A spectacular day on the trails. A inch of fluffy snow  this morning mixed in while grooming early this morning. Sun breaking through the clouds and flurries linger. Little bit of wind in the open but not noticeable in the woods.  All the skate lanes were re-groomed as well as new track set on Sap Run, Mother Hen, Sukkerbusk, Rootin Tootin, Mother North Star, Lucky’s Loype, Bullhead and bootleg extension, Wavy Gravy and Twin Lakes. All trails are open and groomed for classic skiing. Skating only trails groomed on North Loup, Skaters Waltz and Skaters Extension. We typically hit the trails around 5am during the Holiday season to prepare the trails for the day so the trails can set up before skiers hit the tracks etc. We will groom the skating trails again tomorrow morning and set new tracks were needed on the classic only trails. Skiing is about as good as it gets right now. Trails are starting to firm up with just a few soft and rough spots here and there. The top water areas on the lake crossings have frozen over and skiable throughout.

http://picasaweb.google.com/6birdman6/December28thTrailReportPhotos02

All the trails are open and groomed.  Today we groomed the entire trail system. Skiing is excellent. A few rough spots on the lake crossings because of top water but skiable throughout. We picked up a couple more inches Saturday night/Sunday morning bringing our 4 day snow total to around 14″. We had no rain so the snow is packed powder, no crust or ice. All the trails are tracked for classic except Skaters Waltz, Skaters Extension and North Loup which are groomed for skating. The next week we will groom the skate trails daily and reset new tracks daily where needed. The temps have been nice, wind not an issue and skiing about as good as it gets!!

We woke up to 2″ of fresh snow and light snow falling most of the day accumulating to a couple of inches. Total new snow since “the storm” started is around one foot. The winds were not noticeable at all and about as good as it gets in the woods with pleasant temps and fresh snow. We packed and combed most of the trails and also set tracks on about 30km of trail. We will smooth out the three trails for skating, Skaters Waltz, North Loup and Skaters Extension and set new tracks on the trails we tracked today, Sap Run, Mother Hen, Sukkerbusk, Rootin Tootin, Mother North Star, Twin Lakes and Wavy Gravy. We will also set a track on Island Lake and Roy’s Run. We have been packing Bullhead trail but need a cold night to freeze down the top water on the lake crossings. We are able to groom across the ice no problem so the trail is open but can’t take grooming equipment across until it freezes. We had no rain at Maplelag and the snow is dry and dense. It is not crusty or icy. Conditions are excellent. A bit soft with so much new snow at once and a bit bumpy from early season conditions but otherwise about as good as it gets!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/6birdman6/December26thTrailReportPhotos02