Good skiing on the Green Loops from 8:45 to 10:00 a.m. on 3/5. Accessed trails from lot at Billings Dr. and 42nd St. where trail access has full snow coverage. March skiing can be awesome; but luck and timing make all the difference at this time of year. Mid-morning to early afternoon are best IMHO. Green Loops are still good thanks to grooming a couple days ago, with a couple of thin spots and one tricky but avoidable patch on the outer, west, Green Loop. Grooming may be over for the season due to bare ground in other parts of the SMF trails. Big thanks to great Superior parks workers who groom daily when snow permits. Recommend parking at the snowy edge if you go to the gravel 42nd St. lot.

Photos:

(Tim Larson)

I wanted to ski the yellow trails today at 8:15 AM when it was cooler, but when I got to the opening of the yellow trail, there was a huge bare spot to the right, toward the hilly section. I decided to ski the flat area to the left of the trailhead, but a few hundred yards down the trail it was the same thing: huge bare spot. The spots are so bare and huge that you need to take your skis off to get around the bare areas. I ended up doing the purple trail, but there was a ton of open grass and dirt areas through the forest, as well, especially from where the purple and yellow trails meet for the first quarter mile. The multi-use trail from the 42nd St. parking lot to the head of the yellow and purple trails was very icy, as well as all the trails skied! I had to snow plow all the hills, no matter what trail I used, for safety purposes. I was snow plowing up to 22-mph on the ice on some of the hills and had little control. The skate deck had snow in most areas, but it was extremely icy throughout the trails. It felt like I was “defensive” skiing, just to stay upright, which isn’t much fun. Sure it was fast, which I like, but I felt like I was on the edge of disaster most of the time. Every stride I took had a slight slippage of sorts. I tried a bit of the green trail, but it was more of the same. It was frustrating. Unless we get more snow, I wouldn’t go out again. It’s not worth the risk of having a bad fall. It’s too bad Superior hasn’t had enough snow this season, because these trails are the best around and the groomers have done one hell of a great job keeping the trails in excellent condition every day this winter with the little snow we’ve had.

(Randy Johnson)

All trails have been groomed as recently as Monday. Some bare patches are appearing, but most can be avoided, and 99% is still great skiing. Skate-skied the Red, Green, part of Blue, and Purple trails this morning. The groomer was out on the inner Green loops at 8 a. m. Some sections are likely becoming difficult to groom due though. The beginner's Red Trail has bare patches in the usual spots at the start and on the outside, south loop. Skiers are taking the middle cutoff portion of the Red Trail to avoid the bare spots on the south part of that trail to access the system. These trails still offer good skate skiing: The inner loops of the Green Trail are still fun--but the far, west Green loop has a couple of icy patches with some bare ground. The Purple Trail was groomed Tuesday and is still great skiing overall--except for one icy patch with a bit of bare ground in a stand of pines 200 yards from its far end where it meets the Yellow Trail and Billings Park Drive. I was still able to proceed on my skis, but by now skiers may need to remove skis to cross that short stretch. The places that are less good: The Blue (Multi-use) Trail, which uses the paved Millennium Trail, is very icy with pavement starting to show. Stick with the Green Trail instead. The far Yellow Trail on Dwight's Point has a wide patch of bare ground right at the start, so I did not even go there. The flat back side of the Yellow Trail is still skiable but bare ground is emerging in spots. The classic tracks are in good shape on most of the Green and Purple Trails although they also look fast and icy in spots; skins might be best.

(Tim Larson)

Skated later morning just as the snow was tapering off. The groomer was out while I was there and the inner trails had received a couple of passes but still soft and slow, as expected. 2-3" of dense powder on the rest made for a good resistance workout but even and smooth. Very thin to non existent base under the new snow in places (the usual spots for those who ski SMF regularly) and then great coverage in others. We in the Twin Ports ski community REALLY appreciate all the work the city puts into the meticulous maintenance of these great trails. It was a low snow year for them and they did a great job of having consistently well groomed beautiful trails. Thank you for another great season SMF crew and I hope I get some March skiing out there yet.

(Tom Heinitz)

Skied some of the red, blue, and green trails. The snow is fantastic. Some bare and burned-out spots exist under the pine trees, but are easily passable. The track, for my friend who was doing classical, is worn in some spots. The best day on the snow for me, though, the snow was soft and fast!

(Richard Kaufman)

Trails have been groomed and fresh track set where conditions have allowed. The base is starting to disappear fast and the track sets are melting through in some of the normally thin areas. The outer Red is very patchy and we were unable to groom it today. Grooming plans: Weekend grooming will take place Sunday and trail conditions will be reassessed Monday.

(Jodi Saylor)

Trail conditions are great with everything freshly groomed and track reset today except for the outer purple and yellow trails; which were groomed yesterday and will be touched up tomorrow. The systems snow base still isn’t very thick and spots are starting to burn out under the pine trees in the usual trouble spots.

(Jodi Saylor)

I classic skied the yellow and purple trails at 9:30 AM today. I figured I’d get out before it got too warm. It was beautiful 34 degrees, but still too warm. It made the conditions quite soft in some areas. The classic tracks on the yellow and purple trails haven’t been re-set in quite some time and they desperately need it done. The multi-use connector from the 42nd St. parking lot to the yellow trail was a mess with no tracks at all. Snowmobiles had ridden over the tracks and they were non-existent. There were a few tracks on the yellow and purple trails that were perfect, but most areas were very soft and mushy and other areas in the shade were very icy. There was spots on the back side of purple, where the hills are, that had no tracks at all. I skied the downhills on the skate deck for safety reasons. The downhills were very slow. The skate deck was freshly groomed twice this morning on the yellow trail, but the deck was extremely soft. I’m glad I classic skied. It was so soft on the yellow trail, the groomer actually got stuck going up one of the hills and had to use a winch to pull himself up the hill. It’s always fun to ski, no matter what the conditions are, and I hope we see a bit more snow and colder temperatures to extend the ski season.

(Randy Johnson)

Skated the entire yellow trail, started from the 42nd St. parking lot. Conditions were fantastic! Super fast and fun! I skied through the sub zero temps when the snow was so slow that it felt like a weightlifting workout, but today was worth the hard work when the snow was so slow. Great glide throughout the yellow trail and the hills were super fast. No problem in climbing the hills, either. The only poor area was from junction CC to the end of Cedar Point and back. The trail hasn’t been groomed in quite some time and there wasn’t a classic track set. There was a ton of debris on this section, too. So much debris, that I had to walk on my skis to avoid it in areas. Other than that section, the yellow was first class. My glide was twice as fast as I would normally ski. Another positive was the fact that there wasn’t any dog poop on the yellow trail. The green, purple and blue trails all have had a lot of poop on the trails. Hikers and dogs have been walking where it should be ski only.

(Randy Johnson)

Overall the trails are looking really good! Fresh grooming has taken place throughout the system with new track mixed in where it was needed. We plan to continue grooming this week with plans for weekend grooming as well.

(Jodi Saylor)