A fantastic evening ski on the "human-made" loop at the Birkie Start Trailhead. An inch+ of new (natural) snow over a firm base made for easy skiing. Please buy a trail pass and enjoy super skiing on a nice little loop!

Photos:

(Jeffery Tumbleson)

Excellent for skating on the man-made loop. A fair classic track has been skied in now. An inch or so of fresh snow over a hard and flat base made for very good skiing.

(Andy Schwartz)

We skied the man-made snow loop this evening - headlamp + strong moonlight made for good visibility as this section is not lit (yet?) - there was no classic track set yet but the skate deck looked fast. You can definitely ski on "A" skis. We were pleasantly surprised that this was a loop, as we were expecting just an out-and-back up the trail. Nice job Birkie staff! Guns were blowing snow when we left.

(Jennifer Huelsmann)

Man made snow loop is excellent for skating. No classic tracks yet. I didn't measure the loop but I think calling it a full kilometer may be stretching things just a bit. That said, the skiing was very good. Wide and flat with fresh corduroy. A very good skiing surface. The loop includes a substantial climb and a fast little "S" turn downhill. The trail crew was blowing snow on the next section as we skied.

Photos:

(Andy Schwartz)

The Early Season 1k loop will open this Saturday morning at the American Birkebeiner TH (Birkie start area)! For this weekend's skiing, the Early Season loop will only be groomed for skate skiing. We need more snow before we can set a classic track. An Early Season Snow Pass is required until the greater Birkie Trail opens, which has yet to be determined when that will be. Once the Birkie Trail opens, a regular Birkie Trail Pass is required. All pass purchases help to offset the cost of snow-making and grooming. Enjoy!

(Kurt Proctor, American Birkebeiner)

Birkie trail had some nice classic skiing this evening up the classic trail heading North!

Photos:

(Kim Rudd)

Drove over to the Birke start area to look at the snow making operations. Current setup is preliminary using water from a local well. They are working on getting water from the Telemark
"high volume" wells. 18 degrees at 11am. Amount of snow being made was not very impressive. 2-3 more inches of natural snow fell after these pictures were taken.

Photos:

(Steve Thatcher, Ride and Glide Bike & Ski Club)

The Birkie crew has fired up their snowguns at the Start area!

Photos:

(Bruce Adelsman)

The trails are in pretty shape for this weekends trail run, all things considered. There's a fair bit of mud as you might expect due to the heavy bike traffic two weekends ago and the amount of rain we've had since. But I didn't see any washed out sections any ankle swallowing grooves in the Ks I ran. The bigger event was the arrival of the bridge over OO. I spoke to Ben briefly and he indicated that they hope to have it in place on Wednesday or Thursday of next week, depending upon when they get permission to close the road.

(Andy Schwartz)

Excellent progress being made on the new Hwy OO trailhead building as well as the bridge crossing over Hwy OO!

Photos:

(Bruce Adelsman)