It may be 70 degrees out, but I couldn't help myself last night.

Nice boards. Come to Ely this winter and ski the North Arm Trails with me (or come late in the winter (or early if snow is slow) and skate ski the lakes).

Jon

quote Banksiana: "Nice boards. Come to Ely this winter and ski the North Arm Trails with me (or come late in the winter (or early if snow is slow) and skate ski the lakes).


Jon"

Skied them years ago very beautiful.

i am building a hot box this weekend for my son. a hot box gives you the ability to really saturate your bases. the thing is if you aren't careful you can end up ruining a pair of $500 skis.

Have spent the last two days breaking trail on the North Arm Trails (14 miles from Ely). Plenty of snow, a bit too much cold. Gotta love the opportunity to ski in the woods in early December.

quote Banksiana: "Have spent the last two days breaking trail on the North Arm Trails (14 miles from Ely). Plenty of snow, a bit too much cold. Gotta love the opportunity to ski in the woods in early December."

Neat area and pretty.

i love the north arm trails. hiking or skiing it doesn't get much better than this.

I hear 2" of snow in Park Rapids. If I had that, I'd be in the back yard skiing on it right now.

We had that 2" here in Perham, too. And it's hanging around. Trouble is, the leaves hung on the trees later than usual and now they are part of a 50/50 mix on the ground right now, not making for excellent skiing. Lots of bare ground in the woods, too. Soon. Very soon.

Snow in Minnetonka. Doesn't seem like we got as much as predicted, but it's pretty wet and dense at the base. I skied for about 90min tonight at the park, away from the tree leaves, and it was very good. But, yeah until the leaves are all of the trees kind of a mess for skiing in most places.

nothing up on the gunflint trail. light layer of ice on the road, though.

Looks like the deepest snow tomorrow will be mid to north-central MN. I'm guessing the snow won't stick in the cities, and the roads won't get plowed right away outside the cities. I'm thinking about heading out Saturday noon or early Sunday, and driving up Highway 10 from Minneapolis until I hit snow. Can't wait!

Not long now. Looking back at my old posts, I've got 11/5 and 11/17 for first light snow. I hope I'm not jinxing it.

I'm thinking of taking a week of vacation off the books this year in December, and just going to Hayward, Ely, etc., or Colorado. Wherever there's snow. And, just staying at a hotel with wifi (so I can work). Then I'll try 3-4 day ski and backpack trip to BWCA in late January/early February, if conditions permit.

May be enough to push off of the sidewalks on Friday morning here in Perham... :-)

quote schweady: "May be enough to push off of the sidewalks on Friday morning here in Perham... :-)
"

Be careful breaking trail that could get tiring. :-)

Is it ridiculous to hope it keeps coming ... and stays? Maybe, but its Friday and snowing and I'm holding on to that hope.

I’m going to head north on 35W about 4am Saturday. Hoping to find snow. I’ll ski on grass in front of a Walmart I’m so desperate. Turns out, winter camping symposium is that way too in Sturgeon Lake if I read it right. Might go to that after noon, if I can still register.

EDIT: Didn't make it to the symposium, didn't get out of the woods until about 4. I skied a bit in the park by my brothers house, but the park trails we're mostly mud. A couple ok hikes though. Pics from Jay Cooke:

First ski of the season logged. About ten miles on the Hidden Valley Trails. Trails have been packed but not groomed. Don't think I hit any dirt at all. I think there is enough snow that they could groom and track for the weekend.

"Tracks" were well groomed, but looks like rained out for the rest of the weekend.