Conditions varied from excellent to absolutely perfect. The skate deck was firm and fast without any ice. Occasionally pushed through with my pole. The 1.2k section that goes through the boundary waters is groomed but much narrower and bumpier. There were skier-made tracks down the middle of the trail, so I just double poled to avoid wrecking the track. Love these trails!

(Jacob Smith)

It just does not get any better than this. All there is to say. Absolutely perfect grooming, conditions, temperatures, snow.

(Tim Nelson)

Excellent conditions on Central Gunflint system! We skied Sunday thru Thursday. Zack at Golden Eagle Lodge told me they've already had more snow this year than they received during all of the 2020-2021 season. The only parts of the system not yet open were Poplar Creek Trail and BWCA portion of trail that goes around east end of Flour Lake.

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(Steve Share)

They groomed and set track yestetday. There was a good track everywhere I skied. Old Logging Camp Trail was good on north side of Flour Lake up to BWCA, around West side of lake, and Summer Home Road. The Beaver Dam Trail also had good tracks. There was about 3/4" of fluff that came down as I was driving there, no issues.

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(Steve Langenbrunner)

We groomed again this morning and are now caught back up from the recent blizzard. About 85% of the trails are open and groomed. There is debris present in some sections of trail from the wind, but nothing that would be damaging to skis. The lake crossings on Flour and Aspen Lakes are open and snowmobile packed with a skate lane. The trails groomed up great this morning and have set nice and firm with the cooler temps. We expect great skiing throughout the week!

(Zach Baumann, Golden Eagle Lodge)

The recent storm has dumped a total of about 15 inches on the trails. We are out grooming again today. It is a very wet/heavy snow so it is packing in and leveling things out nicely – trails have been grooming up excellent! We have more snow forecasted tonight. If we get at least an inch, we will be back out grooming again tomorrow! About 90% of the trails are open!

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(Zach Baumann, Golden Eagle Lodge)

Over 30 inches of snow on the year has allowed for a nice start to healthy trail base. We groomed everything on the north side of Flour Lake: Red Pines, Deer Mouse, Cross Fox, Wolf Point, and Logging Camp from the resort to the Boundary Waters line are all groomed for skate and classic skiing. Moose Ridge and Logging Camp Re-route temporarily have a skate deck only. On the south side of the lake, we groomed fresh this morning: Ridge Run, Upper Beaver Dam, Moose Pasture, and the West end of Logging Camp Trail. We recommend B skis yet due to a few rocks that are still uncovered, but we're close to being ready for good skis. Conditions are extremely good this year for early-season skiing! Photos from today and yesterday.

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(Zach Baumann, Golden Eagle Lodge)

Skied both classic and skate up and down summer home road thru the campground loop and the lower Beaver Dam trail. Skate deck was hard when I started but softening fast and by mid afternoon, skating was slow and the deck softening. I switched to classic which was much better. Track was well formed and fast. Lower beaver dam trail has been groomed but has quite a few big rocks uncovered and one bare spot but not a problem to get around it. I used B skis due to debris, stubble, and a few rocks showing.

(Tim Nelson)

Great skiing at Bearskin Thursday and Friday. About 10k perfectly groomed. Skied Summerhome and Campground trail. Beaver dam was also groomed, but didn't ski there. Trails perfectly groomed for classic and skate. A very occasional rock was poking through so probably B skis (I used my good skis).

Photos:

(Matt Sargent)