Not much new to report, other than that you should have been up here this week! We’ve had the kind of weather that Minnesotans always imagine when we think of an idyllic winter.  Glistening snow, bright sun, blue skies, warm winter temps, and almost no wind.

For the past week, we’ve mostly just been doing occasional touch-up grooming.  We’ve been surrounded by extremely happy guests, as conditions have been nearly perfect. (Oh, OK, everyone is griping that they need to strip down to a minimal number of ski clothing layers  because of the warm sun — this is a good complaint to have!)

It snowed on and off all day Tuesday.  New snow amounted to less than an inch in most places, although (as usual) Bear Cub Trail seemed to have more.  Groomers were out last night and early this morning on both sides of the trail system.  Tracks set up nicely and the skate base is very firm.  Temps cooled off a bit last night, but the long range forecast is for typical late February highs and lows

The Gunflint Trail’s Winter Tracks Festival is being held this weekend, offering fun activities all along the trail.   The Bearskin Wilderness Pursuit Race, which was part of Winter Tracks, has been cancelled.  There were no registrations as of last weekend, probably due to date conflicts with the Birkie race.  At this point, we didn’t think it would be fair to let participants register now, only to discover when they arrived that nobody really signed up to race — so we officially cancelled it.   We plan to hold a race next year again and will be sure the date doesn’t coincide with the Birkie event.