The snow to the northwest, west and southwest missed Maplelag but the trails are in great shape and pretty much in mid winter conditions!  A beautiful day in the woods with sunshine, light winds, and temps in the upper teens. Pretty much ideal!! 60 of 64km open. 4-6″ compacted base. 40km tracked classic only, 15km groomed skate only. Organic matter scattered here and there from recent wind and woodpecker action. Fresh grooming today on about 35km.  We are grooming Sukkerbusk, Mother Hen, Sap Run, Twin Lakes, Wavy Gravy, Island Lake, Rootin Tootin, JibFly, Mother North Star and Lucky’s Loype for classic and Skaters Waltz/ extension, Kristin’s Kutoff, Single and Double green, Suicide Hill and North Loup for skating. A track will be set on North Loup Friday morning for classic but also will be open for skating.  Mother North Star and Rootin Tootin will also be groomed Friday morning. All other trails groomed on Thursday afternoon.
The entire trail system is open except for the east side (4km) of Bullhead lake trail. The east side is closed until colder weather, which will freeze the thin ice areas.   Roy’s Run groomed early and 75% is in good condition with soft track, fresh snow on top/skier packed and other 25% is rough. We could not groom the entire loop because of water issues but still have a full complete loop using bootleg trail and forest access roads.  A nice start to the season with 22″ of snow this season, so far.  The trails are open for day skiing and the current fee is $10 to use the trails until December 20th the fee will go to $15

(Maplelag ski reports on skinnyski and link to share ski experience!)

http://picasaweb.google.com/6birdman6/December16thTrailReportPhotos02