website this season.
- Tom
Update, March 26, 8PM:
A guy who goes by "Muskoka Minute" on the Hard Core Sledder Ontario forum is the grooming coordinator for the Muskoka Sno-Bombers in Bracebridge area. He posted this morning that he has 14" to 16" of new snow in his driveway from last night, and they groomed many trails last night. Read the below paragraph and head for Muskoka region for great spring riding!! Looks like sun and slightly above freezing temperatures tomorrow will melt what's on road sections, but the trails should be generally very good the following few days, with nightly temps in the low teens.
Wish my sleds weren't broken down:(
Update, March 26:
Winter is dribbling away as daytime temps warm here in western New York. But central Ontario got heavy snow yesterday and will have very cold night time temperature for most of the rest of this week. Conditions today will be excellent in the Muskoka region and they expect to be riding into April! Best riding in recent years. Click here to go to the hard Core Sledder Ontario discussion forum.
Consensus is that best riding is in the Huntsville - Bracebridge - Dorset - Dwight area and also south and east of there. Snow actually is much thinner as you go north towards North Bay.
Update, March 24th, Monday:
We did a drive through check of the Folsom trails this morning, and the bare spots are growing. Trails are officially closed and I think this is it for the season. Still plenty of spots where locals are playing around in the remaining snow.
IF YOU REALLY WANT TO RIDE - my sources and the various websites indicate excellent conditions still in parts of Ontario. From my recent trip experience and what locals are saying on the net, I'd go to Huntsville - Dwight - Dorset region. They had LOTS of snow a couple of weeks ago and the most recent storm on March tenth hit hardest in the area just to the south and east of Huntsville (Dorset - Dwight). They were still grooming most of those trails this past weekend, and riders are reporting the best conditions of the year in some places with very light traffic. There are bare roads where the trail runs a road, but that is only a few spots. There is still three to four feet of snow in the bush when you step off the trails!
Update, Sunday, March 23:
Happy Easter everyone!
There is some decent riding in our area here and there still as the thin snowcover slowly melts in the strong sunshine. The very cold nights have been helpful, and we could have great riding around my farm in East Aurora if I hadn't broken the motors on both my sleds last week!
GREAT STILL in Ontario! - - - there is still excellent riding on well groomed trails in central Ontario. There were many reports over the weekend of the best riding conditions of the year between Bracebridge, Huntsville, and Algonquin. There is still FOUR FEET of snow in the wooded areas! Although many roads have gone bare in the bright sun, all the woods trails are still great. There will be continued very cold night temperatures most of next week and it is even supposed to snow again for several days.
I would be on my way back up if I hadn't burned down my ZRT motors due to some mysterious simultaneous problem. (Low oil? Water in gas? Other mystery?)
Have fun with some of the latest spring riding in recent years if you can take off a few days for Canada!
Update, March 20, Noon:
We've had two to almost three inches of snow in the Folsom hills as of noon, with more light snow falling. I just did a drive around and found the trails and fields covered. I would not ride this afternoon, since it has been pretty warm and nothing is frozen up. Trails remain officially closed.
But tomorrow and Saturday may be another story. Temperatures will be dropping to the low 20's tonight and to 16 tomorrow and Saturday nights. If we hold the snow we have and things freeze up, there could be some riding this weekend. Certainly there will be ditch banging opportunities for locals and a chance for anyone who needs to try out a new sled at home. Check with the Folsom club website to see if they open the trails again after things freeze up tomorrow. I can see the call going either way.
Update, March 18, noon:
The Folsom area trails are again closed until further notice. Probably for the rest of the season, although there will be cold temps this weekend. But only a little snow is in the forecast.
I will be posting stories on this website off and on until next season. I'm especially interested in hearing from those of you who regularly go out of town to ride with your favorite destinations, favorite hotels & motels, and special tips for those who are new to Road Trip Snowmobiling. We'll try to develop a library of useful out of town riding information.
I expect to post trail reports again next year. But we now have two good sources for Folsom area trail reports. Since Mike took over the club website their trail reports are much better than in previous years. Maybe Mike and I will spell each other or check different parts of the trail system next year. One way or another there will be very good trail condition reports for the Folsom Trailblazers system next season!
On a personal note, after riding older ZRT 600 sleds for the past 12 years, I put down a deposit on a new Cat today. It's the first brand new sled I've ordered in a long time, and the first time I've ever done a spring "Snow Check" order where I'll have to wait six months to see my new toy! But I will be in the modern age next season with the latest in suspension technology - very exciting.
Update, March 17th, 9AM:
Because of last night's very cold temperatures, Folsom area trails have officially been opened again for one last day today. PLEASE stay off bare spots on fields in respect to land owners.
But you will find fair to good conditions in many areas. Get out there quick for one last ride before things warm up in the bright sun this afternoon! Hve fun. This is probably it. Some very cold weather coming again this weekend, but not much chance of worthwhile snow.
Update, March 16, Sunday, 1PM: todays pictures - better than we thought
Just got home from a trail check. Although many of us thought yesterday that the trails would be mostly gone today, it's not so. Click above to see pictures taken near Byrncliff two hours ago.
There was heavy cloud cover in the region all day yesterday, and that helped a lot. We lost much less snow than would otherwise have been the case. With below freezing overnight last night and a light new snow this morning, I would call the trails in the area fair to good early spring conditions. There will be slushy spots and some of the hilltops are going bare. But there's plenty of places you could play or test a new sled today and tonight it is getting quite cold (down to 19). Except for the hillsides and windblown hilltops, the trail base is still decent almost everywhere.
Tomorrow morning there could be some excellent riding. That said, the Folsom Club website has not updated since Mike called the club trails closed yesterday. Unless they update with a "limited - open" announcement, respect the club's request and stay off club trails, especially any thin to bare areas where you could tear up a landowner's crops or turf.
Update, March 16th, 9AM:
We're getting moderate snow showers here at our farm in East Aurora now, over a lightly frozen and crusty snow base after a night of slightly below freezing temperatures. We'll have good riding on our farm today. Ride at your own discretion on formal trails and respect land owners where trails are thin to bare. Most area clubs list trails as "closed", even though there are fair to good conditions still in many places.
Update, March 15th - about Done
Hello everyone. The Folsom Trailblazers club website calls their trails as closed unless more snow and colder temps indicate otherwise. So that's probably about it for formal riding in our area this year. There is still a fair amount of snow and trail base in the area, so you could ride with spring conditions (but not on Folsom Trails which are announced as closed). With forecast drop in temperatures, there will be some field riding for locals who want to play for about three more days.
We will be posting a few long trip reports and other stories of interest to snowmobilers here in the coming weeks. Check back if you're bored and in need of a snowmobiling "fix".
We expect to be maintaining this website again next year, though the recently improved trail reports on the Folsom Club website make us less important to the area. We'll likely do some trail reports and more human interest snowmobiling stories next year. I'm also interested in offering more detailed recommendations and trip reports to help people with less experience doing "road trips" plan their out of town snowmobiling. Personally, I've become more and more discouraged with snow conditions here in western New York. Meghan and I made three out of town riding trips this season and plan more next year.
Have a great off season and check back here now and then.
- Tom
Update, March 14, 2PM:
Click here for today's pictures. Conditions on the trails are going downhill in a hurry. You can see the slush starting to appear in the fields in some of the pictures. There are still fair to good spring riding conditions today, but slushy spots in low areas and bare spots on hill sides are quickly expanding.
Slightly below freezing temps are expected tonight, and even lower temps Saturday night and Sunday night, with high 30's during the day Saturday and colder Sunday, then high 30's and sun Monday. If the sun stays behind the clouds as expected this afternoon and Saturday and Sunday, I think there will be decent riding on the weekend, especially in the morning while it is still crusty from the cold nights.
Looks like the final big meltdown Tuesday through Thursday of next week.
Check the Folsom Trailblazers website for their trail reports and for info on when the trails are formally closed. Mike has been doing a nice job over there with trail reports recently. Their link is just above today's report here.
Update, March 13th:
Click here for today's pictures. Sorry no captions since I got in late from our trail tour, but I hope you recognize the spots in the pictures. I saw one sled on the trail and one trailer was in the Byrncliff lot. Plenty of snow on the trails still at noon today. There is more sun this afternoon than I had hoped from this morning's forecasts - not good for spring trail conditions. Worse, night time temps look to be only barely below freezing the next few days. So get out and enjoy while the trails last!
We may get a two day period of solid below freezing temps Saturday night into Monday morning, with Sunday night temps in the teens. If most of our base holds up over the weekend (some snow may fall on Sunday), Monday morning could be nice riding.
Then it's into the forty's daytime with cool nights early next week. Spring riding conditions may last into late next week locally. Longer on Tug Hill and perhaps to April 1st in much of Ontario and Quebec!
Update March 12th:
I'm sorry that Meghan and I have missed some of the most important trail reporting weeks with the trips we've taken this winter. We are back now and will post some more reports during the final weeks of this riding season.
Following are two trail reports from Mike Osinski, one of our readers. Thanks to Mike and we welcome reports from any of you out there.
Thanks Tom,
here's another update, rode to the park yesterday (tuesday) from Bliss, once you depart from the RR bed, the snow is thin and the conditions were fair, the park is groomed and in good condition. The RR bed is still in good to very good condition and the groomer was out around Bliss - Hermitage? area. Bottom line it's March 12 and were still riding on some good to very good conditions.
. Also, we received approx. 1-2" of snow last night The riding should be good on Wednesday.
- Mike
thanks - have a safe ride home.
And another report from Mike yesterday:
Tom,
rode last night, all major trails in the Arcade area were groomed - very good to excellent. Also, the RR bed is groomed from Freedom to Bliss and I'm told beyond. Chatted with sledders coming from the Park and they indicated all groomed, but conditions will fade fast with the warmer weather predicted. Also, rode the power line from Colden to Genesee Rd over to Sardina - groomed and very good.
- Mike
Looks like we still have some good spring riding! Although temperatures will be in the high 30's for the next few days, they drop back below freezing every night, and BEST OF ALL, it looks like it is going to be cloudy most of the time. The real killer at this time of year is bright sunshine. I'd guess there will be riding for at least the rest of this week, and maybe a little longer.
Oh, yeah. You want to know how the riding was for Meghan and I in Ontario the past few days? Sorry ladies and kids, there's no other way to put it but, "Fu*&in' Awesome!!!!". Just how awesome? Awesome enough that I almost don't care that a seized the motor on my ZRT just before we came home!
Update, March 8th:
Click here to see just a few pictures from the Folsom trail area today. There were just a few sled tracks on area trails by lunchtime, since some nasty sleet and ice pellets were coming down.
The Folsom club is down to just one groomer for this final weekend, since the 110 has a broken wheel or something. The big groomer was headed out to pack trail when I was out there in the middle of the day taking pictures. They were headed from Byrncliff over the hill to do the A&A railbed and back. Perhaps they'll get more done later tonight and tomorrow. It would be good to get as much packing of trails in as possible since temperatures were warm when this snow began and there is some wet snow under the newer powder from this afternoon. With cold temps tonight, anything that gets packed a bit will freeze up nicely.
I will miss what may be the last nice riding of the year here, since Meghan and I are headed up to Ontario looking for that last perfect ride of the year. Have fun and try to save us a little snow for when we get back before the next, and perhaps final meltdown!
Update, March 7, 3PM:
I did not drive out to look at trail conditions today, but a look out the window and at weather radar on the computer tells me good things are happening! Based on our ride yesterday, I can comfortably predict good riding from now right through the weekend, so long as you don't mind the blowing snow.
WATCH OUT for washouts and such on the trails!
Saturday looks to be pretty stormy, but I'm sure some will ride. The storm looks like it will calm down on Sunday and there should be good riding late in the day. The first half of next week should be good, until we hit another (final?) warmup the middle of to late in the week.
Update, March 6, 4PM: today's pictures here
Meghan and I rode from Byrncliff to Strykersville and back early this afternoon. Although many of the hilltop sections of trail were blown nearly bare, and cornfields and plowed fields were nasty, the ride in general was surprisingly good. Wooded sections were very good, since the blowing snow of the past few days has settled in any sheltered areas like the trail corridors. Field trails over smooth hay fields or along tree lines were also good to very good.
Check the pictures here for today's images. Temperature was 37 degrees at Byrncliff at the end of our ride, so the light snow cover was settling a little. But for the warmest part of the day, it was mostly cloudy and that helped keep most of the snow cover. With temperatures beginning to drop this afternoon to below freezing by this evening, I'd say you could ride tonight with generally fair conditions (good in quite a few places, poor in some).
The Local Riding Forecast:
We have a winter storm watch for our entire western New York area from Friday afternoon through the weekend. It is a tricky forecasting situation, with just a few degrees on Saturday spelling the difference between all snow or mixed sleet and even rain for part of the afternoon. Even with the worst case, we are likely to see nice riding conditions return from late Sunday through Monday and Tuesday, at least.
Best case scenario looks like a possibility of widespread snowfall of a foot or more by Sunday morning. With the long range forecast indicating above normal temperatures again by late in the week, this could be the final decent riding of the year - maybe the final riding period! So, groomer guys, I'd crank up the machinery Saturday night and Sunday night to show us some awesome trails for the few days after this storm!
Meghan and I are probably heading for Ontario Sunday afternoon to try and find one of those really great rides to end our season!
Update, March 5th, noon:
Click here for a few pictures from this morning near Byrncliff. We picked up only about an inch and a half to two inches of snow and ice pellets overnight, but the trails are covered and I think you could ride with fair to in some places good conditions right now. As I write early in the afternoon, we're getting a decent snow flurry. It's supposed to last only a short time, but it may give us the inch or so of good snow we need to have acceptable riding conditions later today and this evening.
More snow is forecast for Friday and Saturday, so a decent weekend is shaping up.
Update, March 4, 9PM: today's pictures here
Things are looking up! Check the album of pictures taken on the trail system late this morning. Although the snow almost completely disappeared from the area over the weekend, some base remained, including frozen ground on the actual trails. The dusting of snow during Monday night and early Tuesday morning covered that partially frozen base as you can see in the pictures. There's an especially interesting picture taken from a distance looking at C4B crossing a long field next to Bloecher Road. It shows how there is still a base even though it is very thin.
As of 9PM Tuesday night, an icy, granular precipitation is falling in East Aurora, and radar indicates the same over the trail system. It is not snow, but it is not sleet or ice, either. There's almost an inch already.
If this continues and then turns to snow tomorrow morning, we could be back in business on the Folsom trail system. Just two to three inches would be enough to ride considering the remnants of the frozen trail base shown in today's pictures! Keep your fingers crossed.
Update, March 4th:
What sucky timing! I guess it is a fitting part of a poor snowmobiling year that I'd go to Florida for ten days and most of that time would be acceptable riding here in western New York. Bummer! And just when I come home everything melts! Double bummer!
It does look like winter is returning with a vengeance the last half of this week and into next week, so we may get a bit more riding.
And the north country didn't melt as badly as we did here. Old Forge and Tug Hill will have riding again the rest of the week and beyond. And Ontario is expecting a major winter storm north of Orillia tomorrow on top of lots of snow left from late February.
We'll report more as we check our sources and we'll keep our fingers crossed for local riding.
Update, Tuesday, February 19th:
There hasn't been anything useful to report the past few days after Sunday's meltdown. The Folsom club website listed the trails as closed yesterday.
There is some hope for the lake effect coming down today, but it is spotty. With luck we could see riding conditions return by tomorrow morning, but it is no sure thing. I will be away on a trip to someplace warm for a change the next eight days, so check in with the Folsom Club website for trail conditions until I get home.
Road Trip Information:
In the meantime, maybe it's time for a road trip to real snowmobiling country. In case you haven't been on a road trip recently, I'll give you some information below about my favorite out of town destinations. The problem we face as snowmobilers here in western New York is that although we have a local tradition of snowmobiling, and we do get lake effect snow, we are really only on the very edge of real winter climate. Western New York simply doesn't get quite enough snow, and has thaws that are too frequent for us to be able to count on riding all winter. Lately it seems like one winter out of three strings together several good weeks in a row!
For those willing to drive five to ten hours, better snowmobiling conditions are available. The other lake effect snow regions within driving distance of western New York include upper Michigan with lake snows off Lake Superior and Lake Michigan; the Muskoka region of Ontario, with lake snow off of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay; Tug Hill and Old Forge with lake snow off Lake Ontario enhanced by the higher elevations of Tug Hill and the Adirondacks; and finally Quebec which has both higher elevation in the mountains, a more northern climate, and nearby bodies of water.
Since there are dozens and dozens of good snowmobiling destinations, I invite you readers to send in recommendations on specific places to go riding in the north. We'll try to collect some useful advice here. I have not ridden in Michigan, so I'll hope for a writeup from someone on that area.
Muskoka
When I go to Muskoka, I usually ride between Bracebridge and Huntsville. It's about a five hour drive from my place in East Aurora to Bracebridge. We stay at the Bracebridge "Sleep Inn" motel usually. (www.sleepinnssmarie.ca 705-645-2519) It's a clean, modern motel, right in the middle of Bracebridge with plenty of eating and drinking spots, and the main "D" trail goes right by the front door. Rates are a little under $100 per night.
You can find cheaper motels in the area, or if you want to splurge, the four star Deerhurst resort and conference center is just outside Huntsville and also right on the trails. Rooms at Deerhurst are $125 to $200 or more a night.
Trail permits in Ontario are required and are $90 for a three day pass (minimum - no one day passes anymore) or $235 for a season pass ($180 if you get it early) . Meghan and I usually spend three days in Muskoka and we plan on spending $850 to $1000 for everything, including gas to get there, snowmobile gas, permits, food, and motels.
Old Forge
Some people don't like Old Forge, since you can ride for free on nearby Tug Hill, and you have to pay for permits in Old Forge. Meghan and I prefer Old Forge, since the grooming is outstanding. Trails are groomed nightly by crews paid by the Town of Webb. Town of Webb permits are $45 a week, or $80 a season pass. (Town of Webb visitor center: 315-369-6983 www.oldforgeny.com )
Good motel choices include the Upscale Waters Edge, Clark's Beach Motel, or Christy's Motel where we stayed last week for only $60 a night during the week. Simple motel but very clean and welcoming. (Christy's Motel www.christysmotel.com 315-369-6138 )
We spent about $850 last week to ride three days in Old Forge, including all travel expenses up and back and our expenses and trail passes in Old Forge.
Quebec
This is a vast province of Canada, with many possibilities for great snowmobiling. Meghan and I traveled to the Mount Tremblant region of the Laurentian Mountains a few weeks ago when there was no snow at home. We stayed in St. Donat just outside the Mount Tremblant National Park. Other nearby towns friendly to snowmobiling include St Zennon and St Michael.
The first thing to remember if you're considering a Quebec trip is that it is FAR! We drove nine hours to get there and almost 12 coming home when we detoured through Montreal to sight see. St Donat is about 60 miles northeast of Montreal.
Trail passes in Quebec are $50 a day or $150 for a week. Gas in Canada and especially Quebec is expensive. We were paying over $4.50 a gallon for premium or plus grade.
We spent just over $1200 for a quick trip including 3 nights of motels and two days of riding. Of course if you stay longer, your per day cost will go down.
We stayed at the La Cuillere a Pot motel at a little over $100 a night. Rooms are clean but not very upscale. The bar and restaurant are excellent. They go out of their way to cater to snowmobilers. (We took the "basic" room; I recommend the extra $30 for their "deluxe" rooms.)
(819-424-2252 or 800-567-6704 - be prepared to wait on the line while they get Lee who speaks English! - La Pot website ) Quebec IS a "foreign country" - everyone really does speak French, though they are friendly and most businesses have staff that can speak enough English to take your order. Friendly people.
Theft? We've heard all the rumors about theft in Quebec. I talked to a lot of people, and although it does happen, I don't think it's much more of a problem there than anywhere else. Our theft deterrent plan is simple: we ride five or six year old sleds; we lock them together with a BIG chain and park them for the night right next to two brand new sleds locked up with a smaller chain or cable. Just try to encourage the thief to steal your neighbor's stuff instead of yours!
Summary:
We hope the above information is useful to folks who do not have experience traveling out of town to ride. Send in your report of your own road trip. We'll try to make a collection of specific recommendations from our readers. We'll post a more detailed report of one or more of our road trips soon!
Weekdays are best! The best snowmobiling destinations do get crowded on weekends, and even with perfect trail grooming every night, trails start to get beat up by noon many places. If like us, you can take off during the week, it's the way to go. Conditions are awesome during the week at all the places I've described above!
Update, February 16, 3PM: today's pictures here
Meghan and I rode much of the Folsom trail system today, beginning about 10:30 this morning. Check some pictures here.
We had a good ride with conditions ranging from fair + in the woods and on narrow trails to good and very good in field trails and on some trails that had been recently groomed.
By the time we finished this afternoon, with heavy traffic and strong sun on the trails, conditions had deteriorated a bit but were still fair in the woods and narrow trails to good and very good on most fields. (Fields facing the prevailing winds of this past week were blown thin and plowed fields were a bit bumpy. We still have only five inches or so of snow most places.)
If you're planning to ride tonight or early Sunday morning, conditions will be about what we experienced later this afternoon - fair to good.
We rode out of Byrncliff on S41 and C4B to Strykersville. Most of this ride was good to very good on the way out and getting a bit bumpier on the way back later this afternoon. Then we went on around C4A through Java and over to the A&A railbed trail. Conditions in Java were very good in nearly all fields and fair in the woods.
We checked out part of the A&A - a bit bumpy. A couple we met there said, "We've seen it worse." That's a good way to put it! We doubled back on S43 which is usually one of the smoothest trails on the system, but it was only fair today.
We checked out parts of C4 and C4B north of route #20A, and conditions there were generally good to very good with bumpy sections where the wind had blown snow off the hilltops.
So get out and ride tonight. Temperature will be in the mid teens tonight, allowing good riding again early Sunday, but with rapidly rising temperature Sunday going all the way up to the mid forties.
It's President's Weekend - if I were planning the grooming, I'd go out tonight so we'd have a great half day tomorrow. Three quarters of the trails I rode today would benefit from a groomer pass. The remaining quarter is too thin in snow for it to do any good. So I can understand that the guys may choose not to invest the time in grooming, since we're only going to get in half a day tomorrow.
Update, February 15 (Friday), 9PM: (night pictures here)
We just got home from Old Forge (great conditions and perhaps a record number of sleds for President's Weekend shaping up). We stopped at Byrncliff and checked out some of the surrounding trails on our way home. You should have decent riding in this area over the weekend, especially Saturday and early Sunday morning before another of our nasty warm ups arrives for a brief visit Sunday afternoon.
There were no trailers at Byrncliff when we stopped at about 7PM, but there were quite a few local riders buzzing around on sleds and about a half dozen parked at the resort. There were groomer tracks on trail S41 near Byrncliff, so at least some of the trails have been groomed in spite of the thin snow cover on the ground. I'd estimate the snow depth at 3" to 5" in the area, though it varies a lot because of all the wind the past few days.
The cold temperature today and tonight has put a nice crust on the snow we have, which should make for some fast riding in the morning! I'd call the trail conditions generally good to very good where the groomers have been, but watch out for thin and icy spots and perhaps a few water and mud holes still open.
We'll give you a much more detailed report early Saturday afternoon. Stay tuned.
(weather will suck Sunday afternoon through Monday lunch time. Then colder weather and more snow arrives for much of next week.)
Update, February 12th:
With wind subsiding a bit and some decent snowfall in the forecast for the next day or two, our trails should be looking pretty good by Wednesday and for the rest of the week!
Update, February 10:
I drove out through the Varysburg area this morning to check the trails. It is a miserable day to be outdoors all across western New York! Lots of blowing and drifting snow and frequent white-out conditions. There were a few hardy cross country skiers at Byrncliff, but no trailers or sleds and no visible tracks. There has been very little new snow since Friday, but the high winds have blown some fields bare or nearly bare and dumped the snow in other places. There is still slush showing here and there in low areas, though that should freeze up fast in today's conditions with plunging temperature in the area.
Riding conditions would be fair today if you want to torture yourself out in this weather. Trails generally snow covered except on open fields, with mud holes and slush here and there.
We need snow with less wind to really put the trails back in shape. That looks like it might be Tuesday. I'd plan rides beginning Tuesday night and Wednesday if I were you. We might have that long awaited period of extended decent riding from Wednesday on for the next week or more!
Update, February 8, 9:30PM:
Hi guys,
We just checked out Byrncliff on our way home from a few days in Quebec (awesome!!).
Byrncliff was a ghost town - nobody there at all. There is 2 to 3 inches of snow on the ground with a temperature of 32 degrees. There had been two sleds through on the thin snow covered trail. Riding conditions Saturday morning, if you can't wait, will be thin snow, early season like, with plenty of slush and water holes on the trails. Temperature rising during the day with possible rain. Stay off the trails unless you are desperate.
We need some more snow and real cold temperatures to freeze things up. Which we will get, starting tomorrow night into Sunday! Sounds like a decent dump of lake snow on Sunday and more snow daily all of next week.
And now, to make you feel real bad, here's a picture I took yesterday in Mont-Tremblant National Park north of Montreal:
Update, February 5th:
Nothing I can say. This sucks!
I do not want you to hate me, but since we're in a summer business and I don't have a regular work schedule, Meghan and I are loading up and heading to St Donat north of Montreal for the rest of the week. We'll bring you back pictures! Bye, Bye!
Update February 4th: pics here
Even though it's very warm today, it's been a couple of days since we've seen the trails, so we drove out for a look after lunch. There are only a few sled tracks here and there, which is good. Better to stay off the trails in these very marginal conditions.
But you could go for a little ride in spring conditions if you were desperate. Check the photo's taken today here. There is some base left in most places. I took a ride around my farm when I got home. I live in East Aurora, and our conditions are similar to those on the Folsom trail system. I had a good time testing out some new suspension adjustments on my ZRT.
Still bad news for the next few days, including the possibility of very heavy rain and possible large scale flooding tomorrow night and Wednesday. Sorry.
Update, February 1st:
I don't plan to go out and look at the trails today myself, but the weather news ain't good, as you can all see for yourselves. There is still a small chance, getting smaller with each forecast, of enough snow tonight to allow "limited conditions" riding over the weekend.
Next week looks even worse than it did yesterday.
Can you spell "N-O-R-T-H B-A-Y"?
Update February 2nd:
There is a very light snow cover on the trails. Conditions are poor - marginal. And not looking any better for the next four or five days. Sorry.
Update January 31, 1PM:
Good News! (No, there are NOT good riding conditions right now - most area trails are either officially or unofficially closed for lack of snow.) The GOOD NEWS is that because of the very heavy traffic last weekend packing the base before the thaw, a packed base survived the rain and meltdown in most places. Check today's pictures HERE.
Without this base, we'd need much better snow in the coming days before we could ride. With the base, almost any new snow will allow us to get out and ride. Some snow is coming over the next 24 hours - maybe quite a bit, if the rain stays south of here. Keep your fingers crossed.
The Outlook:
Best guess on the outlook for riding is that there will be snow on the trails tomorrow (Friday), but it will be a messy, sleeting, slushy day and not fun for riding. A mild freeze Friday night should set us up for fair riding conditions on Saturday and Sunday.
Then a near carbon copy of this past week arrives next Monday and Tuesday with a big warmup followed by falling temperature and more snow by Wednesday and Thursday. Hopefully there will still be a base on the trails at that time.
We are right about at the time of year when real winter arrived last season. There's still hope for a prolonged period of good trail conditions.
Update, January 29, noon:
Fu'get about it! Warm now, rainy overnight, very windy tomorrow with not much snow likely, and off and on warm periods over the next week. There is a slight chance of significant lake snow on Friday night, but more likely rain - snow mix. Start thinking about road trips for sledding. Bummer.
Update, January 28, 10AM:
There was extremely heavy sled traffic over the weekend because of the Folsom Dice Run and vintage sled show. Riding conditions this morning are fair. Meghan and I went for a short ride covering the trails radiating from Byrncliff early this morning. The base is hard packed with small stutter bumps widespread. There is a base, and you can certainly get in a decent ride today. There are only a few bare spots here and there. More frequently there is dirty packed snow from the very thin base. Some fields have developed stutter bumps and small moguls, while others remain pretty smooth. Nearly all woods trails and narrow spots are bumpy.
There were four or five trailers unloading at Byrncliff when we pulled out a little before ten AM. Have fun. Keep your fingers crossed that the rain forecast tonight is not too heavy. Please stay off the trails Tuesday. Wednesday will be cold again with some snow (high winds?).
NOTE: C4 trail just east of Byrncliff heading towards Varysburg is CLOSED today because of utility construction work.
Update, January 27, Sunday, 4PM: - pictures from today
Congratulations to the Folsom Trailblazers club for catching a slam-dunk of a day for their Dice Run and Vintage Sled event. The sun was out for much of the day, no wind, and temps just below freezing. Lots of sleds and spectators showed up and everyone was having a good time while we were there. (What a difference from last year, when the event was run in a snow squall!)
Trail conditions were good to very good wherever we looked at lunchtime. I have not talked to any groomer guys so I'm not sure what might have been done over Friday night, but it appeared that at least some of the trails were groomed again since my report yesterday. In any case, they looked very good, with a few bumps near corners and road crossings as you would expect with the heavy weekend sled traffic. No doubt there are also bumpy areas in the woods. Field trails looked very good.
With a firm base, I would expect conditions to still be pretty good tonight if you're thinking of heading out late. Temperature is going down to about 20 overnight, so there will be decent riding Monday morning if you're off. Meghan and I are going out for a while in the morning.
As you all probably know, temperatures are expected to soar to near 50 on Tuesday. I hope everyone stays off the trails on Tuesday since it is going to quickly get cold again Tuesday night. Riding should be good again the rest of the week, with next weekend possibly bringing another warming trend. Be grateful for the past week - real winter has not set in for the long term yet.
Update, January 26, Saturday, 2PM: pictures from today
Today's riding conditions are fair to very good in some places. There is very heavy sled traffic today. (All lots at Byrncliff were full by 11AM, with many trailers - mine included - parking along the street) With the heavy traffic, the trails are very hard packed and showing bumps where you would expect. Many field trails are still very good. The A&A rail bed section of C4 was groomed several times at the end of the week and it was holding up surprisingly well as of 1PM.
I rode the Byrncliff - Strykersville - A&A - back to Byrncliff loop and some of C4 north of #20A late this morning through lunch time. I had a decent ride. Conditions with the very heavy traffic this afternoon and probably even more later today and tonight will beat the trails up more as the day wears on. But the base is already so thin and so firm now that conditions will not get a lot worse. Nearly all the Folsom trail system was groomed Thursday night or Friday, so the base began the weekend in good condition. If you're thinking of coming out tonight (Saturday night), I would expect much of your ride to still be good conditions. Check today's picture album to get a better idea of what to expect.
Light snow is expected to fall for much of the afternoon - not enough to change anything, but enough to keep the trails white!
The predicted Monday - Tuesday "thaw" looks like it will be brief, with only Tuesday looking very warm (45 degrees). If everyone stays off the trails Tuesday, it will help us maintain our present thin base. Possible significant lake effect coming again Tuesday night and Wednesday. We should be back in action quickly! Click here for today's pictures.
Update, January 25. 12:30: - pictures
I was very torn about whether or not to ride myself today. I really enjoy freshly groomed trails and wanted to get out before the weekend crowds. But I rode a lot the past two days and my senior citizen body is showing a little wear and tear. With the weather forecast calling for blowing snow, I figured I'd pass it up today.
But many others haven't. Check the pictures here: both lots at Byrncliff were nearly full of trailers by noon, and there was already moderate to heavy traffic on the trails. Lots of guys calling in sick! You should still have good or better riding conditions most places later today, but it is already hard to tell that the groomers were out recently. With all the blowing and drifting snow, and the heavy traffic, the trails will be covered with loose snow and soft drifting moguls.
Add in the fact that a band of moderate lake effect has settled in late this morning right over the Folsom trail system. The weather service has changed their forecast and upped the predicted snow to 3" to 5" for the afternoon. Watch out for near white-outs in the heavier snow slurries and wind gusts. Have fun - I wish I was out there with you again today!
Update, January 25, 9AM:
Let 'r Rip, boys! Folsom groomer operator, Jim, talked to us by phone this morning and reports that "everything south of #20A was groomed again last night". Along with my first hand report of good to very good yesterday, I expect you will have great conditions on the Folsom trail system if you ride today. Have fun.
Update January 24, 6PM:
Late word is that the trails in Strykersville that had not been groomed by this afternoon may get done tonight. Also, several bursts of briefly heavy lake snow have been popping up in the Varysburg - Strykersville area this afternoon and this evening. I've had calls reporting about 2" of fresh snow on the trails late this afternoon.
Update, January 24, Thursday, 4PM: - pictures
Thinking of riding the Folsom Trailblazers trails tonight? Conditions are generally good to very good, considering the still thin base on most trails. With all the snow that fell yesterday, you might be surprised to hear that there's still a thin base, but the snow that fell was a very light, fluffy powder and does not pack well. But we'll take it!
Some people involved in the grooming decisions considered not grooming for a couple more days to let the new powder settle. That would have been a defensible decision. But I am glad that the choice was made to hit the trails right away. Yes, they will break down again quickly. Yes, they will need to be done over soon. And yes, we need more snow. But the good grooming effort last night and today will help pack a base and was well worth doing in my opinion.
I offer applause for the Folsom groomer guys. They have put in a huge effort yesterday and today to do the best they can to take advantage of this new snow. Most of the system has seen one pass of a groomer in the past 24 hours, and some sections like the A&A rail bed have had several passes. I couldn't ask for more.
Meghan and I rode from Byrncliff east through Varysburg and down the A&A to North Java and Java. All of that had been groomed by mid afternoon. From Java Center through the trailer camp ground to Strykersville on C4A had not been groomed when we rode through in early afternoon. It was not bad, but could use a groomer pass.
From the west side of Strykersville near the Red Apple gas stop, a groomer had been through the woods and up over the hill to S43 and had groomed all of S43 back to C4A.
We did not ride the north side of #20A and the Bennington loop, but we saw the fresh groomer tracks headed north of #20A on both C4 and C4B, so much of the north side has been done.
I also compliment the groomer guys for making a good effort to groom the connecting trails heading to the adjacent club trails. Jim has twice mentioned hitting the trail heading towards Rock Glen, and today the Folsom part of C3C heading south towards Arcade was freshly groomed right up to the end of the Folsom trails where the "Drift Hoppers " take over.
Summary: Lots of drifts and powder can be found along the trails if you like to play. Much of the system is freshly groomed, though moderate traffic this afternoon and expected heavy traffic tonight will beat the trails up pretty quickly. Those of you going out tonight should have good rides! Send in your reports if you have time. Do expect to see some grass and leaves kicked up here and there where the groomers have been over thin snow. (See some of the pictures in today's album here)
Update, January 23, 6PM: Todays Pictures click here
Meghan and I rode all of the Folsom Trailblazers system south of #20A this afternoon. Conditions ranged from fair to very good. Some places in the woods where the trail is narrow and everyone's pounding the same track are pretty thin and rough. Most field trails are good to very good, especially if you like drifting through six inches of fresh powder and hitting drifts the way I do. Whoooo-hooooo!
Heading east out of Byrncliff on trail C4 and then C4A, we found good ungroomed conditions to the A&A railbed trail. Jim had groomed that last night, and it was still pretty good this afternoon. C4A through North Java, Java, and over to Strykersville was good on the fields but pretty rough in the woods. An exception was the section through the trailer park which was very good in the woods.
Cutting across S43 from C4A to C4B near Strykersville was very good, since it is mostly field trail with good snow cover. Jim lives not far from this trail and measured snow in his yard from 13" to 17". I checked snow depth when I stopped in a field on C4B and there was a solid 12" plus where I measured and it is still coming down as I write.
C4B and S41 heading from Stykersville back to Byrncliff were getting a little rough in some places by the end of the afternoon. There were a lot of guys calling in sick today apparently! The lower lot at Byrncliff was full of trailers. There were lots of sleds parked by the resort, and over in Strykersville, the parking lot at the Pub was full of sleds when we pulled in. Most riders we spoke with felt conditions on the trails were fair to pretty good. Although there is a big difference in conditions from place to place, I'd give it a "good ride" rating on average.
CLICK HERE for pictures from today's ride.
There is definitely enough snow to start running the groomers. Because the new snow is powder, you could argue that it would be good to let it settle a day or two. But with the pretty heavy traffic today, the sleds have packed down a lot of the powder. I say get the groomers moving. I have unofficial reports that the Folsom Club may be grooming Strykersville tonight; Byrncliff to the A&A and out towards Rock Glen tomorrow, and Java Thursday night. We'll report definitely when it happens.
Adam Leas sent in the following report from his ride Tuesday night:
Tom,
Put on almost 100 miles in what I think was probably
the same loop your buddy's did last yesterday, but we
did it from 5:30 - midnight. Some wooded areas and
Holland were pretty beat. Everything else was well
worth the drive out to Byrncliff from West Seneca to
drop.
We left North Java Inn a little after midnight. I'd like to thank
Jim for leveling out the A&A, we ran into him just as
he came out of the rail bed, and we were on cloud 9 for
the next 2 miles.
- Adam
Update, January 22, 8PM:
I just had a nice phone call from Folsom groomer operator, Jim S., reporting continuing heavy snow on the Folsom trail system tonight. He and some friends put in 100 miles of riding today around the Folsom system from Byrncliff through Java and Strykersville, then down through Chaffee and Arcade and up through Holland and back through Wales Center. He said riding was decent everywhere and especially in the Chaffee - Arcade - Holland area where there was a little more snow.
Jim reports that most of the Folsom system he rode today was in decent condition with the exception of some of the wooded sections that were pretty thin. Also some nearly bare spots on windy hilltops, as we reported earlier today. Jim also said the "A&A" railbed trail was getting pretty moguled up today, but he is leaving in an hour with one of the groomers to work that over.
If it keeps snowing all night in our area, as it may, we should be in pretty good shape and have enough snow to start grooming the whole system. Jim said he'd call in another report tomorrow. Good job, Jim!
Update, January 22, 6PM:
We drove through part of the trail system near Byrncliff today. There was one trailer in the Byrncliff lot when we drove by. The few inches of snow that fell yesterday was very wind blown. There looks to be good snow cover on some trails and others through hilltop fields are blown nearly bare. We'd rate riding conditions at fair to good still, with more snow needed.
A good snow fall is expected tonight, but with high winds again it may not settle on the parts of the trails where it is needed most. A little more is due tomorrow with lighter winds, so conditions should improve by Wednesday night and Thursday.
Update, January 21, 1:30PM:
We just had a phone call from one of the Folsom Groomer drivers, Jim, and another from a friend of Meghan's. I thought we'd pass along a little more information. Jim reports heavy snow continuing in the area. He and friends rode yesterday through much of the Folsom trails and down to the Milestone in Chaffee. They had a pretty good ride. Meghan's friends yesterday rode successfully from Java over through Springville and Concord. Although the snow is still pretty thin, it is widespread and people are riding. Jim also told me he had friends who rode down Chatauqua yesterday and were in one to two feet of snow.
Snow continues to fall in Old Forge so conditions should start to be pretty good there after they clean up from the weekend crush - lots of riders were there over this holiday weekend.
Muskoka is also getting snow and opening some trails as limited, but they still need some more snow. Things are getting better, though.
Update January 21, noon:
Meghan and I just returned from a long driving check on most of the Folsom trail system. Riding conditions today are fair to good. There has been quite a bit of traffic over the weekend with little new snow, so the trails are hard packed on a thin base. The good news is that with this thin packed base and very cold weather over the weekend, we now have a well frozen trail foundation. Looks like four to five inches of snow most places - more where it has drifted in, less where it blows on the hilltops.
More Snow Falling now!
Although there was little snow on the Folsom trail system over the weekend, light to moderate snow was falling steadily all morning as we checked the trails and it continues as I write. Radar shows the lake effect plume to be extending right over the Java - Strykersville - Varysburg riding area this morning and showing little movement. We should pick up more snow than the weather reports expected today!
We saw only one sled on the trails as we inspected this morning, but there were 14 trailers in the Byrncliff lots when we were there just before noon, so some of you are taking advantage of the Monday holiday. The snow this morning is coming down in big fluffy flakes, so it's very pretty out.
Below: trail C4A behind the Strykersville Pub
Below: looking north from Minkel Road on S43A
Update, January 19th, 1PM:
We drove out to Bryncliff and checked trails about an hour ago. A light snow had fallen and more was coming down, but we're still looking at less than 6" on most of the Folsom trails. There were three sleds parked in front of Byrncliff and two trailers in the lot. Conditions are fair in some areas to good on some of the field trails. Mud and slush holes are beginning to freeze up with the dropping temperatures. You could certainly get in a ride this afternoon. It will get better every day for the coming week.
Looks like scattered lake effect throughout western NY over the next several days. Varysburg to Strykersville area should get some. Looks like slightly more as you go a little more south towards Holland and Arcade - we'll see.
ROAD TRIPS? - Muskoka region in Ontario just opened up again with "limited" conditions. Bracebridge area where we often ride is under a heavy snow warning this afternoon - yippee! Old Forge is starting to groom again this weekend and will be getting snow every day for most of the coming week. Tug Hill may get as much as three feet over the next two days! WINTER IS BACK!
Update, January 17th:
No real news today - we're treading water with early season conditions. Temps in the mid 30's aren't helping, but at least it's been cloudy most of the day so not too much of our thin base has melted.
From tonight on temperature will be dropping steadily with some snow daily. Trails should be rideable and getting a little better every day through the weekend. Possible lake snow on the weekend, so we may even see some grooming when the winds calm down Sunday and Monday. Fingers crossed for good luck, everyone!
Update, January 16th:
Hello everyone. People were out riding the trails last night and a few this morning, with conditions from fair to good. There is more snow in West Seneca, Cheektowaga, and East Aurora than there is on much of the Folsom trail system. Byrncliff got only perhaps another inch since noon yesterday.
Conditions on the hay fields are quite good, with adequate snow cover except in low wet spots. But without any frozen base, you'll be running through water, slush, and mud holes frequently today and tonight, and again Thursday when it will be warmer. More snow along with much colder temperatures arrives Friday night, so we should have decent riding on the weekend.
Click here for some useful pictures of today's trail conditions.
Update, January 15, noon:
Hello everyone,
We've got good news and bad. The good news is that a bit more snow than expected came down last night and this morning and it's still snowing lightly in some areas. Although we have five inches at my place in East Aurora, we carefully measured only four in the Byrncliff parking area at 11am this morning and about three inches in Strykersville at the Red Apple. There's snow cover on all the fields and trails and everything looks nice and white.
Bad News: The snow came down over very warm, wet ground. Nothing is frozen up. The picture below looking south from Armbrust Road is typical of many low spots on the trails and in fields - note the large areas of slush.
More Good News is that temperatures will plunge Friday and over the weekend and we may get a good lake effect event on Friday and Friday night. We can only hope that the ground and base freeze up before a big dump of snow. And that's no sure thing, with a brief warm up to 40 coming on Thursday, and the ground insulated by the current snow cover.
So should you ride? It will be messy in the current conditions with so much slush and mud under the thin snow cover. BUT, I would encourage the eager riders to get out on the trails over the next two days and beat them down. That way when it gets cold at night, especially early Friday before possible major snow, the base can start to freeze. If no one rides, the ground will be slower to freeze up and we could have a mess with heavier snow over an unfrozen base.
Click here for a few more pictures from this morning.
Update, January 5, 8PM:
Congrats to those of you who got in a ride on thin snow today. Meghan and I stayed home and rode on our farm in East Aurora where we've still got snow cover as of tonight.
With temperature staying above freezing overnight and rising to near 50 tomorrow, we can say goodbye to any riding for the next week. Looks like colder weather will return at the very end of next week, so hope for the best then.
We will not post another update until snow returns. Check back Thursday and we may have an idea of what's in store for us.
Update, January 4th 9am:
We may post another update later today. Conditions should be similar to those reported for yesterday, although some additional snow fell overnight. Here's a report from Patty, who rode the trails after we did Thursday evening:
"Hi Tom,
I just wanted to Email you quick and let you know how our ride went.
We just got back about an hour ago at 10pm from Byrncliff.
We headed down the way you told us to- from Byrncliff to Strykersville
and back. We clocked it at about 32 miles. We agree, the riding was
fair to good in areas. Open corn fields were the real difficult areas
because of the furrows and such. The other issue was the wooded areas.
Because of the minimal snowfall thus far, these areas didn't get hit
with as much snow with the overhanging trees which made those trails
slick with ice and rocky. I would say if you go out riding just BE
CAREFUL and drive slow. The open fields have lots of small streams in them
that are not frozen over and it's easy to come zinging along and land
yourself in them. Otherwise, for those of us that ARE desperate, the
riding was A-Okay. Many hay fields were nice and snow covered for a
smooth ride. The good news was it snowed a little here and there the whole
time we were out and when we were loading up to come home the snow had
picked up and was coming down pretty hard. Anyway, it was more than
worth it, we were happy to get at least one short ride in before the
giant meltdown this upcoming week and I only got a few chips in the new
skis this time around. I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed the forecast is
WRONG.
Patty (and Rick)
PS- When we pulled into the parking lot today at Byrncliff Rick said.
"Oh look, at least we're not the only idiots riding the trails today-
there's one other snowmobile trailer here." It turned out it was you and
Meghan. HAHA!! :)"
Update, January 3rd:
Click here for pictures from the ride Meghan and I had on the trails this afternoon. Conditions were fair to good in a few places. The snow is thin, with grass showing through most places where sleds have gone. The cornfields and other rough ground were bad! Some hay fields or trails where snow drifted along a tree line were very good. We rode from Byrncliff to Strykersville and back, and it was a workout. But it is ridable, and it's the best you're going to see for at least another week. Conditions should hold about the same through late Saturday morning, with the already thin snow even thinner as it gets more traffic.
One of the pictures in today's album shows Patty and Rick who drove all the way down from their homes on the shores of Lake Ontario to get in a ride. They knew conditions would be marginal, since they are regular readers of this website. (Thanks for your nice words about our reports, guys!) When asked why they drove so far for these conditions, they said, "Hey, we're desparate! We've got nothing to ride on at home."
Also, we welcome the Holland SnoRascals to this website as link partners. We are glad to have clubs link to this site. Even though we concentrate on reports for the Folsom Trailblazers club trail system, snow condition reports from this site should also be pretty good for adjacent trail systems.
Soon we will add a page to this site with links to many other trail condition websites.
Update, January 2nd, 1PM:
The trail system got maybe an inch or two of new snow since yesterday. There's from 3" to 5" on the ground, with considerable variation because of blowing snow. At least the ground is covered most places now, and the cold temperatures are freezing things up. If you ride, use GREAT CARE watching out for ditches and washouts that are concealed by very light blown powder snow.
Conditions today though Saturday morning will be fair to very good in some field trails that have good snow cover. There will be wet and muddy spots as the thin snow is quickly beaten into wet areas not yet well frozen. Very few riders have been out yet, but that will quickly change Friday night and Saturday as riders try to get in a quick one before the huge meltdown coming Sunday through Tuesday. If there is much traffic, the thin snowcover will become very thin and hard.
Click here for pictures taken on the trail system today.
Update, January 1, 2008:
As of noon, New Year's day, only an inch or so of additional snow had fallen on the Folsom trail system. A very few riders had been through trail C4 and the Byrncliff parking area. See pictures from today here.
Temperatures have been hovering above freezing so the base is not well frozen at all and many washouts remain from the flooding last week. If you go out (not recommended), ride with care. Riding conditions today would be poor to fair, with many wet and muddy spots.
Things may change significantly for the better overnight with plummeting temperature and several more inches of snow. Some places will get 4 to 8 inches, but the forecast maps do not favor the Folsom trail system for the heaviest snow. Fingers crossed, all!
Riding should be decent early season conditions Wednesday through Saturday morning, with the coldest temperatures of the year freezing things up nicely Wednesday and Thursday.
Sadly, we are looking at near record high temperatures from Sunday through at least next Tuesday. We may be back to square one then. Bummer. Ride this week.
Update, December 31st, 1PM:
The trail system picked up a light coating overnight. Meghan and I took a ride around the system by car and there's about two inches of snow most places. Riding conditions would be poor because of the recent warm temperatures. There are already wet spots showing in low areas, the ground is not frozen, and you'll be spitting snirt anyplace you try to ride. But at least the ground is mostly white! Click here for today's pictures.
Things are looking up for the next few days, but only a few, sadly. Possibly heavy snow for a little while now and then over the next few days and very cold temperatures by Wednesday. We might have some decent early season riding Wednesday through Saturday morning. Maybe even by noon Tuesday, but things will not have frozen up until late Tuesday night when the temperature drops.
Big warm-up likely by the weekend, with temperature rising to near 45 by Sunday afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed the the weather boys are wrong.
Update, Dec. 30th:
Happy almost New Years, guys. Keep your fingers crossed for maybe just a little more snow in the next few days than they are predicting. I'll do an update only when it seems like we've got ridable conditions - maybe New Year's day????
Looks like both Tug Hill/ Old Forge and the Muskoka region in Ontario will be ridable this week if you want travel.
Update, December 26:
With more snow at our farm in East Aurora than on the trail system, Meghan and I had a nice little ride at home this morning. We did drive out to the Byrncliff area and verified the already reported poor trail conditions there. See new pictures from today. Long range weather indicates even worse trail conditions the rest of this week on the Folsom trail system, then a possible small lake effect event and very cold temperatures New Year's day and a day or two after, with a chance that we'll get a few days marginal riding in. Then NOAA is predicting a return to above normal temperatures late that week :(
With considerable snow in Old Forge and Muskoka, Ont, and slightly colder temperatures both places, looks like some of us will be prepping our trailers for road trips!
Update Christmas Day:
The Folsom trails did NOT get any more snow after yesterday morning. There seems to be about two inches of snow most places - grass showing through in the fields. I had been hoping for a marginal ride tomorrow morning before it warms up but that doesn't look likely. I'd rate conditions as poor - barely ridable. There is considerably more snow where I live in East Aurora and near the city. Sorry.
Update, Dec. 24:
Hello everyone, and Merry Christmas! We did a drive around of parts of the Folsom trail system about noon today. If you're desperate, you could ride, but I'd call it poor to fair conditions. It looked like about 2 - 3 inches of snow on average, but it was being blown around by strong winds and there was anything from decent snow near woods and wind breaks to nearly bare fields. I'll try to get another report late Christmas day to see if any more significant snow fell. Does not sound like it from the weather reports. Here's a link to pictures taken around the trail system today.
BEST CHANCE TO RIDE? Wednesday morning early. It sounds like Christmas night will be calm and partly clear with quite cold temperatures, so whatever snow we have then will be nicely crisp and mud holes may have frozen over. Temps will quickly rise Wednesday, to 40 or over, and then will be only slightly below freezing at night and well into the 30's or 40's daytime the rest of the week.
Sorry there's not better news!
Update, Dec. 23rd:
Well, the trails are out of business at least for a matter of hours. The big melt down started slowly, but by this morning (Sunday), all the creeks and streams are really ripping and low spots in the fields are either lakes or rivers. There's a little snow left here and there, but much of the system is down to bare ground. Good news is that the cold front is just now blowing through and temperatures will be back to the freezing range in a few hours. But you know that from watching TV!
Keep your fingers crossed that the lake effect machine sets up in the right areas to replenish our snow! Another important issue will be how much damage was done to the trails and bridges by flooding. Be very careful if you are one of the early ones back out on the trails after we get more snow!
Update, December 21:
I had a nice ride around my farm in East Aurora this morning. Crisp temperatures and sunshine made for fun riding. I did an inspection of some of the Folsom trails by car. Pictures at this link. Riding conditions ranged from fair early season (mud holes and washouts see this link) to good to very good in some places. Those who made it out this morning while it was still cold had a pretty good ride. Conditions will go down hill for the rest of the weekend. I would say that if you've had to work all week and just have to get out and give 'er a rip on Saturday, riding will be OK for a little while Saturday morning, but temps are not likely to drop below freezing tonight, so it may be a bit slushy already in the morning and much worse by mid day. Riding tonight (Friday night) will also be a bit slushy and muddy, but better than nothing. As of 3PM Friday, it is already nearly 40 degrees.
Weather still looks promising for Christmas week if the trails aren't totally washed out by Sunday's rain.
Update, December 20th:
Bad news. Weekend weather forecasts are coming into agreement that we can expect a significant rain event with temperature rising into the 50's for a while Sunday. There may be enough rain and snow melt for significant flooding. Hope we don't lose bridges so carefully repaired during the fall. We will lose much of our present snow base.
RIDE FRIDAY MORNING if you want to get out once more before the warm weekend! Below freezing temperatures tonight should make for fair to good early season conditions Friday morning. See my picture link below for an idea of what you can expect on the Folsom trails.
Good news: With a little luck on the timing of a powerful cold front coming through sometime Sunday afternoon or evening, we may get a decent lake effect event Sunday night and Monday, making for a white Christmas and snow on the trails again. Too bad the ground will be so warm and wet from the Saturday - Sunday rain:(
Keep your fingers crossed that the rain is less than predicted and the lake snow event a strong one. Temperatures look to be below freezing for much of next week, but not the arctic cold that we need to properly freeze up the trails.
Update, December 19th: click here for today's pictures
Meghan and I took our sleds on a short ride this morning as the trails officially opened. We rode from Byrncliff up over the hill to the Red Apple in Strykersville, around through the village and back up over the hill. Conditions were fair to quite good first thing in the morning and got slushier and wetter as the day warmed up. It was early season riding conditions with many wet spots and open mud holes. The field trails were generally good to very good.
I met a couple of guys at the Red Apple gas stop in Strykersville. They had just ridden up from Arcade and they reported the riding had been "pretty good for this time of year" all the way up.
No grooming on the loop we rode, but Jim S. , one of the Folsom club groomer operators told me he went out right after the club meeting last night and groomed from Byrncliff up over the other hill through Varysburg and all the way down the A&A rail bed trail, so that should be pretty good today, so long as it doesn't get too beat.
Early Season Grooming - "To Groom or not to groom, that is the question":
There are some good arguments for keeping the groomers parked until the base freezes up and we have a little more snow. I understand that. But I also believe that the larger more successful clubs should do everything possible to get a groomer around all their trails on the opening day of the official riding season. Today was a good example. There were many spots on the trails where a groomer would do no good, or perhaps even harm the trail by tearing it up. But more than half the trails could have benefited from a groomer pass. More important is the public relations benefit from letting early bird riders see that the clubs are committed to grooming.
I am glad that Jim got part of the Folsom system groomed for opening day. I wish more had been done. Looks like we won't really have suitable conditions for grooming again for another few days.
Click here for a photo album of December 19th pictures
Thanks to Don at A - Z Enterprise (Corner of Rte #77 and rte #20A - 585-535-7003) for doing some pre-season work on my sleds at very reasonable rates. I've always been a satisfied customer of Jancen's and I will continue to be. But since Jancen is often backed up a week or two in the shop, it's good to know that A - Z is available to do sled work and that they are located right on the Folsom trail system. Don got me right in when I needed work. Quick work - very fair prices.
Update, December 18th:
Meghan and I just did a drive around of parts of the Folsom trail system. There should be very good early season conditions when the trails open tomorrow morning. There's generally 6 to 10 inches of snow on the ground. Riders have behaved themselves and stayed off the trails until now, so they are not beat up at all in most places. A groomer has been out a little right near Byrncliff, but most parts of the trail system, especially out towards Java and Strykersville where we drove, are untouched snow. If you go out tomorrow (I am!) watch out for open ditches and thin ice on mud holes. We had a little very cold weather last week, but not enough to really properly freeze up the base.
If you want to ride this week, get 'r done the next few days. Temps in the 40's coming Saturday and Sunday. I'm looking at tomorrow morning (Wednesday) and Friday morning being the best riding times, while things are still frozen from the night time temperatures.
Long term looks like it might cool off again after the weekend for Christmas week - keep your fingers crossed. Click here for an album of pictures from this morning and yesterday around the trail system.
Update December 16: As you all know, we didn't get quite the storm that was predicted. But there's snow enough so that we'll be riding when the trails open this week! Keep your fingers crossed that the "rain or snow" coming Thursday is snow. Picture below at Byrnecliff yesterday:
Update, December 9th, 2007:
Well, depending on where you live, some of us have enough snow to play around. Meghan was out with her new 2001 ZRT600 for an hour this afternoon on our farm. We have just enough snow to keep the tunnel cool and the sliders wet! But the weather looks pretty uncertain for most of the next week as far as useful snow goes. There's a slight chance of some lake snow in the middle of the week, and a better chance next weekend.
Stay tuned!
Update, December 5, 2007: HI Guys,
Are you ready for the 2007 - 2008 riding season? If you live out in the country, stick your head out the door after dinner. In my neighborhood you can already hear the occasional hum of a sled running up and down a field practicing for the opening of the trail systems. I'm picking mine up from the shop this afternoon! Most places have just a few inches of snow with grass showing through and the ground not frozen yet, so we're not quite ready for real riding.
Most of the area trail systems are scheduled to be open at the middle of December, weather permitting. After a brief warm up this coming Sunday, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll get some serious weather later next week. We could be riding by December 15th ?!"?
I do plan to maintain this trail conditions website during the riding season, but I could use some help. Anyone who rides in the Varysburg, Attica, Strykersville, to Chaffee and Arcade corridor that includes the Folsom Trailblazers and adjoining clubs, if you're interested in taking pictures of trail conditions or just sending me your reports, I'd love to get more people involved in this project. Call me or email me. (link at top of this page)
Below is an article I wrote at the end of last winter's riding season. Read it and discuss it at your club meetings! Think SNOW!
- Tom
Below: I took this picture today of the new Folsom Trailblazers groomer barn under construction on #77 just south of 20A. That's my truck and trailer in the foreground just after picking up a sled being repaired at A-Z - they did work for a good price!
Some thoughts on Grooming from one snowmobiler
Suggested by Tom Kranz (716-652-9495)
Back to Trail Conditions Webpage
Part A - Thanks to the Groomer Guys!
Part B - Dream Grooming - A Wish List
Part C - What's Possible?
(A) - You have to begin every discussion of trail conditions and grooming by saying, "Thank you", to the guys who volunteer all their time and effort to prepare the trails in the off season and run the groomers for hour after hour on their own time during the riding season. Hours that they would just as soon be riding themselves. They are, after all, dedicated snowmobilers themselves! So, "Thank you guys - thank you."
(B) - Because we owe such a debt to the guys who volunteer their time and take care of the trails for the rest of us, it has become almost taboo to talk about the fact that trails do get rough sometimes, or to discuss ways that we could do a better job providing smooth riding conditions. That should not be the case. Without open and constructive discussion of the grooming programs "as they are" and of the grooming programs "as they might be", we may be missing out on some good ideas.
If a rider comes into a bar or writes an email to a website and says, "Trail C4B was moguled up and a crappy ride today.", that is absolutely NOT the same as saying, "The guys who take care of trail C4B are lazy, incompetent jerks." It is not the same as saying the club that sponsors that trail is a bad club. It is nothing more than reporting riding conditions that on that particular afternoon or evening were not as nice as they could be. Such statements show only a disappointment with existing riding conditions compared to what that rider expected or hoped for.
So what kind of Trail Grooming do we "Hope For"? What's the dream, the Holy Grail of trail grooming? Speaking for myself, I look to places like Old Forge and the Bracebridge - Huntsville corridor in Muskoka. Places that groom every night of the week when snow conditions allow, and often twice a day on busy weekends. In the case of Old Forge, we're talking about a resort area that relies heavily on snowmobiling as a source of income in the winter. They have paid groomer operators and dedicate an important part of the town budget in winter to Trail Grooming. In the case of Muskoka, they may have volunteer, club run grooming operations like we do in western New York, but they are supported by expensive trail passes and a resort area culture and businesses that, like Old Forge, depend heavily on snowmobilers for winter income. There is strong support in that area for putting the necessary resources into providing top notch trail grooming.
An important difference between trail grooming in those resort areas, and most club trail grooming in Western New York is that in Old Forge and in parts of Muskoka, they groom on a well-publicized schedule. Riders know before they take their sleds out pretty much what they're going to find as trail conditions. If you ride those areas any day during the week or very early on weekends, you'll have a great ride. Ride late in the day on weekends or at the very end of a weekend of heavy traffic, and the trails will be crap. But you know that ahead of time and are not disappointed.
A Call For Publicized Grooming Schedules
Most clubs in Western New York could do a better job of letting the public, or even club members, know when the groomers have been out. Personally, I am out looking at the trails every day because I publish a Trail Conditions website. But even with the amount of time I spend checking the trails, I was very surprised to talk with Jim, one of the Folsom groomer operators, last month and find out how many hours the machines had already been on the trails this season. If someone like me underestimates the hours of groomer time the club puts in, think how little understanding the average "Joe Snowmobiler" must have. If that information were regularly publicized on club websites, average snowmobilers would have a much better appreciation of the effort that is already being put into trail grooming in our area.
Scheduled Grooming
Better still, would be to publicize and then try to stick to some kind of grooming schedule. As mentioned above, one of the great joys of snowmobiling in Old Forge or Muskoka is knowing when they groom so you can plan when to ride if you have a choice. Some clubs in western New York probably have grooming schedules. But I've not seen the information publicized. I think it should be. Too often, when we go out for a ride on western New York trails - not just Folsom, but all clubs - it is a roll of the dice whether you're going to have great groomed trail conditions, or just happen to hit the trails in between "sweet spots", when they've been beat up and are maybe just about to get another grooming. Or if you're taking a long ride, it's hard to know if one club is grooming their Corridor trails on a Tuesday, but the adjoining club not for two more days. With better-publicized grooming schedules, it would be easier to plan longer rides on days when conditions would be good.
And Trail Condition reports would be much easier if they could include information on grooming schedules. You would start with a "baseline of knowledge" that particular trails would be groomed (conditions permitting) on certain days. People who do trail condition reports could concentrate on checking out the trails that had been least recently groomed to see how they held up. And Trail Bosses and groomer operators could report only unexpected changes in their grooming schedule. They could report that "the 110 groomer broke a wheel and will be out of service for several days", or, "it was too warm to do last night's scheduled grooming run on C4, so we'll try to get it tomorrow when it is colder". (The broken wheel example did happen last month, and was well reported.)
So what is a good Grooming Schedule? The perfect answer is simple. Every night of the week, and twice a day in very heavy traffic conditions.
What's Really Possible?
But most western New York clubs do not have the resources to groom as often as the Town of Old Forge or Muskoka Clubs. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to have schedules and coordinate them with other clubs. The benefits to riders are obvious.
I don't know a lot about the finances even of the club I belong to (Folsom Trailblazers), let alone neighboring clubs. But it would be useful for everyone who is active in snowmobile clubs to have some discussion about what level of grooming us affordable. And I mean "affordable" in every way.
Do we not groom every night of the week because there aren't enough qualified operators? Is it because of the fuel budget? Is it because the Trail Bosses and club officers don't think the trails need any more grooming than they're already getting? The answers will be different for different clubs, and are likely a combination of the above for most.
If We Have a Schedule, Will We Look Bad if We Get Behind?
One reason for not grooming to a schedule is the worry that if grooming doesn't take place on the scheduled day or night for any of lots of very good reasons, the club will look bad. Personally, I think most riders are smarter than that, and if changes to a planned grooming schedule are published on Club websites, riders will be grateful and appreciate the attempt to groom on a schedule. Also, there are two ways volunteer groomer operators may respond to attempting to groom on a schedule. Some might understandably feel pressured if they are expected not only to volunteer their personal time, but do it at an assigned time. But there's another side to this. I have overheard groomer operators talking with other operators and being second guessed about their judgement for grooming or not grooming a particular trail on a particular day. In some ways it would take a lot of pressure off a groomer operator to have a scheduled day and place to groom and not to have to take personal responsibility for each decision. Each club already has formal or informal mechanisms in place for making these decisions, but scheduled grooming would help.
And nothing in scheduled grooming decrees that changes can't be made for good reasons. If it's over 28 degrees, don't groom if you can help it, regardless of the schedule. If the wind is blowing snow at 30 MPH, wait until the wind drops because of the drifting. Scheduled grooming would not mean thoughtless grooming.
There are lots of possible ways to make grooming schedules that are more affordable than "every night of the week do all trails". One place to start might be to have an inter-club agreement that all Corridor trails would be groomed Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights. I would be tickled pink if I could count on something that simple in planning days I wanted to take longer rides. A club with that kind of schedule could groom Secondary trails on the alternate weekdays, the same days, or do Secondary trails as operators and machines were available. Each club would have to decide how much scheduled grooming it could afford, both in terms of operator time, fuel costs, and machine time.
The Snowmobile Rights and Responsibilities Act - Unintended Consequences
Do I have the name right? You know, the new law that extorts snowmobilers into joining a club. Just kidding, sort of. I have very mixed feelings about this law. I do like the fact that clubs are getting lots more members. I have always belonged to a club even though I'm not much of a club kind of guy, just because I believe in the work clubs do for all of us. But I damn sure don't like the government sticking it's hand in my wallet or telling me I should join a club. It may even be unconstitutional. Time will tell.
But what is certain, is that thousands of average snowmobilers are being pressured to join clubs for the first time. And many of them are asking, "Why? What's in it for me?" And the first time they go over a little mogul on a snowmobile trail, they're screaming, "The State made me pay for THIS? Why aren't the trails perfect now that all this money is going to the clubs?" - - - - Of course there's NOT really all that much money, but you have to stop and consider why a lot of riders are mad this year when conditions aren't perfect. Many club members are no longer voluntary members - they have been coerced by New York State. This puts a lot more pressure on clubs to provide good communication and public relations regarding the way they maintain their trails. It makes the job of Webmaster very important. And it makes the concept of published grooming schedules more attractive than it has been in past years.
Just My Opinion
- Tom Kranz (Tom's Trail Conditions Website www.mudhotline.com)
Tuesday, March 20, Noon:
This is the last day, guys! You could still ride where I did on Sunday afternoon (see below). Conditions are similar - Fair to Good in some places, with quickly expanding bare spots on south facing slopes and hilltops. You can probably ride from many places on the trail to the club meeting tonight, or you could trailer to the meeting for a last quick run afterwards. Click here for an album of pictures taken just an hour ago this morning in a variety of places to the southwest of Byrncliff.
It should all be gone tomorrow, with today's bright sun and tomorrow's warm temperatures.
Monday, March 19, Noon:
After a cold night, well below freezing, widespread light snow is falling in all of our riding area. IF (big IF) the changeover to rain expected in some parts of western New York for a few hours later this afternoon is brief, we may have passable snowmobiling conditions through Wednesday morning. Temperatures will remain below freezing all day tomorrow and may drop into the single digits Tuesday night!
All the snow should disappear over the Wednesday and Thursday time period, except the big drifts, so get in any last rides between now and late Wednesday morning.
I did not check the trails myself this morning. I expect my report from yesterday afternoon (below) is still pretty accurate; we did have several hours of sun with temperatures just above freezing for about three hours late Sunday afternoon, so the few bare spots I saw likely are a little bigger. But I doubt we lost much snow cover. And today's snow is replenishing some of that.
Sunday, 3-18, 3PM:
I just went out riding for a couple of hours. I rode for about 2 hours, and though you can see from my pictures that there were a few sled tracks on the trails, I passed not a single sled in that time. There were no trailers at Byrncliff when I started or when I finished my ride. Where is everyone? Riding conditions are pretty darn good!
I left from Byrncliff and took S41 through the woods and up over the hill to C4B, then turned south towards Strykersville, then took S43 back east across Rte #77. I did not ride all the way to the A&A, but turned around and went back to Byrncliff the way I came, mostly because I had not expected riding conditions this good and I was low on gas! I am upgrading my trail condition report to Good to Very Good on 75% of the trails, especially across fields and on the longer runs through woods. I had a great ride!
But watch out for "death traps"! Watch in low spots, even in big fields, for hard to see wash outs that cut across the trail. And there are a few real washouts at small creek crossings and bigger drainage areas. (see my photo album link below) But otherwise, conditions are surprisingly good. It was a windy day, which was good in today's conditions. Fresh powder was blowing onto anyplace where the trail was packed lower than the surrounding snow. The wind had scoured the snow very thin on a few hilltops, especially on S43, but only for short stretches.
Trails are quite smooth, since "nature's groomer" had been at work earlier in the week. (The melt down with low sled traffic allowed the trail surface to level off in most places before refreezing.)
It's still pretty cold and going down very cold tonight, so anyone who rides early tomorrow should have the same decent conditions I had today. I'll post one picture below of a typical good section of trail from this afternoon, and a small album at this link showing a variety of conditions, good and bad.
Below: Picture at 2:30 this afternoon (3-18-07) - not bad for March 18th! Trail C4B - but watch for a few small washouts and raised ice sheets near here.
Sunday morning, March 18, 8AM:
Although temperatures are supposed to remain just below freezing today, the expected snow showers are not materializing, and instead we're looking at bright sunshine. Riding should still be decent early this morning, but the sun will quickly eat up the trails wherever bare ground shows through. Ride early if you plan to play today.
Saturday, March 17, 8PM:
Kenny T. was out on the trails early this afternoon and sent in this report:
tom, I just rode up the hill to check out the bennington loop. conditions were much the same as you described. I found a few frozen over sink holes that were covered by the new snow and dropped in unexpectedly but nothing that would hang up the sled. I ran into a couple riders on the way and he mentioned the trails were decent all the way to the lanes and logged 40 miles already. I noticed that some areas were very rocky underneath but still a good day to ride. kenny
Looks like we're about done getting snow, maybe a few more light flurries. Have fun on the trails Sunday and Monday morning. There may be some snow around until Wednesday, depending on whether we get rain Monday afternoon, but it will be pretty thin after Monday, no matter what.
Saturday, March 17, Noon:
Trail conditions from Byrncliff to Strykersville are Fair to Good. Very definitely ridable, but no one is riding. I saw one sled track this morning and no one in the Byrncliff parking lot, so the trails are all yours if you want a last ride. A gentle snow was falling all across the Folsom riding area this morning and continues now. There was 3 to 5 inches of new snow on the ground in most places with a carefully measured 5 inches on a level part of the Byrncliff parking lot at 11AM. As of 1PM, Buffalo radar shows moderate snow continuing over our riding area.
The trails looked Good in most places, but beware of unexpected washouts and wet spots or open water in low areas on the trails. If you want to let 'er rip, go slow across a section of trail to check for dangerous conditions, then turn it on on the way back. Ride safe in these late season conditions. I saw a few nasty ditch crossings and frozen ruts this morning.
Snow, light most of the time, is expected to continue for a while this afternoon and again tonight with 17 degree temperatures tonight. Riding should continue Fair to Good through Sunday and again Monday morning after another night with temperature in the teens. Monday might or might not be warm enough for rain, which would wash away this new thin snowcover. The "Fat Lady" will definitely sing her last song by mid week.
I also checked the trails in the Strykersville area and there is snow cover and decent conditions there. You could have a ride today from Byrncliff to the Pub and back with mostly Good conditions. I did not check Java or the Bennington Loop trails today and cannot vouch for them, but I see no reason why similar conditions will not prevail on most of the trail system.
Below: Dutch Hollow and most secondary roads in the area were snow covered this morning (3-17, 10:30 AM)
Below: Trail S41 just east of Rte #77 looking south, 11AM, Saturday, March 17th; compare to the picture further down the page from two days ago in the same spot
Below: Just north of the tree line, here is the trail coming from Byrncliff towards rte #77 where I was standing for this picture
Below: The Byrncliff parking lot at 10:45 AM, Saturday, March 17; 5 measured inches on the level
Thursday, March 15, 10PM:
Hello everyone. It's not often that I make three reports in one day, but very interesting things are going on with the weather and the "late season winter storm" on the east coast. I'd consider gassing up the sleds for the weekend. There is still some uncertainty over the exact amount of snow we'll be getting in the Byrncliff area, but it sounds like enough to ride on! I'm planning on a Saturday ride, myself. (Keep in mind if you want to try to ride that all water crossings and creeks will still be open.)
Thursday, March 15, 4PM:
Well. "the Fat Lady" has sung- - - - - Probably! There are numerous bare spots on the trails, with completely bare south facing hills in many areas, along with bare hill tops where the wind usually blows. There is no longer really a cohesive rideable trail system.
BUT - - - it is surprising how much packed snow base still exists in many places. Check my pictures below from this afternoon. The temperature is dropping now and will be in the teens for the next several days with highs remaining just below freezing. - - - And there is a deep low pressure center and winter storm moving up the east coast, with significant snow expected from New England well inland ALMOST to us. We will certainly see some snow tomorrow and Saturday. IF the late season storm shifts just a little more to the west than the weather service is now thinking, we could see enough snow to ride again on many parts of the Folsom trail system. It might be worth holding off on officially closing the trail system for another day to see where the storm tracks.
Old Forge Note: It is "Snofest" weekend in Old Forge, and the winter storm is quite likely to dump a decent amount in that area with night time temperatures down to the single digits. Diehards should consider heading up for the weekend!
Back to our area, here are a few pictures showing the snow base left in many spots; if you're from out of the area, you may be surprised by what we've got left! If we do get even 3 to 5 inches of snow tomorrow and tomorrow night on top of the remaining trail base in the pictures below, you'd be able to trailer to Byrncliff and have some good riding on the nearby field trails which still have some snow base now. Altogether now, fingers crossed!
Below: Looking south from Rte #20A near Dutch Hollow Road at 3PM, March 15; note that the actual trail is still snow packed through the otherwise bare cornfield!
Below: Looking west from Sheldon Road about 3:10PM March 15; lots of snow along this part of the trail still
Below: looking the other way, east from Sheldon Road at 3:10 PM, March 15th;
Below: Looking south in the field next to rte #77 where the new groomer barn will be; still snow pack on the actual trail in this entire area, with a short bare spot just south of here where the trail is about to cross Rte #77; lots of snow on the trail along the tree line just to the left of where I'm standing to take the picture. 3:20 PM March 15
Thursday, March 15, 1PM:
The Folsom Trailblazers club website (see above link) has not QUITE said, "The Fat lady has sung", but almost. Before announcing that the trails are officially closed, they may be waiting to make sure there is not significant snow this weekend, a decision with which I agree.
I am driving out this afternoon to see if there is any hope at all for weekend riding. I doubt it. Expect a "trails officially closed" announcement any day.
- Tom
Tuesday, March 13, noon:
Surprisingly, trail conditions radiating from Byrncliff are still fair to Good spring conditions as of RIGHT NOW! No guarantee how long that will last on a near 60 degree afternoon.
I went out this morning expecting to pronounce the trails "dead", but the long cold spell we've had for over a month has allowed the trails, especially field trails, to build up a deep hard packed snow and ice base, which is insulating the frozen ground under the trails. There are a few bare spots on hillsides and in the woods, but if you want to put on jeans and a sweatshirt, you can have some fun this afternoon.
I talked to the folks at Byrncliff, and they are still welcoming sledders to unload. You'll have to ride across a few mud spots and bare spots on the grass to get to the beginning of the trail. I suggest heading west. I did not see it but I imagine the hill going east from Byrncliff on trail C4 is bare and muddy.
Take S41 west from Byrncliff, where there is still plenty of snow in the fields. Then take C4B south towards Strykersville. There was plenty of snow on this trail as far as I could see from Rte #77, Sheldon Road, Bloecher Rd, Centerline Rd., Armburst Rd, Dutch Hollow Rd, and Bartz Road. The hill trail behind the Red Apple in Strykersville is mostly bare and muddy - I would not go that way. I would stay out of Strykersville village.
Take S43 towards Bartz Road, then either run S43 out across Rte #77 (good snow, but a few bare spots on hill tops) then play around on S43A and C4A between Strykersville and Java Center.
The above is what I can vouch for. I did not travel around the Bennington Loop, but there did look to be good snow in the fields jsut north of Rte #20A as I drove by. There is snow on most of the trails visible from the roads in the North Java area, with bare spots on some hills. There looked to be brown "snirt" on the A&A, but it is probably rideable.
The creek ice is going out as I write. I watched some ice breaking up while I inspected trails this morning. There will be water in low spots and drainage crossings. Take care.
With temperature staying up near 50 overnight tonight, I don't know if there will be rideable snow tomorrow morning or not. With 60 degrees again tomorrow, I would think that would finish off the trails as a rideable system. I will not go out tomorrow, but will plan to check on Thursday to see if it is truly done.
If you're a real optimist, think about this scenario: Although very warm (60), it is supposed to be cloudy Wednesday, keeping the sun off what is left of the trail base. Then Thursday night an arctic front comes through with very cold nights and possible snow Thursday night right through Monday. IF (a big IF) most of the base survives today and tomorrow, and IF (another big one) we get a significant snow anytime Thursday through Saturday, we could have a decent last ride this coming weekend.
Sunday, March 11, 10PM:
Well, maybe one more day tomorrow! The clouds hung around until early afternoon today which kept temperatures in the 30's and the sun off the fields for much of the day. Riding conditions were pretty good on the trails radiating from Byrncliff, but there was only one sled trailer there during two visits I made today. I heard only a few sleds in the distance on the trails. Very low traffic which helped keep the snow that's left on the trails.
There is a hard pack snow and ice base on most of the trails, and they are still pretty smooth. Some stutter bumps. Temperatures are going down to the low 20's with a clear night tonight, so early riders Monday morning can have a decent time playing on the frozen up trails.
Temperature forecast to go above 50 Monday afternoon, only down to 39 Monday night, and above 50 again Tuesday. That should do it, I would think.
Check back here late this week or next for some thoughts on this year's trail conditions.
Sunday, March 11, 8AM:
You should probably be on the trails or on the way out your door already if you want a decent ride today. It did get just below freezing most places last night, but things will slush up fast in today's bright sun and temps in high 30's - low 40's. There will be many decent field trails still today, but the woods and many hill tops and south facing hills began to go bare from yesterday's 50 degree temps and rain and will quickly get worse with today's sun. Watch out for water and deep slush in low spots. Watch out for deep, hard to see wash outs where drainage areas cross the trail!
Temperature going well below freezing tonight, so early tomorrow should yield suitable riding conditions to play in some areas, but with the ability to ride the whole system beginning to break down. If I don't report every day this week, and you want to try a ride, check this link for the Byrncliff Resort site to make sure that they haven't closed their lots and trail access due to lack of snow on their access to the trails. Respect landowners by not ripping through bare lawns, etc. Old Forge is still reporting fair to good conditions. There is some decent riding in parts of Ontario that don't rely on road running, but you need to know where to drop off to avoid the bare roads. Basically, we're done for the year and should be thankful that we've had a solid month of pretty good conditions - better than nothing!
Saturday, March 10, 11AM:
Spring conditions today (with light to moderate rain at the moment). Surprisingly, there were 15 to 20 trailers in the Byrncliff lots an hour ago with guys getting in their last "rip in the rain". The field trails surrounding Byrncliff have a thick, hard packed base, and looked Good to Very Good still this morning. But it was already 49 degrees at Byrncliff by 11AM, with rain falling. Hillsides and hill tops in the fields are beginning to go bare already. The silver lining in the clouds is that today's light rainy conditions will keep the sun off the trails until tomorrow morning.
Anyone riding today can get in some good runs on the field trails if you don't mind going through some muddy and bare spots here and there. Tonight they are still looking at below freezing temperatures in the area (though already we are warmer than they forecast). I think there will still be very rideable snow most places by tonight, and if there is a freeze overnight, then people who get out very early tomorrow morning (and I mean like 7 AM), should have a nice ride.
With temperatures over forty and bright sun tomorrow, we'll really be into marginal spring conditions by late Sunday. Then . . . . . . . . . . .
There is a possibility of very cold air and snow next Friday, but I expect we'll be awash in rushing streams, ponding in low spots, and mud by then. But maybe a chance for the real diehards to play one more time here and there.
Below: Leaving the Byrncliff parking lot; mud where there was ice yesterday, and the hill to the north half bare; March 10, 11AM
Below: Saturday morning; looking east from rte #77 towards Byrncliff; note the field showing though and mud near the road, but generally decent hard pack on the trail
Below: March 10, 11:15 AM; trail C4B crossing Centerline Road; still good conditions, but lots of slushy snow
Friday, March 9, 8:30 AM:
Hi guys. I'm on my way out the door for my last ride of the season probably, with awesome conditions on the Folsom trail system. Check my full report from last night below!
The trails will quickly deteriorate later today with temps near 40 and bright March sun. Worse tomorrow with rain and 46. A quick freeze Saturday night, and one more half way decent ride on Sunday morning, early, and then we're all on our own with "spring" conditions.
Check back here next week for my end of season summary and a "wish list" of what could be done to better coordinate and improve riding conditions and communication with riders for next year.
Thursday, March 8, 9PM:
I ran a full tank of gas through my ZRT this afternoon. Awesome riding conditions on the Folsom Trailblazers system! I used a lot of gas because the trails were all so good that I was riding WFO most of the time. You'll have some great riding tonight and Friday morning!
Traffic was not too heavy early in the evening when I came home, so the conditions I describe below should apply tomorrow morning, when it will still be cold, but with bright sunshine.
I left from Byrncliff and rode down C4 past Varysburg. Conditions were Good, with a few bumps here and there and some moguls on turns. The A&A railbed had been groomed, but needed another pass or two to be perfect. Decent conditions. And the rest of my ride got better and better. Once I hit C4A conditions improved to Very Good to Excellent running through North Java, the camp ground, and on to Strykersville. These trails were groomed yesterday, and it has held up well overnight!
From Strykersville I ran the C4B past the Red Apple/Kwik Fill and up the hill across Dutch Hollow Road; conditions were Great in Strykersville, and Fair to Good in the woods behind the Red Apple; there is some bare dirt showing in the woods on this hillside. From there on, conditions were Excellent on C4B all the way back to #20A. I also took a long detour across one of my favorite trails on the whole system, S43 - which was Very Good to Perfect! A great ride. S43A in Strykersville was also Excellent!
Back on C4B, I crossed #20A and ran around the Bennington Loop on S46 through Bennington and then back south on C4. Just magnificent grooming job and riding conditions on this loop in the late afternoon sun!!!!!!!!!!! Woooooo-Hooooooo!!!!!
I had not been on the Attica C4H trail this season, so I took off of C4 and ran several miles of the Attica trail, which was also absolutely perfect (and a beautiful trail, just as you said, Jim!)
Back on C4, from the Attica trail junction, back to Byrncliff was Good to Very Good, but there were a few moguls forming here and there - probably because of heavier traffic on this part of the loop. Before loading up to go home I did a quick run down S41 headed west from Byrncliff. Near Perfect conditions here, too!
WARNING - There is a temporary warning pole in the snow where a little creek has nearly melted a hard to see gully through this trail not far from where it crosses #77 - watch for it; there will be many more spots like this opening up next week - let's not get hurt!
Below: Great conditions on the Attica Trail about 4:30 PM, Thursday, March 8
Below: Bare dirt spot on a southern exposed hill in Strykersville; there were only four or five of these on my Thursday ride; there will be more on Saturday and Sunday; LOTS more early next week :(
Click Here for an album of pictures taken on the trails March 8th
Get out and ride. I talked with a number of people on the trails this afternoon and everyone had the same stuff to say; "Great riding!"; "Best conditions of the season."; "Who would have thought our best riding of the year would be in March?"
- Tom
Thursday, March 8, 2PM:
I just got a call from one of the groomer operators for the Folsom Club and he told me the Bennington loop was groomed again last night, Strykersville area was groomed yesterday afternoon, and the A&A "might" be groomed today. The groomer guys are all getting together tonight for their "last good ride", so I bet the trails are in pretty good shape! Have at it!
Thursday, March 8th:
I may go out riding this afternoon and make a trail report, but I did not go this morning. The base is solid, so yesterday's report should still be pretty accurate. If any grooming got done, someone phone or email me and I'll post an update. Check out the video links in the next couple of paragraphs. We may post a lot of local snowmobiling videos next season if this experiment works out.
The Big Picture:
We should have great riding today and tomorrow. Especially Friday, with good sunshine in the forecast and very cold morning temperatures, it should be the last GREAT day of riding of the year. Although there may be some light rain in the forecast for Saturday, nighttime temperatures will drop below freezing Friday night ,Saturday night, and Sunday night, so riding should be pretty decent through Sunday, even Monday. Sunday looks to be another sunny day with decent trail conditions. THEN the big meltdown sets in. We have enough base so that many guys will be riding through much of next week, but things will be pretty sloppy by mid week, and the long range forecasts tend to agree that the warm spell will stay through the following week as well. We're about done around here, so ENJOY this weekend!
Wednesday, March 7, 2PM:
Check my posting from last night in the next paragraph for comments on current trail conditions. They are generally very good to excellent. You'll have a great ride today or tonight.
As mentioned below, the trails in the immediate Strykersville area were reported to need a little work as of yesterday afternoon. I checked them out myself this morning, and I agree that they could use a groomer pass, but they are better than the guy I talked with yesterday led me to believe. I'd say the trails through Strykersville are "Good" - flat in fields with Stutter bumps and a few moguls forming where traffic is constricted or where sleds are accelerating or braking.
The north side trails on the Bennington loop still looked outstanding this morning. Make that loop if you have a chance this afternoon or evening!!
Pictures (and video!) coming later this evening.
VIDEO! - Try this link; it's a test. We might post video next year.
Also try this link for what might be a better quality video. If you have a fast broadband connection, click on "Quicktime" for a higher quality video. Email me and let me know what you think and if the quality is good enough to post more online.
Below: Looking east on S41 from rte #77 towards Byrncliff at 11AM this morning
Tuesday, March 6, 10PM:
Trail conditions on the Folsom system tonight range from Good to Superb! Before getting into the details, let me show off a cool picture Meghan took of me this afternoon doing a little "drift busting" next to the trail to Arcade. You probably know the spot! Not bad for a guy in his 60's!
OK - back to the trail report. We left Byrncliff about 1:30PM and headed up over the hill towards Varysburg and the A&A rail bed trail. We were pretty discouraged at first because of serious moguls on this part of the trail system in many places and rough conditions on the rail bed. But halfway to Java we came upon recent groomer tracks. The boys were out doing their magic and things started looking up! And conditions got better and better over the next four hours.
By the time we finished our ride, the groomer had made two passes over the C4 trail from Byrncliff to near North Java, and conditions were good to Very Good. Because the trails had been pretty rough to start with, they could probably use another pass to put them into really excellent condition, and they may get that tonight or tomorrow morning?
Conditions on C4A through Java Center and on towards Strykersville were Very Good, even though they looked like they had not been groomed since yesterday. Plenty of loose powder over a smooth base made for fun riding! In Strykersville we hopped on S43A north and then S43 back east to C4A. This trail is usually very good since a groomer "lives" on it, and tonight condtions on these secondary trails were outstanding. We had a great ride back over to C4A and C4. On the rail bed we were following recently groomed trail, and conditions were "Good", but not excellent - as noted above, they need another pass or two of a groomer. Very rideable, though.
After a good, fast ride back to Byrncliff, we decided to make the Bennington loop on C4, S46, C4B, and S41 back to Byrncliff. This loop north of #20A was in Superb condition. Every bit as good as the trails we rode in Canada last week! Part of the reason is that these trails have been in very good condition for a week now, and whoever is doing the grooming is being given the machine time to make enough passes so that there aren't many soft spots on the trail. The trail stays in good shape between groomings and a new pass with the groomer puts the trail back in AA+ condition! Great job, guys! It also helps that there appears to have been very light traffic on this north side loop in the past day or two.
The only reports we got today of poor trail conditions came from some guys we met who rode from Strykersville and said the trails right in Strykersville were still pretty rough as of mid afternoon. I would guess that maybe the groomers will hit Strykersville tonight or tomorrow morning, based on the great job they are doing everyplace else on the system.
All in all, the groomer crews are doing a terrific job of putting the trail system in tip-top shape for what will likely be the final two or three days of good riding this year. If you plan to ride Wednesday, most all of the Folsom system will be in great shape. The Bennington loop is awesome. C4B and the secondary trails down towards Strykersville look to be in very good to excellent condition. The east side trails through Varysburg are Good to Very Good and may be better tomorrow if they get one more grooming pass. The trails in Java Center and North Java are Very Good. S41 is Outstanding. Good job, guys!
Below: We took this along C4A in Java about 3PM Tuesday
Click here for an album of pictures taken on the trail system this afternoon (3-6-07)
We have too many sleds in the garage; need to sell my wife's 1997 ZRT 600. It has high mileage (about 5500 mostly Canadian trail miles). It's been well maintained with many new suspension parts last year. Unusual for a ZRT, it has both electric start and reverse.
We're selling it only because we found a good deal on a clean 2001 ZRT 600 for her.
Looking to get somewhere around $1500 or best offer. It can be seen at A - Z out by rte #77 and rte #20A. Phone or email me if you have any questions. It should be a real good deal as a fast trail sled for someone on a budget. Would make a great backup sled as well, considering the low price.
