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!

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(Carol Fitzgerald)

Skied all of the lit trails last night, and saw only a couple people - I felt like I had the whole place to myself! Classic tracks are in great condition - they are washing out in a couple spots and there's a little bit of leaf debris in the most wooded areas, but 99% of the tracks are firm and fast. Found: I did find a car key on the "Hills" loop, on the climb right before the intersection of the "Hills" and the end of the "Brown's Pond" trail. Call the Lake Elmo Park Reserve main office if these belong to you.

(Nick Myhre)

Another excellent day of skiing at Lake Elmo! We arrived at 2:30 pm; beautiful sunny day and 10 degrees with light wind. Perfectly groomed trails made for lots of glide and plenty of whooping and hollering!! We ran into more deer out having fun than people. What a great season of skiing. And it is only January! Thank you groomers.

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(Woody Croatt)

Groomer went out early this morning and regroomed the skate deck on the east side. The tracks that were touched up on Saturday seem to be in tact and in good condition still. There is light debris from the trees on the trail, especially in the more wooded sections of Brown's and Hills but nothing overwhelming. Overall, things are still in good condition if you are up for braving the cold weather! :) Grooming plans: They will work on repacking the West side trails this afternoon.

(Jen Garcia, Washington County Parks)

We skijored the multiuse trail around Eagle Point Lake and found overall good conditions! There were a few spots in the prairie where double polling was the best choice - but very skiable for a multi use path! Also encountered a few boilerplate sections but not that significant and could still get an edge.

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(Sara Brokaw)

Excellent snow conditions and grooming! We skied most of the trails east of Keats Ave at least once. Tracks were deeply set and there was little leaf/bark/stick debris. We were using waxed skis but the wax was hard enough and the debris was infrequent enough that it wasn't a problem. Great to have such a nice Nordic Center to warm up and have our tea after skiing.

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(Craig Wiklund, North Star Ski Touring Club)

Skied Savanna, North and Prairie this afternoon in classic tracks. The tracks are in great shape with little leaf or tree debris! There was a little bit of leaves on the North trail along Lake Elmo, but no where the same amount of leaves as yesterday on Brown's Pond. Very enjoyable ski.

(Barbara Kuzmak)