Happy Thanksgiving! An inch or so of new snow Friday night. Grooming on 20-25km of trail Friday morning including Skaters Waltz and Sukkerbusk which has been the best trails for early season skiing. The coating of new snow once again slightly improved the conditions. Not quite enough snow to set tracks but getting closer! Still some rough and thin spots here and there but overall for Thanksgiving weekend, nice skiing. Handful of folks out on the trail enjoying the early season conditions.

Just under an inch of fresh snow Tuesday night. The new snow was groomed and combed on Skaters Waltz, Sukkerbusk, North Loup, Twin Lakes, Loon Return and a portion of double green trail.  A ski patrol at lunch found fair to very good early season/rock skiing conditions with best skiing on Skaters Waltz, Suicide Hill and Sukkerbusk.

The trails are open. Recommended to stay on Skaters and Sukkerbusk. No tracks set, skaters welcome to skate on Sukkerbusk. Use caution if adventuring to other trails. We have packed other trails but waiting for more snow before grooming additional trails. We are focusing on the trails groomed today until more snow.

There is no charge to use the trails and be advised the base is thin with some rough areas. Best to use older skis or “rock” skis. With that said, there is some fun skiing to be had if careful! The compacted base is 1-3″, solid and hard after a melt freeze cycle last weekend. Total snowfall this season has been 8″ of mostly light fluffy snow and snow depth in the woods is around 4″.

There are limited services available in the lodge with no lodging available until the weekend of December 12th-14th. Just Ski!

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Another light dusting of snow overnight. Cooling back down again with temps in the lower teens. The new snow will be combed on about 20-25 km this morning. Yesterday morning Skaters Waltz and Suicide Hill was combed, pressing the new snow into corduroy.

We did get warm temps Saturday and Sunday that softened the snow but the coverage is holding on with a firm base, despite being thin. Very skiable with caution! Looks like chances of snow this week and just 2″ would really improve the conditions with the solid base that exists. We need around 3-4″ before we can set tracks.

Good to see folks on the trails this past weekend taking advantadge of the early season conditions. An incredible Saturday morning before getting warmer but still folks skiing in the afternoon and on Sunday.

Grooming last week on Rootin Tootin, North Loup, Mother North Star,Sap Run, Skaters Waltz, JibFly, Sukkerbusk, Suicide Hill and Twin Lakes trails. We have the trails open for early season “rock” skiing. No tracks set. Thin 1-2″ base with areas of thin cover and rough spots. Use caution on the hills and advised to use “rock” skis or older skis. Best trail to ski would be Skaters Waltz and Suicide Hill. Other trails bit more rough.

There is no fee to use the trails at this time. No lodging available and limited services in the main lodge. The trails will remain open for skiing Thanksgiving week and in to the weekend. We will not have lodging available but feel free to park, click in and just ski!

Cold temps allowing Little Sugubush (lake Maplelag is next to) to freeze over entirely last Friday morning. This follows the other small area lakes that froze over earlier this week. Always exciting when the lake freezes over as a sign winter is approaching or in this weeks case, is here!

We have also been taking advantage of the cold temps and working on the ice skating rink which is ready and saw first skaters on the weekend!

Overall, the trails are in great shape after an amazing fall for clearing, brushing and preparing for snow.

Think Snow!!

https://plus.google.com/photos/117475008862763984699/albums/6085695306992407793

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Quite a change in weather the past 24 hours with almost a 40 degree temp swing!! Light snow early this morning resulting in less than an inch. We did get warm temps Saturday and Sunday that softened the snow but the coverage is holding on with a firm base, despite being thin. Very skiable with caution! Looks like chances of snow this week and just 2″ would really improve the conditions with the solid base that exists. We need around 3-4″ before we can set tracks.

Good to see folks on the trails this weekend taking advantadge of the early season conditions.  An incredible Saturday morning before getting warmer but still folks skiing in the afternoon and on Sunday.

Grooming last week on Rootin Tootin, North Loup, Mother North Star,Sap Run, Skaters Waltz, JibFly, Sukkerbusk, Suicide Hill and Twin Lakes trails. We have the trails open for early season “rock” skiing. No tracks set. Thin 1-2″ base with areas of thin cover and rough spots. Use caution on the hills and advised to use “rock” skis or older skis. Best trail to ski would be Skaters Waltz and Suicide Hill. Other trails bit more rough.

There is no fee to use the trails at this time. No lodging available and limited services in the main lodge. The trails will remain open for skiing Thanksgiving week and in to the weekend. We will not have lodging available but feel free to park, click in and just ski!

Cold temps allowing Little Sugubush (lake Maplelag is next to) to freeze over entirely last Friday morning. This follows the other small area lakes that froze over earlier this week. Always exciting when the lake freezes over as a sign winter is approaching or in this weeks case, is here!

We have also been taking advantage of the cold temps and working on the ice skating rink which is ready and saw first skaters on the weekend!

Overall, the trails are in great shape after an amazing fall for clearing, brushing and preparing for snow.

Think Snow!!

https://plus.google.com/photos/117475008862763984699/albums/6085381618636302609

https://plus.google.com/photos/117475008862763984699/albums/6084284438140825505

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Wintery weather in place!  Light snow flurries off and on the past 24 hours resulting in just under 3″ of fluffy snow. Thursday morning temperature checking in at 15 degrees. Temps well below freezing the past 5 days have set up ice on the ponds, sloughs and smaller lakes. We packed out a short loop including Suicide hill but the trails are closed until more snow and because of deer hunting until Monday. Snow depth on the trails ranges from 2-3″ of fluffy snow. We did not receive any snow from the storm on Monday.

A mostly dry October was great for working in the woods, fine tuning the trails including clearing leaves off the trail. We have made good progress on the leaf clearing and will continue right up until the  snow flies for real! We try to clear 20-25 km of trail so we can be skiing on these trails with minimal snowfall.

We hit our peak of fall color around September 23rd, enjoyed a beautiful few weeks of autumn scenes but now with wind and freezing nights, most of the leaves have come down. This year was one of the quicker transitions of fall color we can remember.

Has been a great autumn for our fall tree planting project where we plant potted and tube trees. In the spring we planted over 5000 seedlings. We have been planting for over 40 years with over 100,000  trees planted on the Maplelag property.

The sunrises and sunsets this time of year are some of the best of the year and we have been treated with some great scenes this fall so far.

The mountain bike trail is now closed for the season until further notice. (click here for latest mountain bike trail report) No horses and motorized equipment equipment allowed. Thanks!

Photoset from spring, winter and fall!

 November 6th Trail Report Photos

November 5th First Skiing Photos

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