Crash and Evinrude just finished up their evening grooming run. Due to warmer temps at grooming time, they were able to lighten up to the tandem screes to scratch up what is left of last weekends clipper snow. They reported the skate deck worked up well, meaning conditions should be quite nice for your Sunday ski. Sharing the trail with us tomorrow... The tree felling crew will be out on Big Tooth and Terminal from 10 to 1 and will not bother your ski. The biathletes had a good time this morning and will be back racing from 11 until noon. The MYSL families will be on the slopes in the afternoon again starting at 1. This along with all who come to ski, and hikers on the groomed 6km winter walking trail(you might want to give that a try sometime), it should be another great Sunday at Woodlands. Enjoy!

(Dave Anderson, Elk River Nordic Ski Club)

Our first time on these trails and I think they're our new favorite trails. Fantastic grooming for skate (I can't believe it's volunteer groomed), wide trails, great coverage, interesting terrain, trails through the woods, not crowded. Fun to see the biathletes out today too. We will be back!

(Katharine Woodman-Maynard)

Robin and the Big Bopper just finished their evening run pulling the Godzilla screens to put a little profile into the chilled, slightly hard, trail surface. Expect a hard, fast skate skate deck, still with plenty of edge control in the morning, and softening up just a bit as the day warms. We will be sharing the trails in the morning with about 20 biathletes racing on Scouring and Wash Pond with the races starting about 11. They will be done by noon. Spectators are welcome. All trails are open to everyone during the race, but if someone is skiing faster than you and they are carrying a rifle, you know what to do. It has been fun reading the recent trail reports. So far this season(our 34th), we have had 23 different volunteer trail groomers. While they are seemingly ordinary people, their passion and dedication makes them extraordinary. It is their goal to make the trails the best that they can be with what they have to work with. You are the fuel that makes us go. Thanks for coming out. Enjoy!

(Dave Anderson, Elk River Nordic Ski Club)

First time at this location. Best I've skied ever, period! Beautiful and fun group of people, ran into Chainsaw and the Goddess out there. Great spot! They must work some magic keeping these trails up as they were perfect. Some leaves but it is after all a wooded trail; ).

Photos:

(Josh Bloom)

Great conditions today. The skate deck was nicely groomed and fully covered, not even a hint of dirt in evidence. Nice and firm, but not icy. Leaf litter was moderate. Classic tracks looked deep on the blue and green trails, were not set on the blacks.

(Mike Keyes)

Chainsaw just reported in that he and Basketball Guy had just finished their evening run with the medium screens. With warm temps and fresh grooming, conditions should be plenty good for your Thursday ski. Enjoy!

(Dave Anderson, Elk River Nordic Ski Club)

Skied around lunchtime. Trail had been groomed this morning and only saw one other set of skate tracks as we did the full outer trails. Temp was cold for the single digits, especially on the downhills, as the snow was surprisingly quite fast. Plenty of snow, very good coverage and grooming. Beautiful day on the trails, just wished I had on better face covering!

Photos:

(Bruce Adelsman)

Another new inch of fluff. Ancient One and The Natural were out with the rollers early this morning to work the bit of new snow along with traffic marks from Sunday. Buckthorn Bob put down some new tracks on the flatter trails yesterday. We plan to "ski in" last nights snow in the tracks rather than reset to help cover the tree litter. Conditions will be very nice for your Monday ski. Enjoy!

(Dave Anderson, Elk River Nordic Ski Club)

A thin layer of soft snow on top of the skate deck slowed things down a little bit, but made for a great ski edge. All of the fast downhills were easily managed. This trail is always great in cold weather too, with the entire trail in the woods providing a good wind screen. With some extra layers I was comfortable for a few laps on the outer loop.

(Dan Inderieden)

You know those conditions that you kind of forget can exist outside of postcards? Yeah, Woodland is that good right now! Get out there and remind yourself how fun old school, natural snow trails can be. Okay, a few more details: green trails all pretty freshly tracked for classic; the backwoods loops weren't, but I had zero issues classic skiing back there regardless. A smattering of leaves and bark chips here and there, but if those are enough to deter you, I don't think you'll ever ski anything outside of a manmade loop. Other than that, the trail was pitch perfect - everything packed to the same, immaculate firmness that keeps you afloat but still makes edging and cornering effortless. No significant rutting or washed out corners, even in areas that looked to have had a fair amount of traffic today. I don't know what else to say; go enjoy it and savor conditions that just don't come around very often. Also, Thank you groomers!

(Josh Doebbert)