Im going to Clarkson University next year and I normally do most of my riding around our camp in forestport NY. How are the trails and riding in the Potsdam area? Anyone live around there that rides?

Hi, Welcome to the north country. I live about 45 minutes from Potsdam and do most of my riding just south west of Potsdam around the Cranberry Lake area. Often you will be able to ride from Clarkson and head south towards Colton area to find some nice riding. My son just completed his masters program at Clarkson and my daughter just finished her freshman year there. Good luck at school, its a great school and work hard so u can get a good job to buy lots of new sleds in future.

You picked an AWESOME school & an AWESOME or the BEST place to ride in NY!!

I graduated from CU in 2006, and had my sled up there for all 4 years.

I was team leader/president of the SPEED CU CLEAN SNOWMOBILE Team for 3 years.

I meant some great people locally and on here who lived in the area who I hooked up with, to who this day I am still friends with.

You can not ride right from school, you will need a trailer, trailer about 10 miles south to S. Colton and drop off in Higley flow state park. We did that alot and rode down to cranberry lake for a quick trip for a drink and dinner.

Once I met all the locals, I rode ALL over up there. Cranberry lake, saranac lake, mechem lake, lake placid, malone, santa clara, etc all from dropping off at south colton, also trailed to the hill but cranbbery, star, tupper are the hidden secrets on the weekend.

The best thing to do is join the cranbery lake sno-goers or the county club. Join now and get involved. the cranberry lake has some great guys and I know those guys, actually just saw them at the state forum!!!

After freshman year, when you can schedule yours classes, try to get all your classes on like mon/wed and tue/thur, although it will crowd your schedule, you will get friday or someday off during the week to ride. I was riding 7,000+ miles a year in school! Just dont be afraid and meet the locals!! Join the clubs and attend their work details in the fall!!

You can make it to forest port in probably 6 hours.

South Colten, cranberry lake, hit the tracks down to stillwater area, continue down the tracks past beaver river and get of the tracks probably 15 miles south of there, head toward forestport.

I'm an Alumni of Clarkson (2008). I've lived in the area my whole life and there are plenty of places to ride. I've been riding in the adirondacks since I was a little kid and it is alot of fun. I usually ride with my brother and a couple of friends, we drop at The Backwoods Inn in So. Colton, my parents camp on Cranberry Lake, and Higley State Park in Colton to name a few. Higley is about 10-15 minutes from campus. You can get on the main trail system and can ride just about anywhere you want to go from these places. It would be a good idea to ride with someone that knows where they're going because the trails aren't marked too well until you get further south, GPS is also handy to have. We also drop in Malone sometimes as well and head towards lyon mountain where theres a lot of off trail riding which is fun for a change. There is a local trail that you can get to from campus if you take the ditch down the Bagdad Rd. (back side of campus) which can bring you into Madrid and then to Waddington, Massena, Ogdensburg and so on. We usually don't get as much snow and cold weather in the St. Lawrence Valley that we do in the Adirondacks though so it makes it tough to ride locally. I see you have an RS, I would recommend a 10 gallon tank as well as a Jerry can if you don't already as there isn't a ton of places to get gas.

this is all good to kno as i am a freshman at suny canton this yr

this is really good to hear about clarkson! my sister is a freshman there this year, and clarkson is one of my top choices right now (i have been there soooo many times, since my dad went there. we always go to the clarkson vs rpi hockey game haha). the thing is, idk if i would want to venture out on my own into trails i know nothing about.




that is alot of miles! holy crap! how deep does the snow usually get? i would love to experience some real pow haha. also, i take it you went for engineering? that's what im planning on atleast, im just afraid of the workload/toughness of the classes, and then being able to have the time to go snowmobiling



jeez i noticed! haha me and my friend drove up to visit my sister the other weekend, and we were seriously in the middle of nowheres, and this one freakin gas station didnt have a public bathroom! *%@ haha i was pretty mad.... anyways, what gps did you use? does it have the maps of the trails in it, or is it just based on geography?

The middle of no where is what makes it so nice, dont tell anybody else, they will all want to come up to northcountry.

ya, we should delete this post!