Winter Wonderland

Dennis, Craig and I did some shooting yesterday afternoon at the range. My shoulder is feeling it today. We shot about 2.5 boxes of targets. Everybody shot very well. I made a new friend at the range. The gentlemen shooting next to us came all the way out from Nassau (Bellmore, I believe). They had a really nice Do-All trap launcher and were throwing doubles most of the day - one low and far, the other high and descending rapidly like a duck taking to a pond. One guy, Kevin, shot about five different shotguns including a .410 over-under and a really nice 20-gauge. Kevin told me he likes to come out to the ranges out east because the ranges near him are in-and-out affairs where you shoot 25 targets at a time and they rush you. At our range, you can bring your own launcher and take your time for 10 bucks a shooter.

Just as we were leaving, the snow started falling, so Dennis, Craig and I made plans to take the ATVs out. Of course, once we came back to Wading River, we found out that the new battery Craig had picked up for my Cannondale wasn't holding a charge. So Craig was kind enough to let me borrow his 400EX. (On today's agenda - visit Riverhead Honda and get a new battery...)

We had a really nice run on some of the usual woods trails. Riding a quad in the snow is terrific - you slide all over the place, but still maintain a degree of control. Everyone was doing donuts in the clearings and kicking up big rooster tails of snow.

We also visited New Beach and made a little circle track in the parking lot. From there, we did some more woods riding and then crossed 25A to hit the trails alongside the William Floyd Parkway. We took a break in some of the firebreak trails back there, took our helmets off and shut our quads down, letting our eyes adjust to the darkness. After a while, we found that we could see quite well, although we weren't able to spot any wildlife.

After a few hours of sliding around and mocking the cars straining to get traction on some of the roads, we headed back. By the time we made it back, many of the main thoroughfares had been salted and plowed. 25A was in great shape, as was North Country Road. Only the smaller secondary streets were unplowed.

Great fun! I'm going to see if I can get another battery today and get my Cannondale running so we can do another run later in the day.