I skied from the Visitor Center to the Nevers Overlook to stay out of the wild wind Sunday. Conditions were good to very good in freshly groomed tracks. There was some leaf and stick litter due to the wind. The tracks were still a little bit soft. I saw trumpeter swans and an eagle down by the river. The sun was great, and the wind was howling, but much better conditions than Saturday when I tried skiing Amador Prairie and the Nevers Dam trail. I actually stopped at the road crossing and skied back to the Trail Center on the road due to extreme sticking on my waxless skis. Hopefully people with wax skis had a better time skiing Saturday. The couple inches of fresh snow then, plus drizzle and temps at or just above freezing were not a good combination for my equipment. It looked like another couple inches of fresh snow overnight Saturday into Sunday.

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(Kris Backlund)

Finally back out on the trails. I skied the River Access Road hill, River Trail going north, Nevers Dike, and Old Logging Trail. It was clear the trails were well used this weekend, but the tracks were holding up well. Best snow and skiing of the last few years. I would say good to very good conditions for classic skiing. There were some oak leaves blown into the tracks on the home stretch going down the Old Logging Trail, but that's not surprising with some wind in recent days. In the wildlife category, I saw deer, a nuthatch, a robin and trumpeter swans. Didn't have a chance to ski there, but saw the groomer out combing and setting a single track on the Amador Prairie loops, so that may address some of previous concerns.

Photos:

(Kris Backlund)

Skied Mitigwaki to Old Military Rd. to deer Creek Loop and pioneer trail. There is a double classic track which is in good shape. Plenty of snow. Beautiful views of the St. Croix River, the deer Creek Valley, and Meadows and Woods. There were a few people out but not nearly as many as I expected on a Sunday. There was a sign indicating the Highland Hills Loop trails were closed because of conditions. They are advanced trails.

(Wayne Nelson)

Despite the "good" trail conditions posted on the DNR website, I tried to skate from the trail center on the Amador Prairie loop counterclockwise from the trail center, and immediately found the single pass groomed surface isn't wide enough to create an adequate skate deck, so you constantly catch your tips on each side. And when the groomer had adequate room and did at least 2 passes, they failed to overlap, leaving a ridge of ungroomed snow between! The advanced trail should be closed because they couldn't make it up some hills, leaving treacherous, ankle-braking ruts.

(Bryan Lueth)

Excellent coverage but slow because of the lightly falling snow. From Trailhead went down to the river, past the camp grounds, turned back to trailhead at the Sunny Lake trail (basically the northern outer trails). Someone walked next to and on the track but luckily not with snowshoes, so wasn't damaged badly. Then I did the Pioneer Trail, Deer Creek Trail, River Trail loop and back to the Trailhead. Again, nice coverage but slow.

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(Karoly Horvath)

Skied Mitigwaki to Amik's pond to River trail to Nevers Dam to Amador prairie. Excellent classic track until I reached Amador Prairie which was good to very good. Zero degrees out but expected to see more skiers.

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(Wayne Nelson)

I actually skied both Wednesday and Tuesday afternoons. The previously set tracks were still discernible and at least a few skiers had worked in the new snow. It was nice skiing with fresh snow falling Tuesday. Conditions were fair to good if you don't mind not having a pure, machine-made track. Wednesday I skied down the boat landing road, then north along the River Trail, and back via the Old Logging Trail. I saw some trumpeter swans near Nevers Dam. Tuesday I skied the bike trail part of the Mitigwaki, then the boat landing road, south along the River Trail, up at the Visitor Center, and bushwhacked my way back to the Mitigwaki via the Windfall Trail. There was evidence of some freshly packed trails Wednesday, which it appeared another skier tried to skate on not so successfully with the snow not set up. I'm assuming trails will be in very good shape for the weekend and candlelight event Saturday night.

(Kris Backlund)

Happy to be out skiing again. I skied the Mitigwaki Loop and River Access Road down to the St. Croix. Tracks were well set, with a little bit of fresh snow in them, so they weren't pristine, but nevertheless pretty good. I would say fair to good conditions. The tracks weren't icy with the blown in snow. There was a little bit of leaf litter and scattered sticks, but not as much as I expected considering some of the wind earlier in the week. There is some switching between one set track and two set tracks on the portion of the Mitigwaki with an earthen base (southwest side), with a double track throughout the portion with a paved base. South facing areas have less of a base due to sun exposure. I stayed plenty warm despite a temp of -6 when I started skiing. I recommend B skis in case you run into an area with less coverage.

(Kris Backlund)

Despite highs around 40 degrees the last couple days, the trails I went on the last two days are still skiable. I skied the River Access Road hill, the River Trail and the Old Logging Trail. The River Trail had coverage, but conditions were much more variable, and I would expect that to be the case on any of the trails with a dirt base. My finishing run on the Old Logging Trail was fast but not icy. There was a fairly decent skied in track. There are also plenty of footprints throughout without any tracks set to make hikers think about where they are walking. I had no issues with dirt coming through, but there are some icy sections, especially in areas exposed to sun along the River Trail, and on the Nevers dike. Unless you're skiing on the paved base portion, you may want to consider rock skis. If I had the time, I would probably be heading north for better snow, but at least I have been able to get out. At least three dozen trumpeter swans on the river.

(Kris Backlund)

Snowed pretty hard on our way up at about 2:00 pm, and kept snowing while we skied. Nice layer of powder over everything when we got there. You could tell that there was icy stuff under the powder but there was enough snow on top to make it a very enjoyable ski. No set tracks anywhere which was fine for us.

(Ken Fastner)