Their website claims that they hadn't groomed since the thaw, but it must have been rolled in the past 24 hours. The ice was rolled into shallow corduroy. It was fast but not glazed. It is not groomed for classic. There are oak leaves everywhere (no surprise with the name) but snow coverage is good throughout - there is one bare spot at the start only. It's been years since I've skied here; it's a fun, curvy, hilly 5 km outer course. I'm glad I went, and recommend others go. The inner 4 km track is also open.

(Mary McKelvey)

Skated the outer loop. It appears that additional grooming had been done, with fairly fresh hard corduroy (temp around 25F) and significant leaf debris in many places. It was enough to grab my skis and make it difficult to keep them moving on a few of the steeper climbs. Fairly flat trail to very difficult off-camber trail for a few stretches. Most of the downhills were fairly level from side to side and was able to stay in control. There were a few spots where dirt had been pulled up but they were easily avoidable. Relatively shallow classical tracks. I used rock skis - probably could have used "B" skis with caution.

(Mike Maiers)

Looks like a tractor was used to drag the trail, and frankly the trail would have been better if left ungroomed. It would be both safer and more enjoyable. A lot of the trail had a big tractor tire rut down the center. It's one of the worst grooming jobs I have ever seen. There are multiple stretches with hi/low levels, holes, a ridge down the center.

(Dale Vaillancourt)

The trails are open but not yet groomed, with no tracks set. Had fun kicking around on my old-school trail breaking skis. Did my best to "connect the dots" between the trails that had been set by previous skiers. Hopefully the new snow and colder temps will give the groomers what they need to do their magic. Coverage averaged 6-8 inches, with more depth in the protected areas. Beautiful scenery with the new snow! Recommend rock skis for now, or at least until the first grooming is complete. This is a great venue with some challenging hills.

Photos:

(Mike Maiers)

Not groomed, but surprisingly good snow conditions for this early and the first snow of the season. We were skiing on our waxable Norwegian wood skis with V-55 Swix kick wax. Plenty of snow. Some leaves and sticks. A few small patches of dirt, easily avoided. Great day to be out on skis! All of their ski trails were open.

Photos:

(Craig Wiklund)

Skied the ungroomed outer loop on my waxless Madshus backcountry skis. These skis are a blast. Some walkers and one skier before me. If you think you have to stick to groomed trails and manmade snow, you're missing out on a big part of the fun! This was a great, hard workout bustin trail. No crowds except for two hawks, an owl, a bald eagle and three whitetails. Forget about preserving your race ski bases sometime. You'll be ecstatic to get out and kick around old school. You could ski 10 k here in three combined loops.

Photos:

(Dale Vaillancourt)