We classic skied the blue trail at the Cloquet Forestry Center today. The trail has been enjoyed by many deer and someone unfortunately walked right on the trail through one part leaving deep foot prints and others walked along it for much of it. Such a huge area and they chose the ski tracks? Beautiful trail, different from the other side of the road. 2.3 miles from start to finish. Someone said they had just finished grooming the rest on the other side too!

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(Eve Graves)

We groomed the orange trail this morning. Once I was past the area trampled by the Beargrease Derby tracks set to full depth. The Blue trail on the East side of University road is tracked also. Skiing should be good again.

(Mark Hagen)

The beautiful Blue Loop was packed and tracked today on the east side of University Rd (~3.8km; see online map). The ski trails that are normally groomed on the west side of University Rd will not be open to skiers this weekend because of the annual Beargrease Derby scouting event. These trails will be regroomed as soon as conditions allow. If you are hoping to get a long, quiet ski in this weekend, Saturday in particular, we suggest trying elsewhere.

(Lane Johnson)

Strong winds were dropping more pine needle and cone debris on the trail today. The track is not a consistent depth under the pines (most of the trail); in several places it's shallow or washed out. The open areas have much cleaner tracks with more consistent depth. Wind-blown snow from Monday's 2" was just starting to fill in the tracks in a few of the open areas in the early afternoon. With some areas under the pines glazed and some untransformed snow elsewhere, waxing was tricky, but a few light layers of green covering some remnant purple worked fairly well for me. Did not ski the small, additional red loop where debris is likely to be even more of a problem.

(Joel Rosen)

First time skiing here based on a local's recommendation. Took a break driving back to Minneapolis from a weekend of downhill skiing at Lutsen. We had cool conditions at about 14 degrees with the sun peaking through. The trail seemed like it had recently been groomed with some icy patches in the thick wooded areas. It was a beautiful spot to ski through the red pines.

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(Tara Helm)

We reset the track on the orange loop today. Full depth in some areas and a little shallow in others. We could use more fresh snow under the trees but the conditions better than before. FYI the scouts will be holding their annual Beargrease Derby on the red trail this Saturday. This will destroy the tracks on part of the ski trail.

(Mark Hagen)

Melting yesterday and refreeze made for very slick conditions this morning, with a lot of debris in about half the trails. Trails in the open areas were much better, some excellent. 40 degrees is a bit warm but it was gorgeous.

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(Michael Garcia)

By late morning, temperatures were right around freezing, and the crowd was bigger than I have seen here before. I continued with the same purple kick wax I had used earlier in the morning at another location. Grip and glide were still good, with maybe a hint of needing something like special red toward the end. The main loop was regroomed and tracked yesterday, but the track was a bit shallow with some "pebbling", especially the initial portion where both the groomer and skiers go both ways, doubling the traffic. Pine needle debris was fairly significant, and there were some small branches and pieces of bark as well. The few open areas were very clean. Debris on the first 2/3 of the short outer loop was even heavier, but when I finished these loops there wasn't much debris stuck to my wax pocket. I do try to lift my skis over the heaviest portions of debris, but this was still a pleasant surprise to me.

(Joel Rosen)

First time here. Grooming was in progress as we skied. Had cord trails which, given the ice from yesterday, was great. Mark came to check on us which was appreciated. Trail maps are actually their hiking route. Great trails and amazing setting. Great entry level trails.

(Michael Garcia)

We groomed and reset the track today. It looks to have turned out good. Chad is out now attempting to groom and track the blue trail for the first time this year.

(Mark Hagen)