This weekend was
week two
of the
Lake George Winter Carnival. It was
mostly
snowmobile oriented,
but there were lots of other machines
out there, including
ATV's, cycles,
a hovercraft, and even a few airplanes.
The lake has
been frozen
solid with the
cold we have had over the past month or so.
The only
open water areas were roped off,
and they were around the stored
boats
and other floating structures.
It's kind of
scary, to be
able to drive
as fast as you want, for as long as you
want. The
lake is
32 miles long, and you
can ride from one end to the other,
at top
speed.
The surface was smooth,
with some areas of shiny ice,
mostly
it
had a thin crust of snow or rough ice.
The studded tires worked
great, plenty
of traction at speed, but not so much
that the
tires
break away without a warning.
Brian and I took
part in
the drag race
contest, my lane was so rutted that I got
completely sideways right off the start,
and had only wheelspin after
that.
Brian
raced a Yamaha 450 quad a few
times and got beat, only
because the
quad had so much more traction.
The next contest
was a wheelie
contest,
which Brian entered, and won. We got two
TrailPass memberships for that, worth
$150 for the pair, a
nice prize.
That
will let us explore a huge trail network
this summer here in
the
northeast.
The only thing
we didn't
get to do is the
hillclimb up to Prospect Mtn. The road
was
open
only to snowmobiles for some
reason. It's a paved road to the
top,
but
really steep, so it would have been a
great challenge going up
it on the
snow and with studded tires.
The village of
Lake George
had legalized
off road vehicle traffic throughout the town
for
the weekend, so we were able to take a ride
through town
to
get lunch! Had to be
careful because of the studs on pavement,
but
it was great to cruise past a PD
cruiser and simply
wave! Our bikes set off
a few car alarms as we drove past,
something about the pop of the exhaust
that the alarms didn't like.
Next weekend the
cycle ice
races are
scheduled, so that should bring
out a
lot
of motorcycle enthusiasts.
This is about 10 miles out from the starting point, 20 more miles to ride!
I finally got a kickstand, came in
handy, there isn't always a
place to lean your bike against when you're out riding.
Nice paint on this radical snowmobile.
Brian gets instructions before the wheelie
contest.
One of the three planes that had landed on
the lake.
Brian starts the wheelie contest. He went
way
beyond the 300' mark for the overall win.