Ive done a leak down test, 5psi for 3 mins. Looses 1/2-1 psi in that time. First leak down I lost all pressure in 3 mins, raves, spark plugs and tester plugs were leaking. I have this blue fluid thats 100X better than soap/water, the motor is blue from this stuff. I’m lost.
We dropped at Byrncliff and rode south C4, C4A, C3C to Arcade, then up to Chaffee and had an early dinner at Milestone, then mostly backtracked our way home. GPS batteries died a little over half way to Chaffee so no cool map update this time. Our navigating was MUCH better in the daytime and didn’t manage to get lost at all.
Conditions ranged from awesome powder to bare ground, really at the mercy of the wind either blowing the snow off the trail on onto the trail. Overall a pretty rough ride but worth it for several spots where we were the first two sleds on fresh powder that had drifted to 1-2 feet deep. Couple times where we turned around and re-rode a section because the powder was so fun (and good riding has been so rare this year).
Leaving at 7AM tomorrow for Tug Hill. Guess the conditions are the best they’ve been all year. Here’s the route we loaded into the GPS. Camden, up to Lowville, up to Copenhaugen, down to Redfield and home. Close to a 200 mile loop.
Anyone else heading up there tomorrow? We’re dropping @ the Camden DPW.
Tri county Drifthoppers opened their trails this morning. They got like 10inches in Arcade. I assure anyone, it will be a total mess. I took a little scouting trip this morning on my wheeler right where coldens trail system starts, it’s a swamp.
Have fun at Tug. Maybe considering next weekend. Kind if disgusted with it all as a whole.
180 miles on Tug Hill Sunday. Left my house at 7am, unloaded and on the trails by 10:30, back at the trailer at 8pm. 30 minute stop for lunch and a few gas stop/bathroom breaks but pretty much 9 hours on the sleds. About 90% of the trails were just phenomenal. Some of the trails were so wide/smooth I’m pretty sure I could have drove my GTO down them. Pretty much stuck to the trail I posted earlier, just started a little north of Camden in Empyville since Camden had very little snow and had to go a little farther north to get into Copenhagen since the trail we had plotted didn’t exist anymore.
Not a very dignified day for the GTO though. Treating it to the best wash Delta Sonic has today on my lunch.
How it started the day @ 7am…
How it ended the day
Excuse my rude cameraman @ 15 seconds in…
looks pretty good there…
im trying to make arrangements with my professor for my saturday class to let me take my test during the week instead so i can go on a trip this friday/saturday. going either to adk or up north in canada if adk doesnt have good conditions.
would be nice to get more then 30 miles in this year.
Forgot to mention, this was the first trip with a new iPhone app, “GPS Kit”. Highly recommend it. I took the KML track I had drawn in google maps and imported it directly from an email attachment into GPS Kit. Any time we reached an unmarked intersection and weren’t sure which way to go it took 2-3 seconds for the phone GPS to lock and then it was just a matter of pointing the phone down each trail and the compass arrow would show the direction we were supposed to go.
It allows you to download the google terrain tiles for offline use as well. I selected the medium resolution and a box big enough to cover everywhere we rode was 52meg. Over wifi at home it took just a few minutes to pull down all 6229 tiles and at medium resolution you could zoom in and get street names for all the seasonal roads that would barely qualify as a dirt trail. Being hill newbies there is no way we would have made it all the way to Copenhaugen and back in one day without this app.
The friend I ride with just updated his GPS maps for 2011 and 2012 to show various rides we’ve done. Our trip yesterday crushes the prior rides.
http://www.ktsresource.com/Snowmobile/Complete_Snowmobile_Trips.html
Trying to get up there this coming weekend. Would never have guessed it would be as good as your pics / vids show. It’ll probably have either been rained away or swallowed by the earth by the time I get there.
Im gonna have to see what trail apps are out there for droid…
Going to tug hill friday morning 
Keep an eye on this because the weather this week is really going to take it toll on the conditions up there:
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/nerfc/graphics/snowmaps/html/snow_depth.html
This site usually has some up to date info on Tug Hill conditions too:
http://www.trailconditions.com/vbforum/forumdisplay.php?f=20
If there’s still rideable snow I’d suggest trailering just north of Empeyville and parking your trailer on the side of Shultz rd.
That’s authorized snowmobile trailer parking and puts you right on the main corridor onto the hill. You can’t start at Grist Mill in Parish because they have green grass, and on Sunday Camden didn’t have enough snow to leave from there. We took 81 up to the Parish exit, 69 through Camden then up Wolcott. It’s only another 10 minutes by car from Camden to the parking I linked though, but since it’s up several very large hills there is way more snow.
actually we’re going a little bit further. we’re taking rt 26 north from rome and we plan to unload in constableville. were leaving pretty early friday and riding all day, coming back late that night. plan is to miss most of the traffic that they usually see on the weekend, so hopefully conditions are still pretty good. my buddy has been following all the reports and cams for the area so should be good.
Constableville was our first gas stop. Also grabbed lunch at Nice N Easy, your basic greasy spoon type place that served a mean breakfast at noon. 
going to keep that in mind. i <3 breakfast any time of day.
What do you guys think of the 09+ skidoo etec 600? Anything to watch out for?
dootalk.com is your best bet to find any/all info on skidoo’s
I would buy one. As much of a four stroke Yamaha fan I am, I would seriously consider an ETEC. You’d be hard pressed to find another 130hp class sled that is that good on fuel and has the light weight going for it.
That’s the conclusion I’ve been coming to after reading a lot of forums. For the style/location of riding I do I’m pretty sure I’m going to pick up a 600 etec before next winter. Expect to see a FS thread for my 2000 ZR 600, but I’ll probably end up just holding on to it until next season when I can get more for it.
March 24 & 25, Kissing Bridge is apparently hosting a snowmobile hill climb. I got this from a hardcore seld buddy of mine so I can neither confirm or deny. If by some miracle of mother nature they still have snow, I may actually attend and compete. Perhaps Josh may consider some nyspeed presence? Maybe a little pop up tent where we can leave our beer coolers? I know Dime would be up for this.