We still have fantastic skiing at Bearskin! Everything was groomed over the last two days, and some skate lanes were touched up this morning. We’ve had fresh snow while other areas had rain, so our trails are looking good.
We had a couple warm days this week, and it looks like we will have a couple warm days next week too — but we have ample snow, so the trails will be fine. Our new track pan tillers work miracles on icy snow.
As is often the case by March, we’ve reached the point where you’ll start to wonder on the drive up to the Gunflint if we really do have snow. The snow along the North Shore and in Grand Marais has been decimated by warmer temps and rain, while we just had more snow. Don’t worry, when you drive up the hill you’ll start to see better snow and by the time you get to the mid-Trail area, you’re in true winter again. We are lucky to be in this magical winter location.
If you’ll be here in the next week, come prepared to watch for Northern Lights. The forecast is fabulous. We are nearing the spring equinox, so due to the earth’s tilt at this time we often have the best light shows of the year in mid-March. In fact, it’s fairly common to have amazing green lights in the sky on St. Patrick’s Day. Here’s our link to the info on how to watch for the aurora at Bearskin. Bring your camera and tripod.
As usual, we will have soup, chili, cheesecake, and hot chocolate in the Main Lodge for you to enjoy while you’re up here skiing. See you soon!
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.
We don’t have much snow yet, maybe around 2 inches, but we are all ready for winter. It takes a great deal of year-’round work to maintain the beautiful skiing on the Central Gunflint Ski System, and it’s all done. Now we just need more snow.
Both Bearskin and Golden Eagle will be grooming with new, state-of-the-art Pisten Bully groomers. For those of you who know the Golden Eagle PB story from last year, all is well for 2023-2024. Their replacement PB has been delivered and is ready to go.
Unloading the Bearskin and Golden Eagle Pisten Bully groomers.
Our Pisten Bully spent the summer in Jordan, MN at Kassbohrer getting new track-setting technology installed. We are one of the first trail systems in the US to try this new technology, but reports from Europe indicate that it’s a huge upgrade. We are excited to get more snow so we can try it.
New ski trails have been added this year. The best news is that Quinn convinced the forest service to give us permission to use a different connector route to reach Aspen Lake. If you loved face-planting onto the ice at the bottom of the steep Aspen Lake hill then you may find the new, relatively flat connection to Aspen to be less of a thrill, but it will certainly be safer. Since the beginning of time, this spot has been a tribulation for skiers as well as for the groomers. We were surprised and pleased when the USFS agreed to Quinn’s creative solution, utilizing a little-used portage (not in the BWCA) to Aspen Lake. It is located across from the East Bearskin Lake Campground entry. Skiers will need to make a short jog to the east to reach the new connection, but it should be worth it.
Preparing the new North-South Link. You can see that it’s much less steep than the old trail.
Our trail crew has also been busy clearing an additional new trail this year. Because Ted and Barbara Young of Poplar Creek B & B are working towards a well-earned retirement, the grooming of the Banadad Trail and its adjacent trails will be under different management. Our Central Gunflint Trail System has taken over the Lace Lake Trail. For this year Cricket, Ethan, Kate, Quinn and Mando (yes, the pup) cleared and widened an additional 3K of the trail so the Pisten Bully groomer can fit through. This will add a fun new option for guests skiing the Poplar Creek Trail.
Quinn and Mando clearing the new Lace Lake addition to the trail system.
If you’d like a more adventurous visit, two of our new Ski-In Winter Camping Cabins will be open this winter. Everything you need to know about these cabins can be found here. You can either ski or snowshoe to the cabins. The cabins are located on Oxcart Ski Trail, so you have easy access to the entire trail system. They are also located in the midst of our extensive snowshoe trail system.
Ski-in cabin
Speaking of the snowshoe trail, last weekend our guests Tracy and Eric Bibilnieks went on the hunt for the elusive and often disappearing Cranberry Snowshoe Trail. They found it and marked it, yay! Assuming we don’t lose it again, Cranberry Snowshoe Trail adds a significant distance to the system.
So the last big question of the season is, of course, snow. Bearskin always has snow, and we aren’t very concerned about this year. We did have one year when the snowstorm hit on December 26, cutting it a little too close. Our snow tends to come in small 1- 4 inch light snowfalls, gradually building up, then eventually culminating in a massive, debilitating snowstorm. Bearskin’s pisten bully has rubber tracks, which allows us to groom Summer Home Road and Campground in very low snow conditions. Our Tidd-Tech snowmobile groomer will be able to groom the lake soon.
Considering that we had excessive, unmanageable snow for the past two seasons, we won’t mind if we get a little less this year. As for those weather forecasts that look like “no snow,” don’t let those worry you yet. Bearskin is in a unique location that gets snow when nobody else does. Most weather forecasts that you find online really aren’t forecasting for our elevation and are giving you a forecast for the Grand Marais Airport, about 25 miles away. It’s snowing right now, with no sign of snow in the forecast. We will post regular updates on our snow conditions as it happens.
Trails were regroomed on the 22nd. Skiers report “excellent” conditions nearly everywhere. Due to early season rolling and packing there is a good firm base on the trails. Classic tracks are hard and fast. New corduroy set up beautifully, but skating is slow due to cold temps. As of noon on 12/23 new snow was falling, so there’s probably an inch or two of light power on the trails.
Entire system is groomed and tracked. Quinn and Bob were out Monday with both groomers to regroom after the 4 inches we picked up Saturday night. Because of early rolling and packing and cold snow conditions, the skate lanes are very firm. Average of 15 inches of snow in the woods with depths up to 20 Consistent 6 inches of base throughout the system with considerably more in many places. The North South Link trail across Aspen Lake is closed at the moment due to extremely slushy conditions and a short section of Poplar Creek is less than perfect as it travels through a swamp with hummocks and frost heaves. Otherwise conditions are good to excellent.
Bearskin Lodge Ski Trail Reports 