Last report of the year from the Trail Club - and it is a good one! There should be reasonably good spring skiing for a while yet. The trails are late spring condition: track sets mostly gone (no more grooming this year), soft and crystalline snow, light vegetative debris on trails. Nevertheless skiing was great the last two days: over most of the trail there is still a firm base of up to a foot of snow; less than 1% of the length of trail is bare ground. Good way to get out - and be easily able to be socially distanced from others in these tough times.

Photos:

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

Classic ski conditions are truly exceptionally wonderful for spring skiing. This, in spite of fact that groomed tracks have settled and are indistinct and there is some needle, twig and bark debris on parts of the trail. THere is still a good foot of firmly packed snow that provides a great base. Because of warm temps and resulting 1/4” crystallized melty snow on top I don’t miss having set tracks. Just slow and steady gliding through the beautiful woods. And - since it is end of season dogs are welcome to join you! (Just be considerate and clean up when necessary!).

Photos:

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

It looks like we may be done grooming for the year with the warm afternoons. But ... There is still plenty of snow for spring skiing (no bare ground)! If you hit the trails late morning - before daily warm up - there is some perfect skiing to be had. Because of recent new 4” of snow, we do not yet have any icy conditions. Most of tracks have been “reset” by skiers. Such a great snowy winter it has been!

Photos:

(Mary Shedd)

All trails were groomed Saturday. By Sunday, with such high temps (upper 40s) the tracks were soft and in some places quite flattened out from melt. But as long as it warms up each day, these will be great spring skiing conditions. Some debris on trail but most of it is melted in and not a factor in slowing one down. When temps are low 30s and below, the trails will be icy, so be careful.

Photos:

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

Spring conditions! Freeze/thaw - varying from perfect snow to slightly icy snow depending on amount of shade. Overall trails are in good condition still - tracks well-set. About 3 of 12 km have light amounts of debris (twigs, bark, or needles).

Photos:

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

Overall the trails are in very good shape. (Last grooming was Friday the 21st). The last couple days of melting temps resulted in some glazed or icy tracks, but the tracks themselves have held up. And overall, icy conditions are the minority, not the majority. Parts of trails have some light debris from the high winds (needles, bark, small twigs) but nothing that will really grab you. Bottom line - its beautiful out there.

Photos:

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

All trails groomed this afternoon. I heard from our groomer and he says he was able to wipe out the trespassing side-by-side vehicle’s tracks. Although temps were above freezing, the conditions in woods and on trails stayed cold enough - and with late afternoon grooming, tonight’s cold temps, the trails should be in perfect condition for a morning ski.

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

We got three inches of new powder snow and trails have not been re-tracked since yesterday. Nevertheless the conditions are lovely as most of the trails have been skier-tracked. One unfortunate thing is that someone drove his two-track snowcat type vehicle up the Tower Link portion of the trail and part of the Northern Lights loop. Because the snow is so soft this doesn’t create a huge problem - just such a bummer that someone would do that. But, again, bottom line lots of great skiing out there!

Photos:

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

All trails (12k) are open and just groomed this early afternoon. This was grooming of a couple of inches of new powder snow, so tracks are soft-ish yet this afternoon. Windy day, but the skier will be unaffected thanks to the lovely forest breaking the wind on virtually all segments.

Photos:

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

Skied the Howard Wagoner Loop this morning for the first time! Great tracks and nice conditions. We love the mix between hills and flatter sections and the trees are beautiful.

Photos:

(Nancy Salminen)