No new grooming as of noon today. Skate deck is packed and icy, hard to get an edge. Trails are starting to soften up in the sun, but in the shade it is dangerously fast, so I get over to the classic tracks for stability.

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(David Byrne, Minnesota Rovers Outdoors Club)

Tracks and skate deck in generally great condition. Some areas have some leaves and debris but very few places cause slowdowns. Tracks are fast. Snow drifting has partially filled the tracks along the fields on the southeast fields. Green loop has some interfering debris on the first half, pretty good on the second half. No track on the first part of the last half of the green loop.

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(Lincoln Fetcher)

Classic skied Lake Elmo Park from 11am`- Noon, beautiful sunny day, about 25 F when I skied. Trails in decent shape, somewhat skied out, with those persistent oak leaves causing the occasional complaint when my skis stopped suddenly, but still wonderful to be skiing in February here in the Twin Cities. Lots of folks out enjoying the trails, a few people not really caring or paying attention to which way the trail arrows pointed, my wife was about to launch down one of the hills on the Brown's Pond trail when a guy skate skiing the wrong direction up the same hill came close to a collision. Just saying, especially when there's a crowd, please just ski the way your supposed to. Thanks!

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(Harlan Jones)

Trails not groomed today but skate deck firm and in good condition. I marvel at how little debris there has been on the skate deck this season. Unfortunately, can't say the same for some parts of the classic tracks.

(Dana Smith)

All trails are in good to excellent condition at Lake Elmo. The skate deck was a little soft in a few spots, but overall very good with little to no debris. The classic tracks looked great, deep set and in tact in most places. Only downside there is a good amount of leaf debris on the North trail near the lake. But just a short section. The groomers are doing fabulous work with all the activity here, and the conditions are tremendous.

(Glenn Hansen)

The oak leaves and amur maple debris was just too hard to avoid. Wax based skis are not the answer today. Skins or fishscales would be better. I tried North and Browns Pond. I picked up leaves and bark everywhere.

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(Bryan Heinle)

Great skate conditions - fast and quite a lot of cord still. Skate deck was flat and just beautiful conditions.

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(Ronald Okenfuss)

East side trails were all regroomed this morning and they attempted to repair the tracks in some sections of the trails but struggled with some soft/crumbly snow. Due to the high winds there is a bit more debris on the trail currently, especially embedded in the tracks in the more wooded sections of the trails and snow drift in the open areas. There are some sections that are still in pretty good condition but overall I'd rate them more on the fair side today. Grooming plans: They will attempt to regroom tomorrow which will hopefully help if the wind dies down. West side trails are being repacked this afternoon.

(Jen Garcia, Washington County Parks)

Classic skied at Lake Elmo Park from 1:30-2:30pm, a little bit of sunshine and a warm 15 F. Skied green to Brown's pond trail, then the Flats, through woods on green, yellow to Savanna turn-off, around Savanna loop to yellow and back to trailhead. Overall classic tracks in good shape, did not appear that tracks were groomed this morning. A bit icy in spots, especially on Savanna loop which didn't appear to get as much traffic as other trails on east side. One spot, I think it was on the Brown's Pond trail, some wood bits from an industrious squirrel made a few meters of tracks more a walking path than ski tracks. Another nice day to be out skiing, maybe we can ski into March this season in the Cities.

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(Harlan Jones)

John and I classic skied at 1 pm and classic tracks were 75% nice, deep and fast. The other 25% were shallow, washed out and had some whoop-de-do's. There were a few places with leaves and bark (deers probably nibbling on the trees - wish they'd clean up after themselves!) where you need to jump onto the skate deck, which was nice loose snow, or risk a sudden stop or face plant! Here's a photo of a bad place on the Green loop and meant to take a picture of the real pretty tracks, but my battery went dead. Sorry! Overall, even John said pretty good conditions and you know what he does at 4 o'clock in the morning!

Photos:

(Carol Fitzgerald)