The lake still has slush underneath the new snow so I could not groom that.
The road has been getting too much debris falling from the trees for it to be enjoyable to ski anymore. I would not recommend skiing on the road. It’s time to look for untouched patches of snow to crust ski on.
The road was scratched up this morning for some halfway decent skate skiing. There’s certainly some icy spots and lots of tree debris, but we can’t complain.
Pilot knob Lake is finally thick enough to groom. It was disappointing to only find one to 2 inches of snow on top of the ice though. The initial big snow must’ve pushed the ice down and it all froze. So I was not able to groom any tracks for classic skiing. But it looks like skate skiing will be very good.
I regroomed the skate deck tonight to help pack it down more. It was a little soft for skiing yet. The classic tracks were still in great shape.
We received about 5 inches of lightweight snow last night! The road is groomed for both classic and skate style skiing.
I groomed the road going through pilot knob State Park this morning. The classic tracks are a little poor in spots. This is thanks to getting 10 inches of snow on ground that is not quite frozen yet. The skate deck looks to be very good. and we have more snow coming Saturday evening.
We received about 10 inches of snow this last weekend. I rolled the skiers half of the road last night. After some melting on warm surfaces and some settling, we still had about 7 inches or more on the road! I will try to groom this when possible when time allows.
It will be a while before the ice on the lake is thick enough to use.
The lake has been groomed again tonight with a new track set. The skate deck on the road was groomed but is very thin.
Thanks to Joel Yunek and Robert Polking for rolling over the skate decks on both the lake and road Saurday afternoon after another good inch of snow. The classic tracks should be fine after being skied in earlier.
The lake and road at the knob have been groomed. Only a thin skate deck on the road. But the lake is great with the first full classic tracks of the season!
It is snowing, so this might be buried later in the day. Not a terrible problem to have.
The lake has been groomed including tracks Thursday evening. The road was also groomed without tracks but it is a very thin base.
Pilot knob lake
After another inch, the lake was rolled/packed this morning. It is not groomed. More snow is on the way tomorrow.
Thanks again to North Iowa Nordic for loaning their Can Am. I was quite comfortable in negative 4 degree weather!
We received about 2 inches of fluffy snow Saturday morning on pilot knob lake. Because of very slick conditions I could only take the Can Am, thanks to North Ia Nordic for loaning it, to pack the snow to the ice.
Using the groomer this morning, along with some sweeping snow onto the trail, gave a nice corduroy, although it is very thin. It's a little rough in some spots thanks to some 'lily pad potholes'. There is not enough snow to set any classic tracks.
We definitely need more snow before anything can be done to the road.
Packing the snow with North Iowa Nordic's Can Am
