While everyone else was in Hayward/Cable, a group of 13 of us took advantage of freshly groomed snow at Baker Park, a destination most of us hadn't been able to properly ski in more than a decade. All trails were open and in good condition (although Evergreen was just being groomed) and the staff welcomed skiers back with opened arms. The trails were beautifully groomed for classic with only one sketchy patch which was easily avoided. The dreaded oak leaves in the tracks were few and far between. The two skaters in our group had soft, but fresh corduroy snow. The trails wind through forested and scenic areas with sufficient room for classic and skaters to ski side-by-side. Get out there and enjoy. GPS directions can be a little sketchy. Follow the signs to the Golf Course/Winter Rec area and then turn at the gate to the golf course (no indication that it is also the Winter Rec area).

(Bonnie Carlson-Green)

Skated the perimeter (outermost segments of Evergreen, Island. Timber, Hill, & Prairie). Deck packed but soft/slow throughout. Classic tracks glazed/fast with only a very few, very short bare spots in sunny areas (easily skied around). Best conditions of the year so far. Get out there and bring a friend!

(Mark Chatterton)

Much improved over even Sunday's race-day conditions. A 1/2" of fresh snow and the groomers were already out working the trail. Fresh corduroy over crushed ice, no brown spots. Groomers are working overtime!

(Dallas Johnson)

Skated the Island-Timber-Prairie "loop", noting that the groomers had done their usual fine work to make most of the deck good, also dumping snow on a bare spot on one of the first downhills, and on the connection to the Island Trail, that loop having dirt showing through on all the usual places, including the sharp left curve at its north end, which I found sort of treacherous at speed. The rest of this 8.7 km loop has good coverage, except the very start, the short downhill starting the Timber Trail, and maybe a few of the shorter hills. In summary, Island Trail probably rock skis, the rest probably B skis.

(Richard Swenson)

You could use your good skis but perhaps an errant pebble... Baker is great, the entire loop! Groomers have it ready for tomorrows fun ski/race 8:30am!

(Jan Guenther, Gear West)

Groomers at Baker are doing an awesome job of covering over the brown spots from Wednesday's thaw and keeping the natural snow in great condition. Much better trail conditions today than what we had on Thursday. It's not the perfect glacial skate deck we've become used to with man-made trails, but great conditions for natural snow.

(Dallas Johnson)

We did the Island trail which had a few dangerous spots at 12:30pm today, then Hill trail and Fairway trail. Skate skiing was still in OK condition but classic will likely be closed later this afternoon. When we arrived, skate conditions were good and classic were Poor. There was also a .7k section near the clubhouse that was closed. We skied French last week and feel that they had a better base so far this season.

(Holly Bayer)

Most segments were quite nice. While there were some areas with debris or dirt patches, they were easily avoidable. If you are on good skis, I would recommend extra caution on the island loop.

(Chris Wakefield)

Really nice skiing, can use good skis. A couple of places where you might pay attention to some slim snow areas but so much fun after such a long hiatus - It's so good we are holding the Snowflake/Ingalami 11k there on Sunday 18th.

(Jan Guenther, Gear West)

Very nice conditions for skate skiing at Baker today. There's good snow coverage everywhere and the few bad spots can be easily avoided. I did every trail there except for Evergreen. I would say you can use good skis if you normally use good skis at Baker, there are some sticks that you have to keep an eye out for but other than that it is good. Very good grooming. I forgot how nice that trail is. Hi-ya hi-ya hi-ya.

(Nick Raisanen)