Temps plummeted last night and it got down to -15 degrees. I headed out for a ride hitting some St. Germain and Sayner trails. St. Germain groomed last night while the Sayner trail I rode hadn’t been groomed. St. Germain trails were smooth overall but still had some chunks of frozen snow. Sayner still had bumps they haven’t knocked out yet. Trails were packed in with the cold but there are areas that felt like I was riding over a rock field. As more traffic goes over these areas, it will help to break them up and smooth things out. One good thing the groomers were able to do is to pull snow back onto the corners that were icy and/or bare on the insides. There are some nice stretches that weren’t too bumpy so they came out smooth. While there are more areas of snirt showing up, still plenty of trails that are mostly white with good snow cover.
Plowed road trails took a hit. A lot of them are showing areas of bare pavement (from small patches to big spots). The ones I rode had an ice base with some bare spots and very little to no loose snow on them.
Most lakes in the area marked. If a lake is not marked or you’re not sure about the ice, consider it unsafe. Starting to see a lot of slush coming up on lakes. Where sleds and ice fishermen on ATVs have driven through it’s refreezing leaving some nasty ruts.
Hopefully groomers will continue to be out to try to smooth things out more and pull some snow back onto the pushed out corners.
