Conditions: Excellent except it was too warm. Fresh corduroy. It was 32 degrees at 9:30 start, 41 degrees at 11:00 end. Sunny and windy. Used FastWax Yellow LF buffed with fluoro paste.
After reading the Saturday trail report, I raced out from the Cities to get a 9:40 start. Unfortunately, I missed the window by roughly an hour. I moved okay for the first half but I crawled as temperatures and sun exposure increased on my return. Ended up averaging 5 mph for the 5.6 miles. Couldn't pick a prettier place to end the season regardless of the conditions.

Photos:

(Keith Carlson)

Conditions: Recently groomed. Beautiful new snow.
Went from about 1-2:30 today. It is almost perfect up there. Skied north, south, and Tram loops. All groomed. No ice or debris at all. If you go yet today your A skis would be just fine. I was skiing on a bit older HF medium temp wax and wish I would have been on warm weather glide wax. The snow isn't spongy but it's just starting to warm up a bit. I'm hoping to go one last time early morning tomorrow for one last ski of the year. Might be a B ski morning depending on what the weather is tonight but should still be great tomorrow morning. No classic tracks unfortunately but I think the trail could be classic skied.

Photos:

(Brady Zwiefelhofer)

Conditions: Icy but able to get an edge. In great condition.
Skate skied Friday from 9:30-10:30 am. The groomer was just about done as I was heading out. The trail is actually in great shape and should be for the rest of the day today. Fast but not scary fast on the downhills even though the base is still rock hard. Skied North loop and highland lake trails. No classic tracks on highland and didn't really notice on north loop. Perfect timing and work by the grooming folks this year at Hickory three cheers for the crew! Get out today and get up early tomorrow before it's too late! Early Saturday morning could be real good too before the heatwave throws everything up in the air. There is a tentative plan to groom early Saturday morning also.

(Brady Zwiefelhofer)

Conditions: Perfect. Best snow of the year and groomed today.
Probably the best snow conditions I've seen this year for sure and probably the past couple of years. Fast but able to get an edge everywhere along the trail. It was groomed today and I was the second skater to ski it. Get out there, great conditions for your final Birkie training.

(Brady Zwiefelhofer)

Conditions: Freshly groomed and tracked.
Entire skate lane groomed Friday night. Excellent corduroy. Tracks were good with very little debris except on highland / lowland trail. Fatbike / snowshoe trail looked great as well. Thank you groomers. Enjoy.

(Kevin Roytek)

Conditions: I had sticky "glide" with the warm temps and wrong wax, but the grooming and snow coverage was close to perfect.
This is a scenic trail system and they're doing a good job with grooming and trail maintenance.

(Louis Muench, CASTA)

Conditions: Classic tracks great! All trails groomed for both classic and skating.
Fabulous new snow. If you love hills and scenic Ice Age terrain.... this is the best in the area.

(Eleanor Wolf)

Conditions: very good to excellent.
The entire system was rolled and combed on Tuesday and the plan was to set track tonight. Groomers intend to do touch up nightly for the next several nights to make the skiing this weekend absolutely fabulous.

(Mike Dahlby)

Conditions: Very good and fast even with the warm temps.
Skate skied from 11am-noon today. The connector trail and south loop was very firm with all of the skiers that have been on it and kinda icy fast (but not unsafe icy). The tram and north loop was a tad bit softer but still it was a surprisingly fast day. Thought it would be softer heading out to the trail but so glad I went. Thankfully the base has been taken care of so far this winter. (Note: A hiker put a few too many holes in the trail but don't let that stop you from skiing just watch out for them).

(Brady Zwiefelhofer)

Conditions: Very good, verging on excellent.
The skiing was great this morning. The scenery could not have been better at first light. 1" of fresh snow on top of a fairly firm base. The skate deck was flattened nicely. The tracks are not very deep but there really isn't that much snow - yet! But, it was getting warm fast at 10:00am.

Photos:

(Mike Dahlby)