It’s a beautiful thing out there. Trails were groomed again Friday morning. The sun is shining, the sky is clear blue, and skiers are out everywhere. Stop in at the Main Lodge for some hot chili or soup, a slice of blueberry pie, delicious hot chocolate, or a glass of wine or beer when you are done enjoying the great trails.
Trails are in good shape. We had a considerable amount of snow and blowing over the weekend. Our groomer was out on the trails even when it was still snowing; the entire system was regroomed.
Some trails have been touched up since then. Quinn went out again and redid Poplar Creek and Oxcart on Monday; Summer Home, Campground, and Lower Beaver Dam on Tuesday; and the North-South Link and most of Bear Cub today. The Death’s Door hill is not done, as a piece of grooming equipment broke at that point today. Ridge Run, Upper Beaver Dam and all trails on the north side of Flour Lake have recently been renovated by Dan, the Golden Eagle groomer.
We are expecting more snow over the next 24 hours. Our groomers will go out again whenever the snow stops. Conditions can change quickly, so if you want the latest info on the trails we encourage you to call Golden Eagle or Bearskin Lodge to ask. We get many, many phone calls before weekends inquiring about trail conditions and both resorts will happily provide you with the most current updates over the phone.
Fresh snow overnight. Groomers are out this morning.
It’s nice to see the evergreen boughs coated in snow again.
Poplar Creek Trail being groomed again this morning. We tilled and groomed trails yesterday, then regroomed many trails this morning.
With a great deal of effort from the three groomers of the Central Gunflint Trail ski system, our 77 K of ski trails are once again in good shape. It took some time to recover from the icy conditions and strong winds, but our trails are now tilled and groomed. A fresh coating of new snow overnight has created beautiful scenery again. Skiing should be great today.
Ryan’s hot chili and his wild rice soup are heating up in the kitchen, fresh muffins are baked, and we have plenty of delicious hot chocolate ready. Come on up for lunch and a lovely ski afternoon!
We didn’t lose much base during our 56 degree days (surprisingly!) but the surface of the snow is obviously quite icy, especially on lakes. Wind gusts up to 40+ mph all Thursday night and Friday didn’t help. Groomers were out on both sides today. Can’t speak for the north side, but on this side of the system trails were blowing closed very quickly. Trees are also blowing down on the trails.
Many skiers were out Friday, but most of them didn’t feel they could withstand the windchill temps very long. Quite a contrast to two days ago, when skiers were out shirtless or in shorts. It’s been a good day to sit by the fire with a book, a beer, or a bowl of chili. Those cozy chairs in front of our lodge fireplace were very busy today!
We’re hoping for improved weather Saturday. Groomers on both sides of the system are using every tool and implement known to grooming in order to bring the trails back to tip-top shape. At this point, though, until the winds die down a bit, great grooming will be a bit of a challenge. Some snow tonight would be nice. Decreased winds and snow showers are in the current forecast.
If you are thinking of skiing Saturday or Sunday, call the lodges to find out up-to-the minute grooming updates. The trails have been great all winter and we assume the groomers will soon have everything back in great shape.
New info Saturday: Winds died down, sun came out, temps warming up. Much, much better day today. Friday was probably the worst day this winter. Groomers are out tilling and grooming the icy layer this morning, and unlike yesterday, the created layer of snow isn’t just blowing back off. Between having to till the icy layer and needing to remove fallen trees, it is very SLOW grooming. West side trails, Oxcart and Poplar Creek, are the first to be done. Skiers are reporting that Campground is still quite good from yesterday’s grooming, and Summer Home stayed fairly good except for a few windblown patches in the open areas.
Pisten bully headed out across East Bearskin Lake this morning
It started snowing hard yesterday afternoon, then the wind blew wildly all evening. The air is still filled with tiny sparkling flakes. The total accumulation wasn’t great, but there are massive drifts here and there. (Addendum after grooming: Quinn reports that there was a much greater accumulation of snow than we first guessed, especially at higher elevations such as on Bear Cub.)
We saw a few skiers out right away this morning, but honestly, there can’t be much left of the ungroomed trails right now. Sunday was a crazy windy night.
Quinn has headed out in the pisten bully, starting with Poplar Creek and Oxcart trails. On this side of the system he will be the only groomer out today, as Bob has other repercussions of the windy night to deal with. You can expect that all the trails will get done sometime today, but not on the fast program. Call the lodge if you want a current update of completed trails.
Addendum after grooming: The grooming progress turned out to be slower than planned on Monday, due to deeper drifts and wetter snow than expected. Poplar Creek, Oxcart, and Bear Cub are done. Thye rest will be groomed on Tuesday.
We’ve received close to a foot of new snow over the last week, which has been a bit of grooming challenge. Yesterday we received about 4 more inches.
Wind has also been a factor for the past few days. Quinn groomed a lake trail and said that as he looked behind him, he watched his newly groomed trail disappear. Right now it might be wise to choose ski trail routes without major lake crossings.
Bearskin groomers have been out since 5:30 AM and should have the trails finished before noon. North-South link continues to have an ungroomed section because of a problem on the steep hill down to Aspen Lake. Skiers have made a path down the hill, but we haven’t been able to get equipment down the hill without getting stuck. Choosing an alternative, more sheltered route will be more pleasant right now anyway.
Dan’s Golden Eagle ski report this morning says, “We were out grooming late last night and finished Red Pines, Cross Fox, Deer Mouse, Moose Ridge, Wolf Point, the Logging Camp on the North and West side of Flour Lake, Ridge Run, Moose Pasture, the Upper part of the Beaver Dam and the North South Link from Golden Eagle Lodge to Aspen Lake. Bearskin was out this morning and all trails on their side will be done this morning. Temperature at 9:00 am was -3 F with very little wind.”
Ted Young reports that the Lace Lake/Tall Pines Trail will hopefully be groomed today and the Banadad is scheduled to be groomed tomorrow.
Dan’s current measurements:
New Snow Last 24 hours: 3.25 inches
New Snow Last 7 days: 10.85 inches
Trail Base: Snowcat packed: 9-1/2 to 9-3/4 inches
Snow in Woods: 22-25 inches
Surface Conditions: Powder, packed powder
Trails Open: 70 km
Total snowfall since November 1: 54.10 inches
Oxcart Ski Trail 1.15.11
The trails were groomed today (again) and it didn’t snow immediately afterwards. That’s a first for a while.
It’s beautiful out there. Not warm, but certainly gorgeous.
A trail to be avoided at the moment is the North-South Link. From the East Bearskin side, it is groomed to the point where the hill dramatically descends–and then the grooming stops. Long story, but at the moment we have been unable to get down the steep hill to the lake. It’s just as well, because with the wind we had today, a trail across the lake would have just disappeared. Choose another alternative if you want to head towards Flour Lake for now.
Groomed Oxcart, Poplar Creek, Summer Home and Campground this morning. The trails were groomed beautifully … for about an hour. A number of trails on the Flour Lake side of the system were also groomed today.
We always appreciate fresh snow, but this is the third time this week that a nice grooming job ended with a snowstorm. Talk about an exercise in futility!
It’s snowing hard now, nice big flakes resulting in a significant accumulation. We’ll groom all our trails for the long 3 day weekend, but we’re hoping to wait until it stops snowing!
We continue to get our daily dose of snow, a little bit at a time. It keeps our snow looking fresh and new, but is a grooming challenge. Yesterday Quinn was grooming in a snow downpour for awhile, which feels a bit futile! The snow is clinging to the trees beautifully — it couldn’t be more photogenic out there.
The entire system was groomed 1/8. Since then groomers on both sides have been out periodically to touch up some trails. There was fresh powder in many tracks, but numerous skiers reported that the snow was enough to give them more control on hills but not so much as to be a problem.
Quinn noted on one of his grooming runs yesterday through the Campground Trail that winter campers had dragged sleds over the freshly groomed trails. Campers don’t all seem to realize that pulling sleds over a groomed ski trails means that the whole thing needs to be redone, wasting fuel and time. We are happy to let campers go out on our packed down dog sledding trail, which is much easier and doesn’t destroy any grooming efforts.
This morning, after an inch of snow fell yesterday afternoon, both sides of the system are being regroomed. Dan reports that he is “out with the snowcat today and plans to groom everything on the north side of Flour Lake as well as the North South Link, Wolf Point, the West End Logging Camp, Ridge Run, Moose Pasture and the upper part of the Beaver Dam. There is a nice solid base for freestyle and good tracks for classic skiing.”
Quinn is out in the Pisten Bully and is working on completing the East Bearskin side of the system. He is into grooming perfectionism, so it take him awhile to finish. At this point mid-day Bear Cub, Oxcart, Poplar Creek, Summer Home and Campground are done. We’ll update this later when he’s done for the day.
We have been lucky so far this winter that trails on lakes weren’t forming slush, but yesterday Quinn started to note some of the first serious slush pockets on our lake trail. It might be wise to avoid that trail until the slush freezes up again.
More snow is in the forecast for the next few days.
Dan’s measurements:
New Snow Last 24 hours: 1.0 inch New Snow Last 7 days: 2.25 inches Trail Base: Snowcat packed: 8 - 9-1/2 inches Snow in Woods: 16 -18 inches Surface Conditions: Powder, packed powder Snowshoe trail: Open
Total snowfall since November 1: 44.25 inches Conditions: Good to Excellent
Bearskin Lodge Ski Trail Reports 
