It was a warm one yesterday, 46 with sunshine. We both headed out for rides today to see how the warm up affected the trails hitting some St. Germain, Eagle River, Sayner, Boulder Junction, Arbor Vitae and Lake Tomahawk trails. There was melting and some trails took a hit. However, other trails came out of it just fine. We thought it was a mixed bag of conditions before yesterday, it really is now. Some sections were hit hard and are left with an icy base, bare spots and minimal snow. These areas are usually the first to go and fortunately it’s usually a section of a trail and not a whole area. There’s a lot of fair conditions to good out there. Saw a lot of trails where some corners are thin on snow (some icy and some showing some bare ground) but then the straight stretches are fine. These will have snirt in areas making them mostly white with a little brownish tint and there are some that are pretty brown. The best part is there are still some very good to excellent areas. These are all white with good snow cover.
Plowed road trails had some melting. Fortunately the ones I road were still mostly covered with ice and a little bit of snow. There are areas with bare pavement but what I saw was small spots or just one side of the road so could get around it.
Lakes are still good – didn’t see any slush.
After yesterday, our expectations for the how the trails would be were low. Trails were better than expected. However, we could definitely use some snow.
Just a side note: We’ve been hearing about and seeing lots of riders not stopping at stop signs or even slowing down for them. They are put up for a reason. Most are at road crossings where cars and trucks go by. So next time you think about blowing a stop sign without looking, there could be a propane truck going by – wonder who would win that one.
