We were out on the trails this morning before the temps got above freezing and groomed Ox Cart, Summerhome, Campground and the lit loop. All are great skiing. We’ll groom more tomorrow when temps get below freezing for good.

Ski conditions: we did not get the rain that the North Shore received on Friday, thankfully. But it did warm up in the afternoon on Friday so some trails looked a bit mushy by about 2 pm. Not ideal. We are happy to report that this morning we are receiving light snow, so far not rain, so this dusting will help. We can’t groom at this temperature, or the wet snow will compress to ice. But ski conditions this morning should be improved by the fresh snow. EDIT TO ADD: it’s 33° at 1 PM but it is snowing hard — yay! Based on this radar, we should continue to build up snow (blue on the radar) for the rest of the afternoon. You can see that once again the shore is getting hit with rain (green). Don’t let reports of rain in Grand Marais worry you, we should be fine up here. We have tons of skiers today and while these are not our dream conditions, the Central Gunflint Trail system might be saved from the devastating snow conditions occurring along the shore. 🤞🏻.

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.