Summer Home, Campground, Lower Beaver Dam, and Bear Cub were regroomed today, after a little bit of snow fell overnight.  Oxcart was also freshly groomed. 

Skiers report that the colder temps helped the tracks firm up very nicely.

Oxcart Trail 12.16.10

Here on the Gunflint Trail we continue to get a gradual accumulation of new snow. We never received the mega-dump of snow that made headlines in the Twin Cities, but we’ve received a nice amount of snow in regular 2″-5″ increments.  We enjoyed reading about the massive snowfall in southern Minnesota, but we like our snow in smaller doses, thanks.

Almost all trails on both the Golden Eagle and the Bearskin sides of the Central Gunflint have now been groomed at least once.  Many trails have been groomed several times at this point.   A few of the big, refrigerator-sized boulders still protrude from the snow in spots on certain trails, but that is to be expected at this point. A skier can see the big rocks well ahead of time.

There are some trails that have yet to be groomed.  Poplar Creek mysteriously still has running water over it in one area.  We had a run of -20 degree weather, so this is peculiar. 

The area old Old Logging Camp Trail in and adjacent to the BWCA has not been groomed yet, but should be done soon.

Not all lake crossings have been groomed.  Any lake trail that we can do with the snowmobile Tid Tech G2 groomer has been done, but lake trails that must be groomed with the much heavier pisten bully groomers have not been groomed yet.  Inquire at the resort where you buy your ski pass to get the most current lake crossing conditions.

Yesterday was gorgeous and sunny, but today we are back in the old cycle — snow, snow, snow.  Bob is planning to make a first pass across the lake from Bearskin to the Campground Loop today with the snowmobile to begin packing down that trail.  It will be quite awhile yet before we dare take the pisten bully across the lake, but this is a good early start.

Skiers have been out almost everyday on the groomed trails and overall they are reporting good early season conditions.  Bear Cub, in spite of several packing runs and being groomed with the pisten bully, still seems to be a little on the soft side.  There’s considerably more snow up there, so it probably will require more packing time.  Skiers are generally pleased with Summer Home, Campground, Lit Loop, Beaver Dam and Oxcart Trails at this point.

The forecast is for Bearskin to receive 2-4 more inches of snow today.  It’s coming down pretty seriously now.  Day by day, we’re building an excellent snow base for the rest of winter

After a bit of rain and sleet last night, Bearskin has received wet snow all day today.  The temperature was 36 degrees by staff housing this morning (usually our coldest spot) when the wet stuff turned to huge snowflakes.  This afternoon we see the temps slowly starting to decrease, but it’s still around 25 degrees outside the lodge. The forecast is for it to become a bit colder over the next few days.

The snow has been consistent all day, but hasn’t amounted to many inches — perhaps 3 inches at most.  It’s not windy here, so the snow is clinging beautifully to the trees again.

We won’t be grooming until it quits snowing and gets colder.  The trails that were groomed a few days ago are still available, but there will be quite a bit of wet snow in the tracks.   This is continuing to build a nice base for December.  Early season skiing should be the best it has been in years.

After starting this blog numerous times over the past few days, we finally have a few minutes to catch up on the current ski trail situation.  We’ve been patiently prepping the grooming equipment and waiting for snow.  Tracks went on the pisten bully this week and the Tidd Tech G2 snowmobile groomer was tuned up.  We have a new roller, and earlier in the week we received enough snow to try that out.  We rolled Summer Home, Campground, Lit Loop, Oxcart, and Bear Cub Trails on 11/22, resulting in fairly good early season skate skiing with “rock skis.”

The big snow started on Wednesday night, into Thanksgiving morning.  This would not be considered perfect timing for lodge owners with a full resort, lots of staff off for Thanksgiving, and a turkey dinner to eat sometime during the day! Amazingly, we did get a first grooming completed Thursday on Summer Home, Campground, Oxcart, and the Lit Loop.

It all blew shut overnight.  @@

Snow continued yesterday, but Bob groomed all those trails again (except for Oxcart) on Friday.  Most of our guests with Thanksgiving reservations weren’t expecting a ski weekend, given our recent history of no snow on these dates, but they were eager to get out on the trails so we kept grooming in spite of the falling snow. Skiers reported relatively good early season conditions.

This morning Bob is out in the Pisten Bully again, with the goal of getting Beaver Dam groomed for the first time. The first grooming of any trail is always slower.  We cleared fallen trees, long grass, and big branches off the trails repeatedly this fall, but we experienced a lot of wind damage again recently that will need to be cleaned up as the groomer gets to it now.   Still, the unexpected early deep snow has given us a nice head start on the ski season.  In the upcoming week we will continue to groom the rest of the trails. 

 Any trails that cross over water will not be available for quite a while yet.  East Bearskin Lake started to freeze a week ago and if you look at our webcam now, the lake looks just like it does mid-winter.  That’s deceiving, as the ice is not in any way passable yet. 

We  feel fortunate that our equipment was ready to go when the unexpected early snow fell; there are a number of trails in the area that aren’t being groomed yet because equipment wasn’t available.  Historically, big snows in our area have been arriving later; we haven’t received this much snow by this date since 1995.  The surprise new snow has created a great opportunity for guests to sneak in an early season getaway at an exceptionally good price. Our early season special is going from December 1-17, offering three days for the price of two days. Many of those dates are already in Value Season, with the lowest prices of each year.   Unless we get some bizarre weather change, trails should be in great shape for all of these bargain dates.

During the ski season we try very hard to update this blog often, but realistically, we are sometimes too busy running a resort to get around to writing this.  If you are wondering about current ski conditions, there are lots of additional ways to check on our trails.  We post trail reports on Skinny Ski often; many of our regular local skiers and guests also post reports there. (Thanks!)  Our Facebook site and our Daily Photo site on Flickr both take so little time to update that they are often updated very rapidly, before we get to the blog.  And you can always call our front desk (800 338 4170) or e-mail stay@bearskin.com  for quick answers.

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.

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.

Warning! Bear Cub ahead.

Skiers are having a fantastic time skiing our trails right now.  Several skiers reported that today was one of the best ski days ever–sunny skies, pleasant temps, and newly groomed trails. 

We get many calls  lately asking if we actually have snow.  A large percentage of them are from people staying along the North Shore, who are dismayed to find that the snow conditions are not what they had hoped for.  When we received all the snow last week, many other areas received rain.  Our snow was dense, wet, and heavy.  It caused thousands of trees to bend and break along the trails.  Bearskin Lodge and Golden Eagle Lodge employees are still stiff and sore from the many days of trail clearing that followed this heavy snow.  The clean up job was huge; not every trail system is finished yet. 

Our trail system groomed up surprisingly well, especially given the difficulty of grooming that particular snow.  Most of the trails have been groomed one to two times since the snowfall.  

There’ve been scattered reports of a few soft areas or ruts in the heavy snow on the sunny, exposed hilltops but overall, skiers are saying  the trails have been fabulous.  Today was one of the busier days we’ve seen on the trails. Skiers were very pleased with conditions. 

We are expecting some snow in the next few days, although nothing like the snowsfall that pummeled the East coast.  At this point we don’t need lots more snow, but we’ll happily make the most of it. 

Kathy Welsh and Mary Anne Warner under the new Poplar Creek Arch. Photo by Ron Warner.

Bob had the pisten bully out on the trails at 4 AM this morning.  He was surprised to see that an additional couple inches of snow  had appeared. 

He is also wondering about the strange orange glow he saw on the north side of Aspen Lake while he was grooming.    We assume it was an alien space ship landing.  😉   (If you know what it actually was, we’d be interested in knowing.)

A fairly good base has gradually developed.  All tracks are set, all skate lanes are open.  We are very busy with skiers now.  Forest Lake High School and Minnehaha Academy high school skiers are here training.  There are lots of recreational skiers out on the trails, too.  The pine boughs are still loaded with snow, so the trails are very beautiful.

Winter wonderland this morning. Groomers are headed out.

For local skiers heading up today, keep in mind this is the first grooming of many of these trails this year.   It’s going to be a long day of grooming.  All trails should be done by the end of today,  but for much of today grooming will be a work in progress.