Spring conditions! Freeze/thaw - varying from perfect snow to slightly icy snow depending on amount of shade. Overall trails are in good condition still - tracks well-set. About 3 of 12 km have light amounts of debris (twigs, bark, or needles).

Photos:

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

Overall the trails are in very good shape. (Last grooming was Friday the 21st). The last couple days of melting temps resulted in some glazed or icy tracks, but the tracks themselves have held up. And overall, icy conditions are the minority, not the majority. Parts of trails have some light debris from the high winds (needles, bark, small twigs) but nothing that will really grab you. Bottom line - its beautiful out there.

Photos:

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

All trails groomed this afternoon. I heard from our groomer and he says he was able to wipe out the trespassing side-by-side vehicle’s tracks. Although temps were above freezing, the conditions in woods and on trails stayed cold enough - and with late afternoon grooming, tonight’s cold temps, the trails should be in perfect condition for a morning ski.

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

We got three inches of new powder snow and trails have not been re-tracked since yesterday. Nevertheless the conditions are lovely as most of the trails have been skier-tracked. One unfortunate thing is that someone drove his two-track snowcat type vehicle up the Tower Link portion of the trail and part of the Northern Lights loop. Because the snow is so soft this doesn’t create a huge problem - just such a bummer that someone would do that. But, again, bottom line lots of great skiing out there!

Photos:

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

All trails (12k) are open and just groomed this early afternoon. This was grooming of a couple of inches of new powder snow, so tracks are soft-ish yet this afternoon. Windy day, but the skier will be unaffected thanks to the lovely forest breaking the wind on virtually all segments.

Photos:

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

Skied the Howard Wagoner Loop this morning for the first time! Great tracks and nice conditions. We love the mix between hills and flatter sections and the trees are beautiful.

Photos:

(Nancy Salminen)

All trails are open. Trails remain in great condition since the last grooming on Wednesday the 22nd. Moderate temps mean good glide, beautiful firm but soft snow, with no icy conditions at all. The only places tracks are less than perfect are at the bottom of the downhills with curves. Here skiers - including me - have a hard time staying in tracks. So there are crisscrosses of tracks where skiers glide by and original tracks are not well-defined anymore. The softness of snow, plus light dusting of snow we have had since Wednesday makes those areas relatively easy to navigate through.

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

All 12k of our all-classic trails were groomed today and are in prime condition. Nothing more to say other than skiing is perfect.

Photos:

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

New tracks not yet set. Trails were dragged yesterday - then a couple more inches fell on top of that firm base. This is soft, dry and airy snow so skiing was stable, soft and quiet and beautiful. Most of trails have been skied after dragging yesterday and today so are there are quite good user-tracks.

Photos:

(Mary Shedd, Howard Wagoner Trails Club)

Had a good ski this afternoon, I went on the west side of 135. Parked in the main parking lot. I am not sure if the trails have been skied yet on the east side of the highway since the storm this past weekend. I skied Howard’s Loop and some of the Northern lights and inner Loop trails. They have been groomed but maybe not tracked yet. The skiing is good and there were a few other people out enjoying the trails.

Photos:

(Ida Rukavina)