The wind in Rochester was incredible today. I’m not sure how high it got up to but it knocked over some newspaper stands just as I left work and I was greeted with flying newspapers.
Randy
Then There Was Four (Snowmobiles)
We’ve managed to make it up north for three absolutely gorgeous weekends. This weekend was no exception. We went riding on Saturday and the sky was an incredibly clear blue without a cloud in sight. We took a ride up Littl Blue Mountain and again the view was better than the last time. White Face Mountain was perfectly visible as well as some other mountains in the same range and beyond.
After a quick snack we headed off to Sevey’s Corner and beyond. Once we crossed route 3 the trails were even better. Freshly groomed with few sleds having been down them. Everything was going great until we were waiting for my uncle Wes and a few other sleds came by and told us we had a broken down sled. We went back a few miles and it wasn’t good. The supports holding his suspension up broke and his snowmobile was literally sitting on the ground. We towed it back to route 3 and my cousin Donald headed back to the truck while Uncle Jerry, Dad and I headed out to finish the days ride. Only four of the five sleds we ran with this season made it out alive.
Looking back this year we’ve had a fantastic season. We put on over 520 miles in three weekends. All the riding we did was on perfect trails. I’ve never seen better snow conditions than the past two weekends and the days we went out the sky was so blue it was amazing.
Mayor Duffy Drinks Beer!
Thursday RohrBachs opened their new brewery downtown with a bang. They had a grand opening that included free beer and free food! The food was great and I will definitely be picking up some pierogies from The Pierogie Guy. The beer was, of course, excellent. One of my favorites is always the RohrBachs Scotch Ale which is what we had on tap at our wedding but they had many other excellent choices available such as Nate’s Pale Ale and their Vanilla Porter.
To christen the new downtown brewery Mayor Bob Duffy spoke at the event. It was surprising to see him there as there is trouble with passing the New York Budget this year because of all the scandal surrounding the governor. However; Duffy is taking the renovation of Rochester seriously and he took the reopening of a downtown Rohrbachs brewery personal. That he’s neighbors with the owner of Rohrbachs obviously has nothing to do with it.
Final Snow
Today we got what is probably our last snow accumulation of the year. We woke up to one of the prettiest snowy scenes from the entire season. About 4 inches of wet sticky snow came down overnight. I took an extra long walk to the bus just so I could enjoy the scenery and take a few pictures.
Cheney Takes Visa
We got an earlier start today and were on the trails by 10am. After hearing that Easter dinner would be ready when we got back we had to make sure we put on the miles early and were back in time for the feast. We put on roughly 100 miles again and made it back by 6pm.
First stop today was Camp. Along the way we crossed the North branch of the Grasse River as well as a branch of the Oswegatchie. The scenery was beautiful as were the trails. We certainly hit this trip perfect. In most sections there was several feet of hard packed snow and ice. Step off the hard packed groomed trail though and you were likely to sink up to your waist.
If you need a place to stay out on the trail just stop by Cheney’s Camp. Apparently they take visa or MasterCard so you should be good to go. Fortunately no friends were shot in the face while filming this cabin.
The sleds were running great today and yesterday with the cold weather and hard packed trails. If you punched it you’d lift the skis right off the ground which makes for tricky cornering. We hit 75mph on a few of the straightaways without even pushing it.
The last stop of the day was The Pinecone at the southern end of Cranberry Lake in Wanakena. Once we got on the Setback Trail to Wanakena the trail got pretty rough. You can definitely tell the difference between groomed trails and not. The setback trail was miles of moguls and switchbacks. Eventually it let you out in Wanakena and we were able to take a quick rest at The Pinecone before heading home.
It’s amazing the amount of scenery you can see up here while riding the snowmobiles. It would take you months on skis to see what we’ve seen in two days. That’s easily the best part of riding. You are in remote locations that are often inaccessible any other time of the year. 4-wheelers are not always allowed on the same trails which makes it difficult to cover a lot of the ground. I would love to take a snowmobile trip into remote sections of Canada. Maybe next year we’ll take a week and head up to the big country.
Littl Blue and Horseshoe
After the battle of the skags and a great hearty breakfast by my aunt Pauline we headed out for the day at about 11am. We got lucky lucky with fresh groomed trails and absolutely beautiful snowmobiling conditions. First stop for the day was Littl Blue Mountain which is a short mile or so jaunt up a steep non groomed trail filled with switchbacks. The Scenery was stunningly beautiful from the top. It was such a clear day we could see all the way to White Face Mountain and Big Tupper’s Ski trails.
For our next stop we headed on to the most southern point in the St Lawrence County Snowmobile trail system, Horseshoe Lake. The last 5-10 miles of the trail to Horseshoe is on state land and the 4 big storms from this year have put their toll on the trail. Unfortunately because it’s on the ‘forever wild’ state land the trees criss crossing the trail can’t be cut until approval is given from the state. This made for a rough few miles getting to Horseshoe but the view is always worth it. The Lake is still frozen and a few people have ventured out on it. We were not among them. We had a quick snack in the blistering cold wind and then headed for home.
Overall we had a great ride today. We covered approximately 100 miles and met about 15 sleds. That’s what its always like up here. Beautiful and practically void of people.
The Cloverfield Case
Rachel and I saw Cloverfield on Friday. It wasn’t planned, in fact I didn’t have a whole lot of desire to see it at least not until I heard everyone’s reaction. That being said my friend Brian called and begged us to go (read: asked if I want to see it) so naturally I didn’t want to disappoint.
Cloverfield was awesome. I thought the hand held cameras would distract you from the storyline and takeaway from the overall movie. It had the exact opposite effect. The movie simply couldn’t have worked as a regularly filmed movie, at least not successfully. The reason it worked so well is the home movie added a very personal touch. In the beginning you laughed with the characters and in the end you cried with them all because you felt you were watching your best friend’s Youtube video. The movie also portrays our current generations desire to document everything and J. J. Abrams doesn’t hide that this was part of his motivation for the movie style.
I haven’t been a fan of a movie’s ending in quite a while but Cloverfield’s ending is the only way I can imagine it. That’s not to say it doesn’t leave you with a sense of ‘WTF’ and ‘damn I hope they don’t make a sequal’ but it works regardless.
If you haven’t seen the trailer I’ve embedded it for your viewing pleasure below.
[ifilm]2913955[/ifilm]
Liam's Blister In The Sun
Rachel’s cousin Heather’s son, Liam played a nice little rendition of Blister In the Sun for us on Christmas Eve. Originally made famous by the Violent Femmes. Liam is only 3 imagine what he’ll be able to play in a few years…
Life In The Country
My parents are off on another adventure. This time they’re in Florida. I wonder if this will become a recurring theme now that my Father is retired? My mother claims that she’s going to work forever just for the health insurance benefits she gets through Wegmans so maybe not. I can’t imagine she’ll hold out quite that long, especially at this pace, though.
I’m happy for them. They’ve worked their whole lives and now get to reap the rewards. I hope they take even more trips so I can see the pictures. Or maybe next time they’ll take us with them? Or maybe we’ll take them with us.
While they’re gone this time we’re watching the house, well not the house really but my 17 year old dog Chewy. She was born in the middle of the Ice Storm of 1991 and is probably the healthiest 17 year old dog you’ll ever see.
I never realized while growing up here but the scenery is quite beautiful. My parents live in Marion Ny in the same house that I grew up in. While I was growing up it was completely surrounded by fields, valleys and farms. now there are 3 houses across the street instead of fields, and they mostly block the view. Even so the colors of the trees on the other side of the valley are always gorgeous and I had forgotten the sunrises were often so amazing. I woke up to a beautiful sunrise Thursday morning. What a wonderful way to start the day.
Bee Movie
We finally saw Bee Movie the other day and it was quite funny. I rather enjoyed listening to Matthew Broderick and Jerry Seinfeld fight over the plights of life as a bee. The cast was impressive, From Sting to Larry King and Chris Rock. Even though the movie poked fun at the situation, it was interesting to think about how much bees really are needed. Granted lots of other critters pollinate, and the wind even plays its part, but I’d be willing to bet that a majority of pollination happens thanks to our little yellow (and black) friends. What would the world look like without pollination? Rachel would be out of a job (she’s a florist remember?) for sure.
If you haven’t already seen it, take a look at the trailer below, and if you enjoy animated movies like Shrek and Ice Age I’d suggest watching Bee Movie.
Randy Aldrich 