St. Ignace Trail Report – 03/13
Even if I tell you, you may not believe it, but trails can now be rated in excellent condition. We got things flattened out last night while it was still slightly soft and there is still tons and tons of material to work with out there. Over the next few weeks, the work we did on the base in the early season will certainly pay off. Excellent condition, not exaggerating, the RR Grade is the best it has been in over a month in the Moran area, there are no rocks poking through anywhere. All of our trails, including the RR Grade are white – white – white! Last nights groom was a bit touchy, with the groomer breaking off the soft side of the trail on several occasions, but what has resulted in a hard flat trail with good workable material on top.
The RR Grade from Iggy North has 6-8” of ice, with 2-6” of workable material on top, with a could of thin icy spots, everything else has 14”-28” of hard pack on the trail surface. There are a couple of water hole locations that were skimmed over and will refreeze, notable on West Burma, and the Trucktrail. They will be hard after tonight’s single digit temps for sure. Our Cederville trail connector has a short section that has been plowed for logging. That area is very icy, and will be the first to go when it get any sun. The great thing is we have not even touched the reserve snow along the side of the trails that we use to get another workable weekend out of it! (Shhhh – I’m saving that for Easter Weekend!)
The weather will put us in good shape for the next week. Single digit overnight temps, and 20d days are absolutely perfect for trail building. We have gotten a total of 2” of usable snow over the last 2 days, and there is a hint of snow for Friday night to make things look great.
Today: Scattered snow before 2pm, then a chance for flurries. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 26. Northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 14. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 30. West wind around 5 mph.
Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. West wind 5 to 10 mph.
Friday: A 50 percent chance of snow. Cloudy, with a high near 32. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Friday Night: Snow likely, mainly before 2am. Cloudy, with a low around 13. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Saturday: A 30 percent chance of snow showers, mainly before 8am. Partly sunny, with a high near 24.
Saturday Night: A slight chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 9.
Sunday: A chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 24.
Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 13.
OK, now I know that this is hard to believe, just a day ago I told you we basically has rain for 3 straight days, and we lost ½ of our off trail snow. True, but the proof is in the pics – that is why I pioneered posting trail condition pics in the fall of 2005, and why I am bringing you a bunch of trail candy today. You get to see for yourself exactly what we are dealing with out there. The following pics proceed from the beginning of Castle Rock Road, out the West side of the lower loop, across the Burma Grade. A big thanks to Wayne for taking the pics, and to Chris for finishing his long slow run last night.
Also a warning: As has been a persistent problem this season, the crew came across 3-4 downed trees on their run. They are cleaned up now, but be on the lookout all over the state this weekend – trees are everywhere!
Base: 14 inches
Snowfall Past 24 hours: 1 inch
Last Grooming: 3-13-13
Current Trail Conditions: Excellent
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