We both headed out for rides this morning hitting some St. Germain, Eagle River and Sayner trails. Trails are in very early season riding condition. Areas that didn’t completely melt during the Christmas thaw have an ice base while any area that did melt has no base. Where there is a base you’ll find fair to good. Where there’s not a base expect poor to fair with lots of scraping. There are some stretches that were all white, smooth and in good shape with a decent base. Others are lean on snow and you will scrape lots and don’t have much, if any, base. There are lots of ruts left from the trucks driving on them in the warm weather that will need more snow to fill in. There are also some bumps that need more snow to fill in and smooth out. You will find rocks that got stirred up from the drags (if you see a big one, please pull to the side, get off your sled and move the rock off the trail). Lake accesses are rough and don’t have much if any snow on them. Road trails don’t have much of a base and your carbides will scrape a lot.
Some lakes are marked while others aren’t. I saw that Lost Lake and Plum Lakes are marked.
If you really want to ride, trails are ridable. I’d rate them overall in fair condition. As more sleds ride them, expect conditions to deteriorate. Since we don’t have much snow, it would be nice if riders slowed down, and didn’t spin their tracks and tried to preserve the snow we have. Unfortunately, there’s already riders out there acting as a street sweeper blowing snow off the trails. We could definitely use some more snow, Trails won’t improve without it.
