All trails seem recently groomed and those I skied were in good condition. Trail to Bean Lake has been groomed beautifully - a few bits of brush poking up through the snow like zombie hands rising out of the grave, but there are not enough to impact the experience. A few pine needles on snow, but not many. Perfect day. Thanks to all the volunteers!

(Jo Swanson)

Nice skiing today. Looked like Bean Lake trail was the only ungroomed one. However, I met the groomers near Birch Corner so who knows, it may be groomed by now. Thanks to the groomers and thanks for the new signs (or perhaps old signs that I simply didn't remember, hah).

(Jo Swanson)

Kudos to the groomers! Trails were in very good condition, although a bit icy in spots due to rain earlier in the week. Skied up to Tettegouche Camp, via a gorgeous area through Palisade Valley. Plenty of snow on the ground.

Photos:

(Genevieve Johnson)

We skied the White Pine loop. It was a bit tricky due to the icy conditions. It was especially icy underneath the pine trees. It is easy to post hole with our race poles. Where are my big baskets when I need them?

(Teresa Workman)

The trail out to Bean Lake is not groomed. The overlook hill had stubble sticking out of the tracks. Overall, there is good coverage. Need a little more snow. Under trees, there are icy spots with pine needles. It was a little sticky in the sun. It is still worth going to and worth the drive from Duluth.

Photos:

(Ava Schapman)

Every trail was groomed and was in good shape today. Some pole postholing and a few small branches to maneuver but nothing too dramatic. Thanks to the groomers!

(Jo Swanson)

There's plenty of snow but the trails need a lot of work. The parts that had tracks were in mostly good condition, although a bit slow due to cold temps and a soft base (my poles sunk through pretty often, and occasionally a ski as well). I marked the groomed tracks in green on the photo I included. There were occasional debris on the tracks here from some clearing they had done, which was easy to avoid, but mostly good condition.
There were Ungroomed trails from other skiers that I marked in yellow. At first I wondered why these had not been groomed, but as I skied them it became clear as to why. There are a lot of branches hanging into the trail that need clearing. I got whacked in the face several times, mostly on a very long downhill where you pick up a good deal of speed. Some branches sticking through the snow here too - so if you take a yellow trail you may want to use B skis.
Finally, there were several trails with no tracks whatsoever marked in red. I did not go this way, as I didn't feel like cutting new trail.
It's such a beautiful system, but it needs a lot of work to clear the trails of all the brush and it could really use good signage and a correction to the wooden sign at the start which isn't correct (the paper map is correct however so follow that).
Pretty sure the groomer was out grooming, sad I had fresh track for some and could hear and smell the snowmobile nearby, so it'll likely be better soon.

Photos:

(Jamie Swanson)

Beautiful day to be out. We started at 10:30 a.m. and followed the trail that an earlier (and hearty) skier had broken on the outer loop, which was slow going. Rather like snowshoeing. The heavy snow caused small trees to bend onto the trail in several places, which required our own bending, side-stepping, and other creative maneuvering to get around. However, by the time we were finishing at 1:30, two friendly people on a groomer were setting lovely tracks.

(Diane Mancini)