Forest City Ski

Beautiful day for skiing

2012-02-18T16:01:00.002-06:00

What an incredible day for skiing today! I had to post a picture of our three skiers enjoying the snow and sunshine at Pilot Knob State Park today.

Pilot Knob State Park

2012-02-18T08:42:00.000-06:00

The lake at Pilot Knob State Park was regroomed this morning. The skating lane looks to be in good shape all around the lake with the exception of a few hard icy spots. Classical tracks were set on the South side of the lake only.

Grooming plans

2012-02-16T21:14:00.000-06:00

I just went for a night ski and enjoyed some nice skating on the Pilot Knob lake. There is still enough snow to work with all the way around the lake thanks to the 2" of snow on Monday. Due to a week of thaw/freeze cycles the snow was pretty hard. My plan is to get out early this Saturday morning and regroom the skating lanes. It should make for some pretty good skating on Saturday morning and early afternoon. I will attempt to set some tracks for classical skiing on the protected side where the deeper snow is, but it might not work to well. I'll let you know!

Pilot Knob State Park

2012-02-13T21:38:00.000-06:00

The lake was groomed for skating only tonight thanks to a good 2" of fresh snow today.

Pilot Knob State Park

2012-02-11T22:25:00.003-06:00

The skate trail around the perimeter of Pilot Knob Lake was regroomed Saturday night. It should make for some good skating on Sunday. And hopefully we'll get some snow on Monday!

Pilot Knob State Park

2012-02-08T21:43:00.000-06:00

The lake at Pilot Knob State Park was regroomed today. The skating portion was redone and is in surprisingly good shape. The classical tracks were not redone because of lack of new snow and therefore are rather hard and slick. I went out and enjoyed some of the best skating of the year!

Pilot Knob Lake looking East at sunset.

Robert Polking and Dwight Beavers of Mason City enjoying some fast "double poling".

Pilot Knob State Park

2012-02-05T06:17:00.000-06:00

There isn't enough snow left on the city ski trail to regroom or even to enjoy skiing thanks to last week's warm temperatures. So I always enjoy skiing on the ice on the lake at Pilot Knob State Park. The snow will last a lot longer on the ice and because of the the hills and trees that surround the lake.

Eric and I were out there last night touching up the skating portion of the loop. The classical tracks are a week old but we decided to let those remain. According to the snowmobile the loop is 1.5km long. And it is one of the prettiest most wind protected places you'll find to ski in North Iowa. It's only missing hills to ski on!

It can be accessed from the sledding hill parking lot. Just head South on the other side of the small pond next to the warming shed.

After Monday's melt down, we'll try to get out there again to regroom. Enjoy!

Touched up skating lane/old classical tracks

Eric pulling the Ginzu

Thorpe Park

2012-01-29T08:48:00.000-06:00

I packed the trails around Thorpe park this morning and set a classical track around the smaller marsh. It is accessible at three trail heads. One trail head is near the office & maintenance shed and the other two are close to Lake Catherine. I did not attempt to set a track around the larger marsh because of too many bare spots and low snow conditions out in the open. However all of the trails would be good for snowshoeing.

Groomed Forest City Ski Trail

2012-01-28T09:45:00.001-06:00

The trail was groomed Saturday morning. The base is very thin in some areas with some occasional bare spots. But it is definitely skiable. Get out and enjoy it this weekend since it looks like we're in for another melt down starting Monday. The walking trails through East Woods have also been set.

Grooming update

2012-01-23T21:16:00.000-06:00

The trail was groomed for skating and classical skiing Monday evening. Thanks to the new snow it looks like it will be in very good shape this week!

GROOMED

2012-01-21T16:45:00.000-06:00

The ski trail was packed Friday night with the roller. It was groomed this morning for both skating and striding. The tracks for striding get a bit thin but hey it's snow!

Groomer's ski

2011-12-11T07:05:00.001-06:00

Eric and I skied most of the course yesterday, going over changes to the grooming path. It was ungroomed snow, but it had great glide and it was a beautiful day! We enjoyed seeing an eagle perched in a tree on the course too!

I took the roller out on the lower portion of the golf course, the WIT grounds and the Lodge loops but there was not enough snow to leave grooves for classic skiing. The Lodge loops were a lot of fun and it was great to see kids snow boarding down the Lodge hill. The upper portion of the golf course could not be reached since the cart path had the snow plowed for some work still being done. We hope for that to be covered with the next snow.

The new GinzuGroomer has arrived!

2011-10-27T14:29:00.001-05:00

Thanks to a grant from the Hanson Foundation we've been able to purchase a brand new GinzuGroomer. This is capable of grooming for both diagonal stride and skate style skiing. It just arrived on October 21st. The Lodge Resort Hotel and Restaurant has offered to store it in their garage which will make it easy to access our trail!

2011-02-04T23:30:00.000-06:00

The trail was groomed the evening of Friday the 4th. It looks to be in good shape with the exception of a few bare spots that can be skied around.
Jeff

2011-01-29T06:13:00.000-06:00

The new Forest City Ski Trail was last groomed for both skating and classic skiing late Friday night January 21 2011. The trail consists of approximately 2.5 miles of combined skating and classic trails on both the Bear Creek Golf Course and Lodge properties. Plus there is an additional 0.8 miles of classic only trail located in the East Park Woods. Jeff