Terrace Oaks and Wirth/COLL

Before taking her to the airport (and she got out!) my sister and I took the 5k loop around the outside of Terrace Oaks. This was just after witnessing an accident 200 feet in front of us on 35E when some moron lost an SUV in his blind spot and changed lanes in to him. Fun. The skiing was fine, with some detritus on the trail and a few sections which were a bit dirty, but it's a good base, and it's slated to snow just a bit.

After dropping her at the airport I swung by Richfield and picked up Jakob to go ski. He's back from Duluth via San Francisco and hasn't skied yet. I suggested Terrace Oaks which he pointed out was a bit technical for someone who'd not skied. Terrace Oaks was out because I'd been there and Hyland because, as he said, "Hyland sucks." So it was off to Wirth. We parked at the beach and headed up the Loppet course to 394, where the grooming ends. The trail is in terrific shape save, perhaps, the climb up to the road crossing (but the downhill is fine to go up). And the snow is slow over by the freeway—what's new? It started snowing halfway through and by the time we got to the bridge it was coming down pretty good. Jakob suggested we ski the course backwards (with our headlamps on, we hadn't needed them yet) and we did, and there are a few hills on that course, up and down, which are not meant to be skied the wrong way. We also found out that the snow was pretty thin going up the road to the Flower Garden but, uh, that should be short-lived.

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com

Terrace Oaks

After not waking up for the early race at Wirth, I headed down to Terrace Oaks this afternoon for a couple hours on snow. Conditions there were good, but rock skis would be recommended. The base is quite firm but there is quite a bit of dirt (and rebar, and manhole covers) showing in places. Tracks are set around, but they seem to see some grass and dirt and are washed out on most of the climbs. They've dug up a lot of leaves, too, although with current cold wax conditions I doubt this would be a major issue. With new snow, however, the current snow should provide a fine base for some good skiing.

I saw Bruce leaving when I got there so I bet he'll have a trail report, too.

(And, yes, 2-4 inches tonight. No real comment here other than it may take some time to saturate the cold air mass overhead, so I'm a tad bit skeptical on these numbers.)

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com

Battle Creek

I was up at 5:45 to shovel HOURCARs today and planned an early ski. Based on prior reputation, I headed down to Terrace Oaks. And, it was ungroomed. I was, well, not pleased. I called the office and was assured that they are grooming this year, but hadn't gotten there yet. Since, when it is groomed, it is very sheltered, and the coverage looks good, once it is groomed it may be the pick of the Cities.

So, it was up 35E, across the Wakota Bridge (inexplicable traffic) and up 61 to Battle Creek which was, well, decent. The prairie was not even worth skiing, but the back woods were rolled and pretty solid. Well, they were soft, but coverage is good and the rolling makes it quite skiable. There are a few leafy sections and a bit of mulch, but the work this summer left the trail in great shape. It's best accessed by going up the sliding hill and then 50 yards behind it to the trail. The sliding hill is wicked fun coming down on the way home.

A bit more rolling and it should set up well in the cold weather. Good job Ahvo and friends!

Also, the lights aren't on. With clouds the ambient light was fine, but real lights would be great.

Oh, and on the way back 94 was a skating rink. Funny, when you don't treat the roads when it's above 0, and it drops close to 0, the roads freeze up. Hmm, I wonder if salting the roads dry (melt the snow which then evaporates under tires) would help with this. Perhaps.

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com

Flurries awards: striding tracks of the year

Now we get in to the meaty awards: the awards for specific trails. Since this site is often devoted to my rambling trail reports, these are obviously the most important in my mind. Day in and day out, who has the best ...?

Today we'll look at striding tracks. There are several contenders for this award, but based on what I observed, a rather obvious winner. First, to the honourable mentions:

* City of Lakes. The COLL course this year had very good striding tracks when there was snow, especially on the back 9 portion of the course. There, a great 8k loop was available with some good striding hills and, with the trail on a golf course, it was generally more than wide enough to keep the skaters out.
* Terrace Oaks. Terrace Oaks always has good grooming and often sets tracks before anyone else. However, once a few people skate around, owing to the width of the trail, the tracks are often obliterated. A few extra feet would do wonders.
* Battle Creek. Battle Creek is sort of a hybrid between City of Lakes and Terrace Oaks. On the prairie, the tracks are very good and wide, but sometimes windblown. In the woods, they're less reliable, but when they're good, they're great. I'd probably give the hills at BC the nod for striding interval hills of the year.

But the winner? Well, not surprisingly, it's a trail system that specialises in striding tracks: Lebanon Hills. Lebanon had some great tracks early on in the season, but I think it won the award when, the day after Birkie, it took four inches of snow and set tracks nearly all the way around. The trails are fun and quite stride-able, and although a bit more terrain would be great, the quality of the tracks is unparalleled.

Terrace Oaks

Very excellent.

Except for some oak leaves on the windward parts of the track (especially where the SE wind blew off of the freeway or lake) the track at Terrace Oaks was outstanding. Firm, with good easy kick, all powder, fast and fun. The base is solid, too, and skating looked great. Terrace Oaks is in terrific shape, and should be through tomorrow morning, then it's anyone's guess. It is March after all.

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com

Terrace Oaks

Excellent.

Freshly groomed but a bit soft, especially the classic track. It's probably just because it is warm. They said it was 20 on the radio, but it certainly seemed warmer than that. Great coverage—it's so nice to have spectacular skiing!

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com

Terrace Oaks

Cold, but good.

It's definitely cold and slow, and no one had skated the grooming when I was there (I wonder why, could it be -10 weather?) but the tracks were firm and true and the striding was good. There were no tracks set on some of the steeper hills, but elsewhere it was great. You could probably skate it too, but it's a bit cold to get much in the way of glide.

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com

Terrace Oaks

Excellent conditions (with a caveat).

The caveat is that my headlamp needs new batteries so I may well have not seen some dirt. The trails, however, are in very nice shape. They've firmed up well so the boots' imprints are negligible, and the classic tracks, set on all but the steeper uphills, are solid. A little more snow to cover the sticks and the manhole will move it towards perfection.

It was darned cold, the clear, calm conditions and fresh snow cover radiated the temperature down to about -10, so I was definitely glad to be striding. When I finished I had frosted between my fleece and shell. Yum!

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com

Terrace Oaks

Definitely not as good as yesterday.

A lot more sticks, leaves, dirt and other detritus on the trail. I skied classic and the track is in good shape on the non-uphills except for areas with lots of oak leaves the winds took down today. It should firm up with cooler temperatures.

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com

Terrace Oaks

Conditions: Pretty much perfect.

Don't bother with anything else. The trails at Terrace Oaks are all but perfect. The inner loop (black) is spectacular, despite almost no skier traffic. The outer loop (blue) has two minor and completely avoidable obstacles: 1) an exposed water bar and 2) the area with the manhole covers. Both could benefit from five minutes of shoveling. There is a good, deep, hard classic track set the whole way but because the trail is so narrow it is skated out on most of the hills. The skate lanes were firm and smooth and level. We could not ask for anything more. I skied under the light of a headlamp and the almost-full moon, so I may have missed something, but I did ski each loop twice. With the current state of the moon, there is no light needed on a clear night.

This is at B-of-not-A race ski, midwinter conditions. The groomers have done a great job, starting with a good base from that first snow, and the trails have benefited from being in the exact right location to catch some good snow. I would have skied longer if I hadn't not had dinner.

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com

Terrace Oaks — Real Skiing!

I was near Terrace Oaks this afternoon for work and decided to sneak over and see if the trails had been touched. The city was there and the sled was out, and the trail looked packed. It will be sketchy—definitely rock ski conditions—but it should be skiable! Winter is here, and only a couple days later than last year. Let's hope it lasts as long.

I hit the trails this evening (report as follows)

It's not great, but it sure is skiing.

No one had hit the trails since they were groomed this afternoon, and with the temperatures dropping towards 10 the snow set up quite well. The snow is thin, so it is definitely rock ski conditions, but there is good glide on the whole system. Some sections are a bit bumpy, some are narrow and some are leafy, but the whole thing is skiable.

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com