It seems that every single time I post a trail report lately, it's raining as I post it, which makes my report almost worthless.

But I digress...

Last night I took a real short ride from the Heartwellville parking lot over to the Harriman dam. It's about a 22 mile trip there and back, but since it hasn't been groomed until recently, I was really jonesing for a ride over that way. The trail is finally groomed, and is in excellent condition overall. The water bar just past Highway rt 8 was filled in with snow. The hill was in good shape, with just the occasional sound of a rock under the skis near the bottom. The corners were clean with no ice. The ONLY spot that you need to be careful for was one water bar on the downhill right before you get to the cabin. This was in a particularly nasty location, and almost caused me to go off the trail even at the low speed I was riding. The problem is 3-fold. First, everything is so flat and smooth that you may find yourself going very fast when you come upon it. Secondly, it's right on a corner (and downhill) and thirdly, it's at a funny angle (not perpendicular to the trail). The combination of those three things could easily throw you off your sled if you're not very careful. Because it was snowing hard, I was going slow, but I still had to slam on my brakes and if I hadn't come to a complete stop right at the water bar, I probably would have been in big trouble. With all of the rain that we're likely to get today, I expect this water bar to stick around, even after they groom again. That's why I wanted to make sure to post this.

As long as you're careful with that one water bar, the rest of the route is in fantastic shape and will make for a great ride for anybody who hasn't been over that way in a while like myself.

I know that water bar. I nose dive into it almost every time.

You think I would have learned by now.

Thanks for the report, I might be up there this weekend

are they riding on the reservoir?