Classic skied the outer loop in skier made tracks. Snow is soft and tracks are deep so if they freeze overnight they could be hazardous. Some parts of the tracks are almost down to the dirt and a few spots the bare ground must be skied around. It was a beautiful day and although ski was a slow one it was great to be out so late in the season in such a great ski venue.

(Tim Nelson)

I decided to go up to William O'Brien and see if the snow was skiable and enjoy a beautiful post snowstorm afternoon at the State Park. I was pleasantly surprised. Someone had tracked the entire perimeter trail (not the periphery loops - did not see any ski tracks or snowshoe tracks on those trails) until I reached the turn-off to the Wedge Hill Savannah trail. I made new ski tracks next to some snowshoe tracks on the Savannah trail. I was happy that snow shoers made their own tracks parallel to the ski tracks so the skiing was pretty good for April 16th. Had a great ski and welcome those of you who might want to ski tomorrow morning to go for it before the snow goes bad and the ski tracks get too beat up. Cheers!

(Harlan Jones)

WOB had full snow cover but none of the trails had been groomed from last weeks snow. The classic track was skied in but intermittent. Quality was fair with snow ice and slush depending on how much sun the sections received. Skate lane looked to be slow with around 2" left on top from the last snow, but the base was good. The rule of law has been abandoned as I passed 6 groups of hikers and their dogs on the ski trails.

(Dan Murphy)

Excellent crust skiing conditions! Can go pretty much anywhere in the meadows and wetlands. There's a good crusty layer from last week's thaw, and the Marine on St. Croix area only got about 2 inches in Monday's storm which makes for a nice finish on top of the crust.
On the other hand, only the small loop to the east of the railroad tracks was groomed after Monday and Tuesday's snow and the trails are now open to multi-use, so people have been walking. That said, the trails are still in very excellent skiing condition except for a few short melt/ice patches that need to be carefully navigated, but 99.5% of trails are great and the small amount of new snow on top of last weekend's grooming is easily skateable.

(Henry Reich)

Only a short flat section of the trail groomed. The hills were not groomed but are skiable. The groomed section had no track set. Looks like Billy O'Brien is done for the year for me. Can't complain though the conditions were great all year.

(Robert McKenzie)

They groomed all trails this morning. Skate lane only. The classic tracks are getting glazed but are mostly there. I fish scaled them yesterday afternoon and they were decent. Skating this morning was super fast. With the grooming I was able to do all loops without worrying about dying on the downhills and got an edge on the ups.

(Paul Schaaf)

Trails have great coverage except one or two easily avoidable thin spots. Soft and slow in places, hard and fast in others, but not icy anywhere: looks like it was probably groomed yesterday. Plenty of other skiers out, too. Should be a good weekend of skiing at the park, especially if they groom tomorrow.

(Henry Reich)

Late afternoon skiing after a warm day will always present some challenges, but O'Brien is now in even rougher shape because of a snowmobile or some other type of vehicle drove down the center of the skating lane leaving ruts, tread marks, and churned up snow in its wake. A familiar and fairly simple downhill was made dangerous because of these ruts. Icy hills normally are not a problem for me, but I didn't want to risk injury by tackling the big ones on the outer perimeter. The classic tracks looked pretty nice, but the skating lane is in tough shape. Use caution!

(Michael Jorgensen)

Most of the system has been groomed and is in great shape. The two loops before the railroad crossing were rolled but not groomed for either classic or skating. Great snow, postcard day. Not sure why the best hills in the park were not groomed but it was nice to be out.

(Jim Smith)

Fair for skating; very good for classic. Brilliant sunshine and 28-29 degrees. Woodland and Wetland had been packed and groomed for classic. Other trails were neither. I used FastWax Salmon LF for skating; Swix Blue Extra for classic. The groomer had only made one pass. Hopefully will regroom for Saturday. I only skated Wetland because it was too soft. Switched to my combi's after crayoning on Blue Extra. Initially I was afraid the wax was too cold but it ended up giving good kick and glide. Machine-made track was generally perfect. At least it felt fast to me. After going across the marsh on the return on Wetland, it looked like the machine-made track quit so I continued to Beaver Lodge, which only had a skier- made track but once I got back on Wetland the machine-made track reappeared. It was good classic skiing for a regular skater like me.

(Keith Carlson)