Marlene and I skied the bike trail from the Visitor Center to the Headwaters and back. Beautiful day, small amount of tree debris and left overs from red squirrels eating pinecones directly above the trail.
More snowmobilers then skiers at the Headwaters when we were there. Only met two skiers on the trail. Having a cup of hot chocolate back at the Visitor Center is always a big plus! We will be back for Itasca's south trails another day. Our trail was groomed well and not overused.

(Jay Pike)

Ozawindib, Crossover, Deer Park, DeSoto, park loop road. Groomed but soft in spots. Starting to get some tree debris. Didn't see one person for 7 miles so be careful out there. Did a mile of the bike trail close to park headquarters, which was nearly perfectly groomed.

(Mike Papp)

Freshly groomed. Lake access to headwaters classic track ruined by snowshoes. 10 degrees. Poor deck not well packed and punchy.

(Karen Harris)

East entrance to headwaters was in lovely condition, only a couple spots with debris. Wilderness drive heading west from the east entrance was nicely tracked to DeSoto and packed some ways farther. DeSoto, Ozawindib, and the Crossover trails were sadly spoiled by a snowmobile some time before the most recent grooming, enough to make the tracks laid over them periodically unreliable. Some skiers have made their own tracks heading farther south than the Crossovers on Ozawindib etc.

(Alex Leslie)

All 21 km of ski trails are groomed and tracked, with an 8-inch base. The foggy day left hoar frost on the trees. We broke track on the ungroomed Nicollet trail and built a fire at the DeSoto shelter. We picked up our pace after returning to firm groomed tracks on the crossover trail from DeSoto to Deer Park Trail.

Photos:

(David Byrne, Minnesota Rovers Outdoors Club)

Classic skied Itasca today. There was plenty of snow and perfect coverage. Some debris that can be expected from woods skiing. The system was groomed yesterday morning. Trails along the bike trail were in nice shape, skate deck looked very nice, but was unused. The classic only trails back in the woods (Ozawindib, etc) had been re-tracked with the results being dangerous. The tracks were dangerous because of rutting due to running their tracked side by side over the tracks they had just set. The trails should have been blocked off, as they were unskiable. At the bottom of each of the downhills were large ruts, there was no choice but to crash or go off-course. I would not recommend skiing except for on the bike trails until they have re-groomed.

(Alex Yudell)