Picnic Loop this early in the season was a real treat. Mostly very good conditions. A little rough with a few water spots on the sides, overall great day. Homestead and Hogback and return to Oberg had a few inches of fluffy snow but the glide was great and the tracks well formed.

(Tim Nelson)

The day got away from me and I only had time for the Onion River Road and West Oberg. Skating was excellent on both with great glide on a thin layer of new snow and recent grooming. I was excited to see that Picnic loop looked like it was groomed very recently. I will be excited to try it tomorrow. It did not look like the east Oberg loop had been groomed recently but classic skiers had tracked it. I used B skis but there good skis would have been fine.

(Tim Nelson)

Skied the Homestead Loop today, great to have more options in addition to Onion River Road. I used B skis today as I classic only and there were reports of some stubble in the tracks. There were multiple open water spots between "I" and "J" on the lower part of the loop but all were easily skied around. There also was some stubble in the tracks, rarely on the skate deck. With the mentioned trail hazards I estimate that 99% of the Homestead Loop is in very good condition. The tracks are sound and the skate deck was firm.

Photos:

(Elizabeth Wagner)

Only Onion River Rd is groomed at this time, the rest of the trails are being rolled. Midwinter conditions on Dec 1st, what a treat! New skis used today, Rex blue with VR 40 worked very well. Smiles on the trails!

Photos:

(Liz Wagner)

The Onion River Road segment is in fine condition: good skis would be fine. Trackset and skating lane are well set for the full 5.5 km out (and the same return). There were a few short segments on the east trackset (right-hand side when headed down) where it seemed as if there had been some instability in setting the track, leading to a narrower track, but not bad.
The western part of the Oberg loop was also groomed with trackset (2.4km), but there were quite a few (maybe 10-12) short segments (a few strides only) in which there wasn't enough snow to get full coverage for the track. Easily avoided, but there was enough other small shrub poking through that it I'd put it in B ski condition.
The eastern part of the Oberg loop and connector to Picnic had been rolled, but not packed or tracked. I went a bit of way on the eastern part of Oberg and the snow was quite soft. Enjoyable and good coverage for the short distance, but I don't know how things would be for coverage along the length of the trail.

(Erik Larson)