Still no skiable trails around Minocqua, so off to ABR. Arrived 10:30 with temp of 29 degrees. They received about 8 inches of snow since last Sunday which greatly improved all the trails. I would say they were upgraded from fair to good. We strided first and there was a new full depth track on most of the trails, the old track on other trails was worn down and fair. There was a lot less icy areas and easily avoidable. Still a few wet areas, but again avoidable. We skated next and the deck was great, not as bumpy and well covered. Blueberry Bluffs was a blast. I would avoid Sulu. Coyote canyon and Haughten Highlands was not open. Definitely worth the drive and left with smiles and tired legs.

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(Greg Dahl)

The skiing was very good today. Skate deck was groomed with all of the new snow. All open trails had excellent coverage. Fun day of skiing.

(Greg Pautsch)

Skiing today was like a "winter wonderland"...The 4 inches of new snow really helped the trails fill in nicely. 45 km was retracked early this morning and skate lanes were groomed last night and again this morning. Grooming team is working on opening the Highlands and south for the weekend.

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(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Pretty good conditions, considering a melt and Thanksgiving beating. A grooming and a few flakes on top made a classic ski just fine, no better than that. A bit of jumping over frozen icy patches, but overall a great day. What a great MW resource!

(Ken Schoville)

Good conditions despite a couple days of warmth. ABR received enough snow to cover most of the slushy areas from the recent warm up. Trails have early season bumpiness, but coverage is still good and should improve with more snow.

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(Sue Schroeder)

The warm weather and rain destroyed our snow pack around Minocqua making our trails not skiable, so time for a road trip to the UP. Arrived at ABR at 12:30 pm with both parking lots pretty full and a temp of 24F degrees. We skated first, there were numerous icy patches on all the trails we skated. The trails had pretty good coverage, lots of bumps, and lots of long stretches with really good sections to ski. Next we strided and found those trails to be less icy and again long stretches of really good trail. Even though the parking lot was full, the trails were not too busy. It appeared that they got about 1-2 inches of snow overnight and the trees were amazing like someone flocked them all. It was definitely worth the drive and was snowing as we left about 5:00 pm.

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(Greg Dahl)

Happy Thanksgiving, we had a good day of skiing with temps in the mid 20's. We only regroomed about 10 km due to the Holiday and we will be back out regrooming early Friday morning.

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(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Did roughly 8K of striding this morning with a little v30 providing great kick. Most trails were in "mid winter" conditions and are more than suitable for race skis. Tracks were deep and firm with a little dusting of snow on top from this mornings lake effect snow. Skate deck seemed firm for those skating minus the dusting of snow on top.

(Luke Wyzlic)

Skied both classic and freestyle over the weekend from Saturday to Monday. Trails are close to mid winter excellent condition, skied my A- skis both classic and freestyle. They seem to getting 2 to 3 inches of new snow almost daily so the trails are improving rapidly. There are a few thin spots in the lower areas that can be easily stepped around with little to no risk of nicking a ski.

(Dan Meyer)

Arrived at noon today to find good conditions considering it is still early season skiing. Classic skied only, and most of my skiing was on classic only trails. Classic tracks were good except in the very few areas were the trail had some undulation. Only encountered one bare spot on the return portion of hemlock trail. Also a few thin spots. Because of this l would recommend B skis. The imperfections on the trails are overall very minor. With more snow they will rapidly disappear. Fortunately, it snowed several inches this afternoon and following more grooming in the morning should improve the trails even more. Wonderful trails!

Photos:

(Ron Fabrizius)