Skated all trails today. Skate deck is in excellent shape. Smooth and firm, glide with an inch of new snow and 10 degrees was great. Classic tracks looked in good shape. Coverage is fine in most places, except under the railroad bridge and in a few places where debris provided scratch potential. Very nice natural snow conditions!

(Tim Nelson)

Great day to ski with appropriate layers. A few soft areas but overall great. Area under bridge remains very bare so be careful there but otherwise excellent coverage. Tracks looked great too.

(Ben Fuller)

Great coverage and grooming for both skate and classic. Initially soft for skate but kept getting better with more groomer passes. I only suggest B skis due to thin coverage in the usual spot in the tunnel under the railway. Scenery was fabulous, everything was thoroughly frosted.

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(Jess Holle)

Absolutely fantastic! Best conditions I have experienced in quite some time. It was magical as the groomer passed me near the start and I followed him the entire trail system being the first to enjoy perfect grooming! What a gift.

(Kristina Vaughan)

Started at 3:30pm this afternoon, from the Interpretive Center I skied the Woodland Edge Trail to Wetland Trail, up that hill to the Wedge Hill Savanna Trail, and back to Interpretive Center. The trail I classic skied was recently groomed, the tracks and skate deck were in really good shape. Snowing gently throughout my ski. I only have one pair of classic skis so I guess they are my good skis. Temp was low 20's and it felt like it was dropping throughout my ski. Really nice late afternoon ski.

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(Harlan Jones)

Grooming had just finished when I arrived at 2 PM. Excellent early season conditions. The tracks and deck were firm. Some dirt under the railroad bridge and the thinness of the track is the only reason to reserve a good ski rating. One closed section, the flat that runs parallel just east of RR Tracks, for a downed power line. A little ice here and there in the track, but skins had a good grip. The skaters were enjoying it.

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(Jim Pearsall)

Stopped by to check it out and ended up skiing. Did not ski the outer most difficult loops because it was late in the day but skied the rest of the trails. Everything including the outer loops were groomed for skate and classic. The skating looked great, the classic was great. Solid tracks, little debris, good glide and kick, solid pole plants. The track was pretty fast and classic blue wax worked well. Bring your ski pass, they are checking.

(Jim Smith)

I was planning to skate at WOB but temp dropped to -3F when I got there at 8am. I decided to switch plans to classic rock skis and wimp out and use my Thermic IC heated mittens. Both worked out great and I had an enjoyable ski. I skied all the trails. Good coverage on 95%+. I'd skip Hardwoods (trail to north) due to rocks. Pictures show the nice coverage Woodlands Edge (west), Rolling Hills Savanna (SW) and Prairie Overlook (S). Skate deck often a little uneven due to terrain of trail underneath. Virtually no classic tracks as expected in low snow. Kudos to the groomers that did an awesome job of compacting the surface but not digging up dirt.

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(Kevin Ousdigian)

O'Brien was great today on B skis. All the ski trails were well groomed and tracks sets. Bare in a few spots and bit of normal leaf and pine cone debris, not enough to slow you down for long and easily avoidable. I avoided the Hardwood Hills loop where the snow appeared thin and larger climb where the path is covered in sharply edge trap rock to help with erosion. Savanna Hills loop was in great shaped. A few walkers on the trails.

(Kelly Knaus)

As of noon today, the inner loop was freshly groomed for skating. Fantastic first ski of the season!

(Juli Hagstrom)