A Short Setback.

The storm was a bit of a bust for us locally.  The weather reports that were being piped out over the northeast were by and large mostly nonsense.  For example while most stations were saying that we in North Conway were being dumped on with inches and inches of snow we were in fact getting poured on by rain.  The fields that were rideable with snow earlier this week have now become ponds, and the local lakes that had a thin layer of snow covered ice have been slushed over. 

On the surface this sounds bad we know.  But take heart, for local conditions this will actually pay off in the end. The ice on our local lakes wasn't even close to being good enough to ride on and the snow just ground ice production to a halt. Now with the recent rains and the upcoming warm up the lakes will essentially "reset: and begin producing ice again with the return of cooler temps. 

We scouted a few of the northern locations that have been in play.  The ice is holding up surprisingly well and most of the foot or more of snow that was on the ice had been knocked down to about 4" of snow on top of 3" of slush.  Even less snow in some places.  This will also settle in when the warmth hits and set up nicely for riding soon thereafter.  It's a game we seem to play every year and still no less frustrating.  Still the season is young.