A repeat of the last two mornings/days… hard freeze with temps down to the mid 20’s and warming to near 40. Freezing at nights has been key for preserving the snow coverage we have on the trails. We are focusing on a 4km loop of Skaters Waltz and Suicide Hill, trying to keep it skiable for ski race and ski camp coming up. We have the trails closed this week to preserve the base as we have been doing some snow harvesting as well. Overall the coverage on the trails holding out fine with average 70% coverage on the entire trail system. The Skaters Waltz 4km loop has 100% coverage with some thin areas we are working on this week.
We had a good group of skiers on the trails this past weekend including Saturday morning. The Moorhead Nordic ski team logged a solid four hours of both classic (double pole) and skate skiing and a handful of other skiers. Nice job to those that came out to …Just Ski!!
We groomed on 30km of trail last week after a storm dropped 5-6″ of snow. We set a test track on 2km of trail on Sukkerbusk which is now worn thin from melting. Skiing has been very good for early season but now conditions are poor to fair and the trails are closed to preserve snow.
Another load of snow ready to be spread on the trail. December 8th, 2015.
Visible stretch of trail seeing base enhancement after a morning of snow harvesting. December 8th, 2015.
Grooming on Suicide Hill, December 1st, 2015.Grooming through the skinny field. December 1st, 2015.Packing on Twin lakes trail. December 1st, 2015.Fresh snow on the Maplelag grounds as seen from the tower webcam. December 1st, 2015.
Light snow falling this afternoon. Just under an inch of new dry fluffy snow. Snow forecasted tonight in to tomorrow with 3-6″ forecasted for Maplelag.(Check out the webcams for snowfall) We are ready to pack and groom out any new snow once an inch or two has fallen. We have had recent cold days and mornings with the cold temps over the weekend near 0 on Friday. The temps have been good for setting up ice on the ponds, sloughs and lakes and freezing down the ski trails. Little Sugarbush lake, lake Maplelag is next two, mostly froze over on November 22nd and than completely froze over on the 26th.
The coverage of snow we have on the trails survived the warmer weather earlier in the week. The coverage is thin but the hard and crusty snow layer making for a good base for the next snowfall. It won’t take much to have good early season skiing. We need 2-3″ additional snow to officially open the trails for safe skiing. We have been skiing a bit on the trails, mainly throwing off branches, deadfall etc.
We had 2-3″ of snow Thursday last week. We did our first formal grooming on Friday, combing and smoothing out Skaters Waltz, Sukkerbusk and Suicide hill. The main purpose of grooming was to help set frost in the ground in these trails since the ground was not frozen yet and try to preserve the snow on these select trails during warm weather. It helped! We did have a few skiers out “rock skiing” early on, making way to Suicide Hill which has the best coverage on the trails.
Overall the trails are in fantastic shape, thanks to a mild and mostly dry fall which allowed us to clear the trails up until the most recent snow. The formal mowing was finished the middle of September but since then we have been clearing leaves and deadfall of most of the entire trail system, except for the AMA sections.
Jack and Cole enjoying a winter ride on the Hudson’s Hula singletrack segment off the Twin Lakes mountain bike loop. November 27th, 2015. Latest winter riding report.
Winter returns! A dusting of snow greeting us this morning with windy conditions making it feel like the single digits. Wow, quite a change from earlier in the week. Looks like an inch additional of snow possible today as cooler weather is welcomed to start freezing down the ground. The trails are in great shape and ready for more snow which looks promising the next 10 days. Thanks to the newly formed Moorhead Nordic ski team for coming out early Saturday morning to help clear trail.
Overall it has been great conditions to be in the woods this fall as we fine tune the trails. We have been mainly clearing deadfall and leaves off the trail, preparing them for the first snows and early season skiing.
October 28th we had our first snowfall of the year which was just enough for a quick morning ski before for the kids before heading off to school! The snow melted off from the warm ground underneath but light snow fell throughout the day. At dusk the snow started to pick up again with almost 4″ setting on the ground. A night ski with headlamps was on order and a fun ski was had on the inner trail. The falling snow turned to rain and temps warming during the night melted off the snow by Thursday morning. Although it was too early for snow to stay, it is always exciting to see white on the ground and trees flocked beautifully.
Overall the trails are looking great as we have been mowing almost daily preparing them for winter. We are over 1000 miles of mowing so far this summer and fall! Sounds like a lot but with almost 40 miles of trails and each trail taking 4-6 passes to mow entire trail and some trails mowed up to 20 times during a season it adds up!
Total rainfall since the middle of May has been around 30″ of rain bringing the water tables to normal levels after a dry winter and spring.
We spend just as many hours if not more on the trails outside the winter season to be prepared for low snow years and to be able to open the trails on as little as 3″ of dense snow. We thrive on grooming and having the trails open on as little snow as possible and prepare the trails in the off season with this mindset. We are now busy as ever on the trails, preparing them for the winter season.
Newly formed Moorhead Nordic Ski team ready for a morning of clearing on the trails. November 14th, 2015. Thanks for coming out to help clear trails!
Winter scene in front of the lodge Thursday afternoon after a short return of winter. November 12th, 2015.
One last mowing/clearing on Suicide Hill. Ready for skiing on just a few inches of snow! November 11th, 2015.
Back bowl area in fantastic shape, ready for snow, skiers and sledders! November 10th, 2015.Kamikaze hill, Skaters Waltz. November 10th, 2015.Skaters Waltz, November 10th, 2015.
Coating of ice on Kohlepp pond. November 7th, 2015.
The tamarack trees are the only coniferous tree to loose their needles and always provide nice color when the other trees have lost their leaves. October 21st, 2015.
View from east end of the island on Island lake. Still have plans for a outpost cabin here. Skiers could ski out here in the winter time and spend a night or two! Ask about it at the resort this winter! October 17th, 2015.Panoramic view of Twin Lakes from mountain bike trail. October 15th, 2015.
Beautiful fall scene at top of Suicide Hill, October 13th, 2015.Scene from the bottom of Suicide Hill. October 13th, 2015. We will continue fall grooming on trails up until the snow flies!Freshly cleared trail on the mountain bike course. October 13th, 2015.
Hail on the ground after a quick moving storm Sunday morning. August 2nd, 2015.
Acorn on the ground. August 1st, 2015.Good crop of acorns this year as seen on a fallen branch from wind earlier in the week. Old timers say cold and snowy winter ahead when good acorn crop!! August 1st, 2015.
Group of trumpeter swans on a misty morning. Twin Lakes. June 3rd, 2015.
Yellow slippers blooming in the past few days. May 28th, 2015.
Nice crop of “Pigs Feet” as seen on Sukkerbusk trail yesterday. May 27th, 2015.Pair of trumpeter swans sharing the waters of Little Sugarbush with a loon and a beaver in the far background. May 21st, 2015.
Sukkerbusk ski trail “greening” up. Won’t be long until we begin mowing the ski trails and preparing them for winter! May 13th, 2015.Ferns in the forest enjoying the sunshine on Tuesday and waiting for warmer temps. May 12th, 2015.Red Headed woodpecker making a visit to the Maplelag grounds this week. May 11th, 2015.
Cardinal one of the many birds visiting the Maplelag feeders this week. May 8th, 2015.
Eagle nest near Twin Lakes crossing active this year . May 3rd, 2015.
Kira and Anna helping plant trees near Twin Lakes this week. April 28th, 2015.
The latest section of new section of singletrack, Hudson’s Hula, begins near the end of the Twin Lakes loop and is marked at the key intersections. The new segment is around 1.8 miles in length.
Peder Arneson one of the many riders out enjoying the beautiful Sunday. November 1st, 2015.Sunset on the mountain bike trail near Twin Lakes. November 1st, 2015.
Checking out the new singletrack, Hudson’s Hula Friday morning, October 23rd, 2015.
Mike Hess enjoying a beautiful afternoon and a late season mountain bike ride. Singletrack near Twin Lakes. October 21st, 2015.
First section of singletrack on mtb course. Few leaves blowing in after being blown out earlier in week. Great fall riding! October 17th, 21015.Start of mtb course. October 17th, 2015.
Panoramic view of Twin Lakes from mountain bike trail. October 15th, 2015.Rock garden on Twin Lakes after clearing. Three options! Stay left for cleanest line. October 14th, 2015.Freshly cleared trail on the mountain bike course. October 13th, 2015.
Riders checking out the short track course Friday morning.Riders checking out the cross country course Friday morning.Checking out the Laddies Loppet course near Twin Lakes, September 2nd, 2015.
Many Point Boy Scout Camp riders ready to hit the trail. June 30th, 2015. The Scouts come out 2-3 times a week to ride as part of their mountain bike program.
Local rider “Stoney” taking in the view off Twin Lakes singletrack. May 27th, 2015.
We maintain all the ski trails over the summer but we specifically maintain around 11 miles of trail for mountain biking which includes 80% singletrack. We maintain the mtb trail on a regular basis to have the best riding conditions possible. There are two main loops for riding. A 3 mile beginner “kids comp/citizen” loop and a 11 mile intermediate to advanced loop that is signed Sport/Comp/Expert based off the categories in the race series in WI and MN and includes around 1500ft of climbing on the lap.
The Sport/Comp/Expert loop starts lakeside by the Northern Pacific building adjacent to the Lucky’s Loype ski trail near the lakeside. This advanced loop can also be accessed by starting left on Skaters Waltz to bypass the lakeside section.
The Sport/Comp/Expert loop includes the west loop or Twin Lakes singletrack and is intermediate to advanced singletrack and is 3 miles in length. This loop can be accessed off the driveway by the wooden bridge.
The majority of the Maplelag trail system runs on our property. We are riders and racers that hand built all the trail with help from other riders and racers. The trail can be described as “old school” with the majority of trail hand built. There are sections of singletrack with rocks, roots and steep ups and downs! We maintain the trails privately with no outside funding and we are glad to share our dirt and love having people out riding!
Future plans for new mtb singletrack include a 3 mile loop near Bullhead lake we hope to start fall of 2015 and north of Maplelag near the North Loup ski trail for 2017.
Dry weather and relatively warm temps drying out the trails nicely. We are able to get in the woods now and do light trail work. We also checked out portions of the mountain bike course today and now have them open for riding. Click here for latest mountain bike trail report and information on mountain biking at Maplelag. The woods are active with many species of waterfowl enjoying the open water on sloughs and ponds. The bigger lakes still frozen over with almost 2 feet of ice on Little Sugarbush still.
Thanks to everyone who came to Maplelag this season and patronized the trails. Despite the low snow year, we had fair to excellent skiing from November 13th-Decmeber 13th, melted out than skiing again from January 1st until March 10th. Counting the skiable days in November and December, we had a total of 100 days we skied this year. This does not include the days we skied on the lake which would of put the total at 108 days. Total number of skier visits were right around 10,000. Total snowfall this season was 25″. We started out with 8″ of snowfall in November and December before that melted out the December 14th-15th weekend than 17″ between January 1st and March 7th, the last day it snowed. We groomed over 75 times this year, with Suicide Hill, Skaters Waltz, Sukkerbusk and Twin Lakes seeing the most grooming action. For the record, we also hauled over 50 pick up loads of snow from the lake and surrounding fields etc, to build up the base mainly on skaters waltz and the start area.
We spend just as many hours if not more on the trails outside the winter season to be prepared for low snow years such as this one to be able to open the trails on as little as 3″ of dense snow. We thrive on grooming and having the trails open on as little snow as possible and prepare the trails in the off season with this mindset. As soon as the frost goes out, we will begin working on the trails for next season! Also on the agenda is tree planting with over 3000 trees on order to be planted in late April and the finishing and building of new mountain bike trail. Check back frequently for spring photos and new trail work photos.
