A crisp and cool January morning. Feels great out there after the mild winter so far. A dusting of snow yesterday afternoon was worked in on portions of the trails with the classic tracks left alone. Skiing is the “slowest” it has been all season with the fine grained snow and cold temps. A nice change of pace after the faster conditions. We will reset and set new tracks on the classic trails Friday morning and comb the skating lanes.

The base is hard with a few thin and  bare spots but some good sections throughout the trail system and good skiing to be had with careful skiing. We have tracks set throughout the trail system on the classic trails and best skating has been on skaters waltz with North Loup also open for skating with a few more rough spots.All 64km are open and like we say, a few areas rough that either require skis being taken off careful navigation.  Generally the reports have been fair to good and please feel free to share a report. Folks also snowshoeing on the snow shoe trail and also hiking on the trail with the hardpack conditions. The ice skating rink is in good condition and we have been flooding each day with the awesome cold temps.

Despite the low snow conditions, a nice MLK weekend with the North Star Ski touring club, ski teams from Mound/Westonka and Benilde St Margaret and long time Maplelag guests. Thanks to everyone for your visit.

Photos below from today and the weekend, more photos on our Facebook page. (yes, this is the current snow we have)

https://picasaweb.google.com/117475008862763984699/January19thTrailReportPhotos02

https://picasaweb.google.com/117475008862763984699/January15thTrailReportPhotos03

https://picasaweb.google.com/117475008862763984699/January13thTrailReportPhotos03

As of 2pm Wednesday afternoon, around an inch of fresh snow has fallen. A little bit of light snow continues to fall as we will be packing this new snow out on the skate trails and trailhead areas before the wind and cooler temps move in. This new snow will improve the skiing and fill in nicely where existing tracks are set and we should be able to reset tracks in select places on other trails, most likely Friday morning.

Cooler temps moving in the start of the week with single digit highs and below 0 for lows. Nice January weather!  The woods are protected and  fine once you get moving.  Looks like a few chances of snow the next 5-7 days and we are ready to groom any new snow and improve the conditions. With the solid base that we have, it won’t take much to have really nice skiing. The base is hard with thin and a few bare spots but some good sections throughout the trail system and good skiing to be had with careful skiing. We have tracks set throughout the trail system on the classic trails and best skating has been on skaters waltz with North Loup also open for skating with a few more rough spots. Generally the reports have been fair to good and please feel free to share a report. Folks also snowshoeing on the snow shoe trail and also hiking on the trail with the hardpack conditions.

Despite the low snow conditions, a nice MLK weekend with the North Star Ski touring club, ski teams from Mound/Westonka and Benilde St Margaret and long time Maplelag guests. Thanks to everyone for your visit.

Photos below from the weekend, more photos on our Facebook page. (yes, this is the current snow we have)

https://picasaweb.google.com/117475008862763984699/January15thTrailReportPhotos03

https://picasaweb.google.com/117475008862763984699/January13thTrailReportPhotos03