With a fresh 1.5 inches of fluffy snow on top of a base of squeaky cold hard pack, the Bearskin grooming team put in effort and skill that was nothing short of showing off! We skied the classic tracks on Poplar Creek and Ox Cart trails and they were in great shape. Also the Campground loop and Summer Home Road. Bear Cub was not freshly groomed. Skiing on my best skis I lifted a foot 3 or 4 times for an exposed area. The skate trails appeared to be in equally fantastic shape. I trust that the groomers will continue to be show offs as nature provides the raw material!

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(Bobbie Gostout)

Bearskin groomed the south side of the system today. The inch or so of snow we received went a long ways, and everything groomed up nicely. We skied Poplar Creek in the afternoon and it was great. You can use your best skis on Summerhome and Campground. I you have B skis, I would choose them for most of the other trails. If I only had one pair of skis I would be comfortable using them as well and just keeping an eye for the few spots with rocks poking through. We continue to have great skiing.

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(Quinn McCloughan, Bearskin Lodge)

Trails are still holding up well despite the lack of fresh snowfall. Some debris from the winds this week is present in places on a few trails, some more-so than others, but nothing particularly terrible or anything damaging to skis. Icy surface conditions have been minimal - we were able to get good bite with skate skis everywhere we skied. All trails other than Moose Ridge continue to be open.

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(Zach Baumann, Golden Eagle Lodge)

Spent the past few days skiing the trails and they are in good condition. It was a real treat to ski 100% natural snow for the first time in almost two years. The groomers have done a great job keeping things fresh, and the pisten bully areas are in great shape with only a few small rocks and some dirt showing up in areas of heavy usage. Trails with more snowmobile grooming are a little icier but still plenty of snow for safe skiing. The few lake crossings are mostly ice right now, but it's easy to take the scenic route ski trails around them. A big 'thank you' to the Golden Eagle Lodge and Bearskin grooming crews for their trail efforts!

(Mark Schulte)

If you've got a long ski on the docket for the weekend and you took the storage wax off your b skis, then take them and some warm clothes up to the Gunflint Trail. We skied the Beaver Dam, Moose Fence, Summer Home Road, and Ox Cart. Each trail was different according to when they'd last groomed. Yhe trails are natural snow, some are fresh snow over ruts, some have a rock or two peeking out (easy to miss). There are tracks, which was good because it is cold and skating could be slow. The person at Bearskin who sold us our passes had good intel on which trails to avoid. We did a day trip from Duluth with three adults. Bonus: left and right turns.

(Kristin Riker-Coleman)

Classic skied the Golden Eagle side, logging camp, Deer mouse, Red Pine, then drove over to Bearskin and skied Bear Cub and Poplar Loop. Coverage was good, but periodic dirt and stubble under a tiny dusting of new snow (1/4 inches) made me glad I was on B skis. Temps were in the single digits, and the cold snow ripped off my green wax and binder in the first 10k. Then I switched to a pair of skis with grip tape covered by blue hard wax and skied another 17k which also ripped all the wax including the grip tape. Grooming was recent, skate deck was firm and tracks were well formed. It was great to ski on natural snow that wasn't iced from last week's rain.

(Tim Nelson)

The trails received a dusting of snow this morning. Beaver Dam and surrounding trails were recently groomed and perfect for skating. Classic tracks looked great too. There are a few dirt sports and divots that can easily be avoided. It was the best skiing I've had this year and a nice break from the sugary ice-snow in the metro area.

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(Melissa Kittock)

The groomers have done a really wonderful job working with last week's warm-up! Most trails are in excellent condition. Ridge Run and the west side of Old Logging Camp have sticks coming through, but good skis are still workable if you slow down and do some evasive maneuvers. Worth it for the views! The deck is cleaner on both trails than the tracks. BWCA section of Old Logging Camp is a debris field at present; I'd avoid unless you're looking for that experience. There are a few spots to be cautious on steep downhills - I'm thinking of Red Pine - where skiers during warm weather made large ruts in the deck. All in all fantastic skiing; considering conditions everywhere else right now, we're blessed to have such great trails and grooming!

(Alex Leslie)

Our group skied most of the system. Overall, conditions were pretty darn good with decent coverage on the skate deck and a couple roots/rocks appearing in the classic track at times. There were a couple places where the trail had been well loved but groomers were out this morning into midday restoring the skate deck, hurrah! A couple places still had ruts from skiers going through while the snow was warm, thankfully most footprints appeared to be well off to the side of the trail. Classic tracks were full depth in many places and just affected by the occasional thin spot. They had groomed the BWCA section of Logging road with a classic track that was pretty shallow and very squirrelly mixed in with a fair amount of debris. Enough areas of the occasional debris to recommend B skis unless you're just going to stick to wide open trails like the campground loop or summer home. It appears that the only closed trail is Moose Ridge wither everything else open.

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(Ketzel Levens)

Skied most of the GEL trails (Logging Camp, Crossfox, and Deermouse) and all were in good shape for skating (tracks looked good). Skied around West side loop to Bearskin side. That trail groomed up nice for skating. The classic tracks didn't look great in many spots. You should perhaps use B skis for West Loop but the rest of the GEL trails you could use good skis if you're skating. Summer home road was in great shape. Beaver Dam was overall in good shape. A few spots with dirt tilled up so B skis. But overall just really solid conditions and the best skiing in MN I've encountered now.

Photos:

(Jim Carlen)