We groomed the BWCAW section of Logging Camp today. Because of the difficulties associated with trimming a trail in the BWCAW, it has a few more sticks poking through and is a bit lumpier than the rest of the system.
We have a couple more firsts for this winter today: first time grooming across the lake and first guests in the ski-in cabins!
The trail across the lake to Bear Cub, Ox Cart, and Poplar Creek was groomed this morning and it looks great. Too soon to groom the lake trail going to the east — ice is forming slowly this winter and we are uncertain if it’s safe yet off our little bay. You can already easily access all the east-side trails directly from our parking lot to Summer Home Road, so the eastern lake crossing can wait.
The trails are looking great for the weekend! We groomed Poplar Creek for the first time this year, and Lace Lake for the first time ever (for us). Lace Lake is still a bit bumpy due to swamps and various boulders, but it should be fun skiing.
Pictured are Lace Lake and Upper Beaver Dam.
We spent the morning out packing the Lace Lake trail. For those not familiar with this trail, Lace Lake is a short loop trail that connects Poplar Creek to the Banadad Trail. The last few years it has struggled to get groomed, and starting this year we’ll be grooming it. We’d planned to start grooming it last year but never had the snow, so we’re excited to be able to get out there soon and give it the first Pisten Bully grooming in decades!
We groomed Summer Home Road, Campground, The Lit Loop, Lower Beaver Dam, Ox Cart and Bear Cub. We were lucky to avoid the rain that came down closer to the shore. It should be some great skiing out there. Poplar Creek is very close, and hopefully will be ready within a few days.
We went out and touched up some of the trails today. It’s a bit cold for skiing, but a few hearty day skiers have ventured out. We did find one warm spot on the Poplar Creek trail!
We re-groomed Summer Home, Campground, the Lit Loop and Beaver Dam after the dusting we received last night. Ox Cart was groomed yesterday and looks like some great classic skiing. Golden Eagle was out and groomed the trails on the north side of Flour Lake as well as Logging Camp, Beaver Dam and Ridge Run.
We finished grooming this morning just in time for the snow to start up again! Summer Home, Campground, the Lit Loop, and Lower Beaver Dam are all groomed and in nice shape. We’ll get out and open up some more trails over the next couple days.
On the north side, Golden Eagle reports that Deer Mouse and Logging Camp trails have been groomed and are suitable for good skis. Red Pine, Cross Fox and Moose Ridge are tracked in most places except a few rocky areas. Use your lesser skis on these trails until we get another round of snow.
We re-groomed Summer Home, Campground, and Lower Beaver Dam this morning. We had a little mist in the air yesterday, and a quick tilling brought everything back to life. Summer Home and Campground are in great shape, Lower Beaver Dam doesn’t have a classic track yet and is best skied with rock skis. We’ve had good reports coming in from the local High School team staying with us.
Ski season 2024-2025 is underway. Looking back at the ski posts from last year, it’s pretty funny to see how the posts just trailed off — just like the skiing did. We actually kept the skiing alive until early March, by moving snow from the lake to the trails and by creating a maze of trails on the lake. People had a surprising amount of fun last winter in spite of the low snow conditions. We’ll all remember winter 2023-2024 as uniquely enjoyable because of the different activities everyone could do–hiking into the BWCA, exploring summer trips like Rose Falls, playing with the kick sleds on the lake ice, ice skating far into the wilderness on the lakes. But we didn’t want to do it again this year.
Fortunately, it is looking like winter 2024-2025 might be a snowy one. After an extended autumn, we started getting snow after Thanksgiving and it has been snowing constantly ever since. Bearskin tends to get its snow in big dumps, followed by addtional little snowfalls almost daily. That’s the pattern we are seeing so far this year. We hope it continues.
Summer Home and Campground ski trails have been pisten bully groomed several times now, the latest grooming being Saturday morning. We have the Cook County High School ski team and the Team Birkie skiers out on those trails today and tomorrow, so there has been a lot of ski action on that grooming. Our forecast is for a possible 8″ more of snow Sunday and Monday, with more snow forecast for later in the week. That’s probably just the right amount snow we need to start grooming the rockier, hillier sections of our trail system. We’ve done preparatory packing work on many of the trails on both the north and south sides of the system, so now we just need the snow. We’re ready!
Both Bearskin and Golden Eagle are selling ski passes now, including day passes and season passes. Stop in and get yourself set up for a winter of great skiing!
Bearskin Lodge Ski Trail Reports 