Sorry for getting to this so late.

I got up there last evening at about 4:30pm and started grooming with
about 5" new at the base of the trails. It was a pretty heavy snow, so
it was very beneficial. It was still snowing and snowed perhaps two more
inches during the four hours I was there. It was a steady, cold, light
snow that picked up tremendously by the time I left at around 9pm. There
was a huge gradient of snow depth from the trailhead to the upper trails.
There was at least double that amount by the upper meadow.

Using our 1969 Alpine, I was able to get around the main trails, and even
make a single pass on the two lower trail cutoffs (at pt. B and at the
switchback on TJ's). Those will be usable this weekend. The snow was
good and deep.

The amount of snow that covered the trail was variable, depending on how
much of a base there was to begin with. The entire portion of the upper
trails are now in fantastic shape and are getting considerably smoother
-- the shovelling done by some members of the club has REALLY paid off.

The upper meadow had just about a foot of new snow, and probably has even
more than that now. I was not able to pull the Tidd through it and got
really stuck just out of the lower section of trees. I only "track
packed" the meadow, but Dave W and John B will be up there to finish it
off tonight. I did go back down to grab the roller to roll the lower
road and make another pass up to the meadow. I unfortunately had major
problems with the roller on the lower road. I hit one of the big
boulders around the turn and sheared one of the draw arm bolts. I
improvised and made it around the "garage" area at pt. P. I then made a
pass back to the front hill and to the bottom to try packing that snow
down, but then the second bolt sheared on the impaired side and the whole
thing bent and collapsed. I had to abandon the poor rollers on the front
hill. This season has not been kind to our equipment and our trails look
like a battle field of old Civil War relic grooming equipment --
snowmobiles and all!

Anyway, I did make another pass on the entire trails system, just with
the snomo, as the upper side of the trail needed to be "knocked" down. I
was able to really widen all portions of the upper trails and pack
another pass to widen the meadow.

It was snowing very hard when I left, so I suspect it'll be nice once the
other guys finish up tonight. I have vehemently demanded that Dave W.
set a classic track (finally) on his last pass downhill. He has the Tidd
tracksetter, so it should be nice.

I plan on perhaps packing the parallel pass downhill from the meadow to
pt. O and the lower road this coming weekend. We may need to shovel one
or two of the thin spots (at the bottom of that big hill), as the lower
road has not been dealt with very well this season and never formed a
solid base (that's why we groom!).

Skiing will be nice this weekend, and at least for a while now. We have
more "unsettled" weather predicted for next week too. Thank you, O
Lord!!!

CM

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