As expected, the trail is in good shape and the hills were sugar. 5:53 on some 2004 Fischer Skatecuts. Felt like playing Pacman until about noon. Overflow parking lot was almost full.

(Jay Wenner)

I skied the 1.9km loop today. It was my first time on skis for the year and it was great. I arrived at Elm Creek at 9am, the main lot was basically full. I'll probably arrive earlier than 9am on weekends in the future to avoid crowds. By the time I was done the secondary lot was half full. The conditions were great, they have done a good job making snow for the loop. The two big uphills were pretty choppy but that's to be expected with all the skiers.

(Beth Hedlund)

My daughter and I gave up waiting for natural snow and checked out Elm Creek today. We were treated to a nice firm skate deck, good glide, small crowd and about 2k of trails. Thanks Elm Creek!

(Mike Flynn)

Trails are in great shape with just the lower donut/bagel left to do. Being too late to wax I used skins after sliding the binding back a notch and ... Eureka? There was glide, what a concept! I was going to do a hot lap but I forgot the hour glass (or was it the sun dial)? Anyway they seemed like hot laps to me in my current condition.

(Mark Lahtinen)

Skied a hot lap of the full loop in 5:06. Skate deck was firm but the hill coming up to the stadium was getting a bit sugary by the end of my ski.

(Zack Danielson)

Good hard-wax classic skiing today. Blue was kicking fine until about 20k when wax loss started taking its toll. But the trails were getting crowded by 4:30 anyway; when I saw a group of 30+ skiers heading out together in less than 20m group length (without a single mask in sight), I knew it was time to play it safe and bail instead of getting in a skate session as planned.

(Pete Thurmes)

Elm Creek now has 2K of cross-country ski trails open. Thank you everyone for your patience during these warm periods.

(Bruce Bolduan, Three Rivers Park District)

The next part of the manmade loop is open. About 2Ks now.

Photos:

(Mark Lahtinen)

Able to blow snow all day. Looks like next section ready to be groomed.

Photos:

(Mark Lahtinen)

Good sunrise ski at Elm Creek. About 12 cars in the parking lot at 6:40am. Still just the first section open, but groomers were working the second section hard and it should open soon. Blowing snow on the third section of the man-made loop.

(Jeff Blodgett)