Skied Lake of the Isles, Calhoun and Brownie Lake at 6pm this evening. Great job on the grooming as it made for a great ski and a beautiful night. Skate deck was fast and firm. A little icing under the bridges, but no issue if you take it slow.

(Tim Holmstrom)

Very happy to see large groups of people out on the lakes this afternoon. After dinner I set out for roughly 15 kilometers around Isles, Cedar and Bde Maka Ska. There was some iciness in the channels and under the bridges but predominantly it was well groomed and still very skiable after the heavy use during the day. Kudos to the grooming team behind that 9 mile link to the Theo Wirth / Quaking Bog / Brownie Lake segments of the Loppet Trail System.

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(Michael Mckinney)

Amazing day for a ski on the Chain of Lakes - sunny, 20s, no wind, excellent grooming, just enough snow on the lakes to provide plenty of room for everyone out enjoying the day on the lakes. I skate skied from Glenwood Beach down to Brownie, Cedar, Isles, and Bde Maka Ska, and had so much fun on the lakes I ended up doing several laps. Lake of the Isles is by far the best, with triple classic tracks and a nice wide skate deck. Bde Maka Ska was narrower, but still double classic tracks and super fun to ski around. Cedar Lake is also in great shape with double classic tracks and a nice short-cut across the middle of the lake. The Isles to Cedar connector lagoon and the Isles to Bde Ma Kaska connector lagoon are in plenty good shape for skiing, with only a few icy spots. The Brownie tunnel is low on snow but just enough to ski without removing skis. It's actually easy to skate ski anywhere on the lakes due to just enough snow, so it's easy to get around people while leaving plenty of distance. Many thanks to the Loppet Foundation groomers who gave hundreds of people some incredible weekend skiing on the lakes!

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(Bill Oyler)

Scratched up the skate deck on all the lakes this evening. It's getting quite firm. Classic tracks are in good condition. Tried to create a path around some problem areas (SE Bde Maka Ska(ice), and the swimming beach point on Cedar(sand)), but after getting the sled stuck on bare ice I will let that happen later. Still icy under the bridges. Happy to see half the city out enjoying winter.

(Michael Gotzsche)

Maka Ska, the channel to Isles, Lake of the Isles, the channel to Cedar, Cedar itself and Brownie are all groomed for skating and classic. Maka Ska will still be soft and uneven until we can make more passes with the groomer. The land route in the NE side of Cedar is open but soft and classic tracks need more work. The skiing on the lakes Friday was off the charts awesome!

(Brian Crotteau)

I've been waiting for the Chain of Lakes trails to open up, and what I tried out was great! I only skied Isles as the groomer had commented earlier that they hadn't done the connectors in the channels between Isles, Cedar, and Maka Ska. Isles was great; the track was excellent, and the skate deck was fine given the circumstances. I was out from about 4:30-6:00 just doing laps on Isles for sunset and some night skiing with a headlamp (highly recommend trying this, you'll have many fewer people out and about). It is unrealistic to expect the trail to be free of walkers and the divots they leave behind until they are able to groom that walking path that was mentioned; the deck will get a little bumpy later in the day, and the track will have its moments as well with how many people that walk right on it. Overall, it seems the lake is finally safe enough to maintain the trail, so it should only improve (weather allowing, that is). Classic skis will be coming out next time!

(Mike Snell)

A wonderful scene on the Chain of Lakes, with Isles, Cedar and Brownie well groomed. A couple icy patches in transitions from Isles to the Channel and Cedar to Brownie tunnel, and some sand coming through on the Cedar point beach but otherwise excellent conditions. Try to avoid falling in the hole dug for the polar plunge on the west side of Cedar.

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(R.T. Rybak)

Happy New Year. City of Lakes Groomers Local 1 is getting our schedule down and will have most of the lakes groomed regularly. Lake of the Isles was freshly groomed this morning with a wide skate deck and double classic tracks. The ice in the channel to Cedar is not quite thick enough so there is no connector to Isles and the lagoon has not been tested so we are not doing Bde Maka Ska yet. Once given the go ahead we will start grooming all the lakes. Our plan is to groom all the lakes regularly with a ski trail and separate walking/fatbike trail with signage to encourage walkers/fatbikes to not use their own trail.

(Peter Leugers)