We both headed out for rides hitting some St. Germain, Sayner, Conover and Eagle River trails. The Eagle River and St. Germain trails we rode had been groomed and were smooth overall with some bumps in areas. Sayner groomed some but not others. The Conover trails I rode hadn’t been groomed. After four days of warm temps and sun there are some trails that I won’t ride because they lost too much snow. There is a huge difference in conditions from just plain terrible up to some very good stretches. There are some areas that are holding up fine with good snow that make you want to turn around and ride again. Then there are areas down to a mix of bare ground and some snow/ice that make you want to park the sled and not ride. Then there’s the in-between that are fair with a mix of decent stretches and then thin areas. There’s a lot of brown trails, mostly from snirt but some are down to bare ground. Some areas are still white but fewer of these due to the warm temps. Carbides were scraping – a lot on some trails and not often on others. Definitely seeing more spots where the sun has melted a spot on the trail exposing bare ground.
Some plowed road trails are holding an okay base so carbides won’t scrape much but then there are areas where the sun has melted stretches of bare pavement.
Some lakes are bumpy and if you go off the marked trail there is slush.
I’m going to say that trails are in late season condition. There are some nice trails but others are bad so you’ll hit some of everything. The problem is getting to the nice trails. You will definitely hit bad ones to get to some nice ones. Our trails this season never got a solid base so any warm temps will take a toll more than in other years. Warm temps are predicted to continue – not sure how things will hold up. We need more snow… Based on what we rode today plus the sun and warm temps that are predicted for the weekend, it looks like our sleds are parked until we get more snow.
