Battle Creek

Back to Battle Creek, with a couple inches of fresh powdah, for very good skiing. A few thin spots, but mostly over grass or mulch. During the day good skis would be fine. I hit the trails for about 75 minutes and did a few repeats with a headlamp up the big hill on the back loop. Hopefully they'll be able to comb it and set a classic track tonight (it was just rolled) which should set up real well.

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

Hoigaards/Breadsmith race

The new venue for the Hoigaards race is nice—no more waking up at 5:15 for the race at 6:45—but … well it sure would be nice if MPRB had made a bit more snow. What they've made is very good. Firm, packed, and fast. But it's barely a kilometer long! It's all hills, with some fast and fun downhills and anything else being a pretty good up, but, come on, you can't get 2.5k made in a week in a half with four guns and temperatures generally in the teens or below? Someone really needs to get a lesson from Weston. I talked to John who said he'd be out moving guns around because the parks workers are content to have one blowing at a time. And they have five guns! They really need to work on this.

In any case, I took a couple Macalester skiers, and I skied the first and last legs. A couple fun intervals, and I jumped right in to lactate threshold, getting that race feel. For all of eight minutes around the course twice. It'll be fun to head over there once the snow is in more as the classic track looks solid, and the rest of the course skiable (I might try it out later this afternoon for 20k or so). With decent natural snow, however, the manmade section is not particularly necessary.

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

Battle Creek

Same as yesterday—until proven otherwise, we'll stick with Battle Creek. I stayed off the big hills thanks to forgetting my headlamp, but the rest is good. A couple leafy sections on the wooded part of the lit loop, but nothing too bad. A couple inches of snow (Sunday?) would do wonders.

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 called Burnsville and they reported that Terrace Oaks was fair. So, I headed over to Battle Creek and it was quite good. The prairie is skiable, but pretty grassy. The woods, however, are very good. With more grooming and cold temperatures, it's much firmer than yesterday with a good skate deck and a definite rock ski classic track (dirt and leaves in places). You could probably get away skating on the wooded sections with good skis during the day, but not at night.

A couple non-prarie sections to watch out on: after the big climb off the prairie and the second half of the big climb on the back hills. However, the main climb up the prairie is in very good shape. The lights are on, but, of course, there's only a couple K with good snow and lights. A headlamp is nice, but it can probably be skied on ambient light. It's exciting to be back on snow!

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

Highland golf course

With the drive to Elm Creek looking like an hour each way, we headed down to Highland for a quick go-round. Had there been no wind, it would have been fine, but with the gusty breeze, there were some small drifts forming. We could definitely get some glide, but wound up doing some technique work. Still, it beats the heck out of dryland. Groomed trails tomorrow!

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