Warm air temperatures over last two days have changed conditions to poor. Very fast morning, slow slushy afternoon this week. No grooming since last tracked on Thursday March 5th.

(Dan Jacoby, Wisconsin DNR)

Cut and tracked all loops after 2 plus inches of new snow last night. Yellow and green loop turned out really well with very little debris and full track. The Outer, red loop had some ice under yet, but tracked well, except a bit blocky under pines. Really good late season conditions at least until warm days. Still plenty of snow. Road in is a bit bare in spots so may get vehicle a bit dirty. May be last grooming so enjoy while you can.

(Dan Jacoby, Wisconsin DNR)

Cut and tracked green and yellow loops. Outer red loop in fair condition. Good tracks and fast conditions on firm surface. Tracked well just a few blocky stretches and some debris due to lack of new snow. Last section of trail back to parking lot from shelter and outer red loop not done due to new very light snow in tracks making very ski able and not worth ripping up and starting over. A bit icy under dusting of snow on red loop though. Grooming further will depend on future weather conditions. stay tuned.

(Dan Jacoby, Wisconsin DNR)

Cut ice many times around to change ice back into snow. Good tracks and fast conditions on firm surface. Tracked well just a few blocky stretches and some debris due to lack of new snow. Still 20 plus inches of snow on the ground. No one on trail today so set up really well for tomorrow and beyond.

(Dan Jacoby, Wisconsin DNR)

Conditions very good to excellent. Cut and tracked all loops. 2 plus inches of new snow last night to mix in for some really good track. Firm track and pole plant. Town of Boulder Junction doing a great job of keeping Nebish road as wide as possible but stay to right on corners and hill crests. Plenty of new animal tracks witnessed today such as Fox, fisher, squirrels, 2 deer,and snowshoe rabbit. While grooming last week I saw a raccoon and a weasel in its winter white coat on the red, Escanaba loop.

(Dan Jacoby, Wisconsin DNR)

Cut leveled and tracked green loop. Surface was increasingly bowl shaped so cut out hard track and cut down area next to track for more level surface side to side. Able to widen herring bone hills. Filled in many crash sites. Short loop and loop around Escanaba lake still in fair to good shape. Plan is to re-work outer loop tomorrow morning and mix in some fresh snow.

(Dan Jacoby, Wisconsin DNR)

Firm base and tracks, tracked all loops but some shallow track and blocky under pines. Very good track on majority though. Good pole plant and one skier coming off said really smooth. Birds at the feeder and will welcome any handouts offered. A zip lock bag of sunflower seeds is easy to ski with and useful to birds when minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit like this morning. Road narrow from plentiful snow so stay to right on the way in.

(Dan Jacoby, Wisconsin DNR)

I skied the entire red loop. As the groomer states, he groomed the green loop which is the same as the red loop out to the trail hut. Tracks were shallow in spots. Unfortunately, control on the steep downhills was difficult as I could not get an edge on the skis. They didn’t go where I wanted them to go and as I result, I fell at least six times on the steep downhills which is highly unusual for me on this trail. As the groomer states, he did not groom the red loop past the trail hut. I had no problem with control on the steep downhills on the rest of the red loop. I then skied the yellow loop which had been groomed except for the section from the red/green cut off to the yellow return leg. The section down to the trail hut was a hair raiser with the narrow bridge and conditions not conducive to good ski edge control. Be careful there. Obviously, I had to negotiate that twice, once down to the trail hut and then back again to the parking lot.

Photos:

(Jim Gantz)

The existing tracks are better than what I could work up. I tried to re-track but only left chunks so had to cut twice then level, then cut and track. I reconditioned and tracked the green loop only, then left for the day. What is there is very good and one half inch of dry snow yesterday makes for debris free tracks. We tried, but this is one of those times where what is there, is better than result of reconditioning. Green reconditioned loop in good shape and the rest was left as that also was in in very good shape.

(Dan Jacoby, Wisconsin DNR)

I have always wanted to ski these trails, and finally got the chance. And conditions were perfect. The tracks were firm with a couple inches of fresh for bomber kick. Beautiful rolling trails through diverse, lovely forest around lakes... And peaceful silence. Plus the wonderful company of friends and spouse. This is why you ski.

Photos:

(Sue Schroeder)