Almost everything was groomed Saturday morning, but then it snowed a couple more inches overnight— so out they went again early Sunday morning. System looks great!
Just an FYI for skiers who like to use the downstairs of the Main Lodge at Bearskin: the Cook County Ski Sparks group — basically every little winter-loving kid in Grand Marais plus their parents—will be meeting at Bearskin this afternoon. They never get real far on the trail system, so you’ll lose them once you start skiing. 😉. There will be kids all over the place for a while.
We’ve reached that magical point in the season where there are few reportable changes. It snows a little, we groom it. Snows again, we groom again. The endless cycle. No rain here, no melting, no giant storms, but just a bit more snow every few days. Skiers are happy.
Quinn updates our Facebook site almost every time he goes out. Todays’s grooming note is “We groomed a lake loop today. It should make for some nice skiing. With the wind on the lake it’s hard to keep lake trails as pristine as the rest of the system, but we’ll try to keep after it.”
Yesterday’s report includes a quiz: “We groomed the nice dusting of snow we received overnight. The trails just keep getting better. Who can name the trail pictured?” IYKYK. There’s only one trail that goes through a Black Spruce swamp. Go to Facebook and leave a guess: https://www.facebook.com/BearskinLodge
In other area skiing news, a portion of the Banadad Trail has reopened. As most regular skiers up here know, Ted and Barbara Young retired from the ski business so grooming is now being done by the Banadad Trail Association. It’s been a challenge for the Banadad to open up the trail this year after the “mini-blowdown” we had last spring. The first 10 K is being snowmobile groomed this week. If you are a patron of Chik-Wauk museum, then you’ve probably met Bonnie, the museum manager. She will be doing the Banadad grooming this year with assistance from her friend Mandy— they will do an excellent job. They are only doing 10k, starting at our end, so don’t plan to ski through the whole trail. The Banadad requires a Minnesota ski pass, not the same pass as the Central Gunflint Trail system uses. Also, a new family lives in Ted and Barbara’s house, so that is no longer a Banadad stop.
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The forecast for the weekend is calling for a slight, temporary warm-up. We do have Cabin 10 open for a short stay for the next couple nights.
We will be serving chili and soup in the Main Lodge this weekend, as well as hot chocolate and cheesecake. Stop in and get warm with us!
The whole system was groomed today. Groomers got out early in the Pisten Bully groomers on both sides, so everything is pristine again. Lake trails wereTidd-Tech groomed in the morning, but it’s windy so the lake crossings might not be fresh later in the day. Get out and enjoy this great skiing before the cold hits!
We’re happy to report that we ended up with around 6 inches of fresh snow, maybe more in some areas. Everything was groomed today, including the BWCA section, so the trails are in great shape.
A new problem emerged this afternoon with access to the Poplar Creek Trail. It appears a beaver dam that holds back the Oxcart Pond broke, and water is flooding over the Poplar Creek Trail. We have this problem in the spring when snowmelt water overflows the little dam, but in May it’s not a ski trail issue. Today it is. Our cold weather should freeze the water, but don’t trust it yet. Bob tested the developing ice and went right through. We will just have to see what happens. EDIT: it fixed itself over night! Yay, water freezes. 😉
Quick weather update: it snowed overnight, it’s snowing now. Groomers on both sides have been out this morning doing many of the trails because we have lots of skiers here, but we are midway through the snowstorm. We’ll do it all again in the morning. Weather service says the heaviest snow is just sitting over Lake Superior and has not made it inland. That’s probably ok with us. The snow we are receiving is very nice.
It snowed a bit last night, with more in the forecast for the weekend. We have been so grateful to have good skiing here, but our snow was getting fairly compacted. It snowed just enough to freshen up the trails well.
We groomed the east side trails this morning with our Pisten Bully. We’ll do the west side — Bear Cub, Oxcart, and Poplar Creek — this afternoon. (EDIT: Quinn didn’t get to Bear Cub this afternoon.) The small amount of snow we received did wonders and everything groomed up great.
The northern trails, on the Golden Eagle side, had their skate decks refreshed with the Tidd-Tech this morning. Golden Eagle plans to go out with their Pisten Bully on their side of the trail system after the snow this weekend.
Weekend Planning:
We will have soup, chili, cheesecake, cookies, hot chocolate, caramel macchiato, wine, beer, pop, and snacks available in the Main Lodge for weekend skiers. Skiers are coming here to practice for races from all over the state right now, so the parking lot has been getting a bit full on the weekends. Remember, if our parking is nutty then you can drive a little farther up the Gunflint Trail to Golden Eagle and start on the north side of the same system. That lot is generally more available. If you get here fairly early, then parking is easy. Arrive in the morning and spend the day. By lunch time the lot may get fairly full— be smart about how you park.
We do have an opening in Lodge 4 for this weekend, as well a big new opening in Cabin 3 for dates during the coming week. (Cabin 3 rarely comes open in winter!) Check our Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BearskinLodge/ for more info.
You’ve probably heard there’s “no snow” up north. Not true at Bearskin. We continue to provide good skiing conditions on the Central Gunflint Trail System. Skiers are happy to be here. On Sunday, a bitterly cold day, we still set a new record for how many January day-ski passes we sold. Of course, our trails are so extensive that you don’t usually encounter all those other people, but the trails were busy with serious skiers.
We’ve been in a stretch now with no new snow or else small flurries of snow. The trails are still holding up just fine. We went out and touched up some skate lanes on Summer Home, Campground, Beaver Dam, and the Lit Loop. They’ve been well-used, but they cleaned up nicely.
It looks like we could get some mild temperatures and more snow by the end of the week! We don’t need much more snow to continue to maintain the trails well, but a few inches of fresh flakes would make our groomers super happy.
Bearskin Lodge Ski Trail Reports 