Lake George

Lake George
Lake George - from Tongue Mtn Range - 11/11/2011

Sunday, February 8, 2015

XC Ski - Schroon Lake Snowmobile Trail System 2/8/15

The Schroon Lake Snowmobile Trail System is starting to grow on me as a great place to cross country ski.  The trails are convenient for me and they don't get a lot of snowmobile traffic.  The network is groomed, and that is helpful when then is a lot of snow on the ground and trail breaking is tough.

I was thinking of heading for Avalanche Pass this morning, but the ominous forecast persuaded me to stay close to home.  Rev and I headed out the door on the Schroon snowmobile system instead.  We did a counter-clockwise loop of the route shown on the map below.  I'd rate the route as an intermediate level route due to moderate grade.  A novice skier might pick up more speed than he/she would like to experience.  I enjoy the rolling hills and some speed on the downhills so this route suits me fine. 


Climbing a moderate grade on the early part of the route
I had 3 snowmobiles pass me almost immedaitely after I started out.  I only saw one other group during the whole ski. 




The route doesn't have a lot of trail markers, except for the red ones shown below on the west side of Horseshoe Pond.  The routes are easy to follow though since they are groomed and traveled by snowmobiles.







On this trip I did the route below shown with red dots.  The route passes through a mix of private land and state land, but private property owners have given permission for the snowmobile route to pass through there properties.  

I've also skied various configurations of these routes at night with a headlamp.  The trails are all jeep roads and I have no problem skiing them at night.

Ski Stats:
Ski Distance:  9 miles
Ski Time:  2.5 hours
Total Vertical Gain: ~1200'



Today's route is shown with red dots 



Today's Route and elevation profile




No comments:

Post a Comment