I went in late morning, hoping everything would be softened up. That was mostly true. The snow is dirty, and there is debris (including part of a rabbit), but the tracks on the man-made snow loop were mostly ok (except for a short section on the Frogtown return, where the right side was collapsing.) The deck seemed pretty rough, with tire marks through part of it. I didn't do Boulder Ridge, but wanted to check the natural trails. Lake has big bare spots near beginning and end, so I tried North. Surprisingly good coverage, even on the trail crossings. No tracks, but the icy patches had softened enough to ski. I did have to splash through a couple of runoff puddles. First T-shirt ski of the year for me.

Photos:

(Laurie Ford)

With the overnight freeze I was hoping to make one last ski on the magical track that is the Hyland man-made snow loop. Alas, the magic is gone as the trail was an ungroomed icy mess. Skied one loop and encountered three other individual skiers making the best of it. The trail could possibly be skiable later in the day when it warms up.

(Geir Johansen)

The snowmaking loop had it all - ruts, ice and soft snow that collapsed under my strides (on the top of Frog Town); other than that it was mostly frozen corn. Only thing missing was snowplow wake and that's probably because I didn't do Boulder and the downhill/uphill loop on Scenic. Summarizing the conditions were terrible. I'll concede that tree-shaded areas on Frog Town and Boulder before the climb were actually okay. However, the run from the top of Frog Town to the timing shack was actually scary fast - it wasn't ice - but my speed on the frozen corn caused me to snowplow about 2/3's of the way down because of my fear of getting caught in a rut and running into a light pole. I was going to say this is really it for my season but if the temps are right, I might try Battle Creek tomorrow given the encouraging trail reports.

(Keith Carlson)

Rutty top layer softening up by 10am over a 18" solid base. Dirty but faster than yesterday. Skied the manufactured 5km with adequate control. My wife did classic but avoided the hills and said it was leafy.

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(Kevin Wendland)

Hyland proved to still have tracks with moderate ice and dirty snow at 33 degrees this morning at 9 am. Skate deck very rutted and moderate ice and soft snow. It was fun to do the entire 3 miles. Be careful on the downhills, we found sections of the deck to be smooth and snowplow. No Boulder.

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(Diane Pattridge)

Snow making loop was in fair to good condition. With a 10:20 start, I hit the trail at about the right time with temperature of 39 degrees per my car. Sun showed inconsistently. Snow had softened up enough so the mild rutting I ran into was no problem. However, things were slowing down as I skied on the sun-exposed portions of the trail; couldn't skate all the way to the top on Willow or Scenic outbound, but inbound I skated nonstop to the top of Scenic (in the shade) with no problem. I didn't attempt Boulder or the downhill/uphill loop on Scenic to avoid possible ruts, snowplow wake or fast deaccelerations. However, downhill run inbound from the top of Scenic and from top of Frog Town to the timing shack skied fine. Hoping to get in at least one more time tomorrow.

(Keith Carlson)

They groomed yesterday. Skied classic this morning. Very icy. Lake loop was very challenging-it fact Three Rivers had some cones up in a few areas around the lake where conditions are very poor. Manufactured snow trail was a bit better.

(Steve Freese)

Not too shabby. Getting a little dirty and slow but basically ok. Track is pretty fast. No new grooming but there is a soft layer over a solid base.

Photos:

(Kevin Wendland)

Groomed trails both man made snow and natural were challenging as expected today from 7:30 - 9:30 am. Crust skating was excellent. My plan was to only use the groomed to connect crust sections. I skied North to Lake to Hill (the other natural we coned off because of downed trees). The only time I had to walk was the big Hill downhill because it was ice on one side and tree branches in the other. Otherwise I probably spent 50% of the time on crust along the way exploring all the open areas. North has the best crust areas. I even found a fun crust downhill from about halfway up the big Boulder downhill between it and the bypass.

(Dan Zenk)

Started around 1pm and the skate deck on the snowmaking loops was in good condition but the snow rapidly got softer as the sun reached its maximum afternoon height. Tracks looked pretty slushy in many locations. Lots of people were out today though. Park staff confirmed grooming is done for the season, however they stated the trails will remain open until conditions totally deteriorate.

(Ben Ruhme)