Skied the full loop this morning. Solid tracks and coverage in some places but chewed up tracks and debris elsewhere, including a dead mouse. Saw several other skiers and few fat tire bikers riding on the tracks. Skate deck was well compacted everywhere without too many deep footprints, but had similar amounts of debris.

(Carter Green)

The entire 10 mile loop of the Glen is groomed for both classic and skating, except for about 50m out by the power substation, and another 250m between the Cass Avenue crossing and the main parking lot. Other than those two spots, the remainder of the trail has classic tracks on both sides, plus a skate deck. The Snowcat groomer was out working at 2:30 pm on Friday, so some sections are fresh. That said, they appear to be grooming only partial sections each day, so the quality of the surface varies widely. Classic tracks on one side will be excellent for a mile or two, but the opposite track will appear to be several days old. Then they will switch sides. In some places, the deck is heavily trod -- particularly between the 91st Street lot and the Waterfall -- but in others, it was fresh corderoy even late on Friday afternoon. Speaking of the 91st Street trailhead, it was plowed but closed -- for unknown reasons. The 50m road section by the substation is a wreck -- snow-covered but barely skiable due to banks from previous plowing. The section between Cass and the main lot is completely ungroomed, and a slog, but also short. The classic tracks out by the model plane field are almost completely blown-over, for about 200 meters, as you'd expect due to the exposure. The sections of trail with overhanging trees do have some tree debris down, but it is light and not problematic. There are 3 newly-downed trees between miles 7 and 9, but they do not block the trail, just impinge on it slightly. The 2023 bridge over the Sawmill Creek is open -- we'll see if it lasts longer than the 2022 bridge did. Not many people are getting out here. We saw four other skiers in 10 miles, plus one jogger, and two hikers, and the weather couldn't have been much nicer for skiing. Overall, the snow condition was a B -- although if graded on a curve for being a heavily-used preserve, and south of Chicago, it'd get an A. I have never seen the Glen in this good shape for skiing, at any time in the last decade. It's not fast, but there aren't any other places around here to ski 10 groomed miles in relative wilderness.

Photos:

(David Hillman)

Did not ski, but according to the online update, rangers "were able to complete" grooming the Glen four days ago. No updates have been provided since. I'm not sure if "complete" grooming means they lapped the entire 10 miles, or not. According to the picture that accompanied the ranger's report, they set classic tracks in addition to packing the deck. Of course, it's the Glen, so the trail near any parking lot will be trashed by pedestrians and dogs within a day, but the more distant reaches might be decent.

(David Hillman)