Believe it or not, there's still quite a bit of Nordic skiing to be had on the
SWNSKI trails. Of course, you have to hike in a little further now...all the
way to the "coat tree" at point B on the trail map. Up to that point, the trail
is very sun-exposed and really took a beating with these record temperatures.
The lower road looks completely destroyed from the junction at point A, but
beyond point R, it's in OK shape and groomed out to point O and even has a nice
classic track set. The cutoffs at R to the upper trails and O to the upper
trails at TJs are sort of groomed too, so there's skiable access to the lower
road, which is actually in good shape where there's snow.
That's the theme around the rest of the trail system. Where the sun hasn't
beaten down too badly, it's good spring skiing, although really dirty snow.
There are about 3 or 4 very short stretches where it's very narrow, then fine
just beyond.
I wasn't able to set a classic track on the rest of the trail system because I
had a problem with the grooming machine. The lights failed due to a charge
system/battery problem and I ended up grooming in the dark using only the stars
and whatever moonlight was available. There may be some weird swerving around
in the skate lane down low. Too bad, as it would have been good to get in one
last classic track. Maybe this weekend...
It finally cooled off dramatically when the clouds cleared out, so it froze and
started setting up. Hopefully, we'll get some new snow to squeeze out a few
more days. Otherwise, we may have one more grooming session left if we're
lucky.
Go ski and say your farewells this week....


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