We’re ready for winter.  The trails on the Central Gunflint system have been mowed and trimmed.  Trees have been cleared from the trail, repeatedly.  (It’s been a windy fall — sometimes those trees blow down faster than we can clean them up.)  The trail signs are up.  The pisten bully has been tuned up and repaired; the tracks need to go on, but everything else is in tip-top condition.  We even have a brand new roller, thanks to Uncle Bob Weber, our family’s talented welder.  All we need now is enough snow to started grooming.

The Bearskin snow measuring stick, as snow began to pile up today.

Bit by bit we’ve been accumulating snow during the past week.  We actually didn’t get the 12 inches of snow that the Twin Cities and Duluth received last week, but the snow we did get has stayed.  No melting here.  Today we’ve probably received another 4 inches and it continues to fall steadily. The forecast is for it to snow almost every day this week.

The lake just started freezing a few days ago.  Much of the fresh ice is covered in snow, so it looks deceivingly good.  Obviously, it’s not.  Any part of the trail system that crosses a lake will not be ready for a long time yet.

Andy and Bob are thinking they might get out to pack Summer Home Road as early as Monday, if they are lucky.  At any rate, it looks like it could be a nice early start to the ski season.  We’ll keep you updated.