We both headed out for rides hitting some St. Germain, Eagle River, Conover and Sayner trails. Sayner and Eagle River had groomed some of their trails while the St. Germain and Conover trails I rode hadn’t been groomed. The heavy weekend traffic took a toll. The carbides were scraping a lot more today than the last time we rode which was Friday. There are lots of icy corners that you’ll push right through. There’s still some good stretches but you’ll find more fair to poor. For not having much snow it is still amazing how bumpy a trail can get. The groomed trails were smoother. There’s more areas that are down to bare ground and others where gravel is getting mixed in. There are areas of ruts left from the trucks driving on them in the warm weather that will need more snow to fill in. You will find rocks that got stirred up from sleds and the groomer (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.
Most lakes are reported to be in good condition being smooth with plenty of ice.
If you really want to ride, trails are ridable. I’d rate them overall in fair/poor condition. Since we don’t have much snow, it would be nice if riders didn’t purposely spin their tracks blowing snow off the trail. Unfortunately, there’s a bunch of them out there already. The bottom line is we need more snow. Trails will continue to deteriorate without it.
