Late Update- Both Paul Bunyan and Red Arrow are reporting freshly groomed trails and good conditions.
Greetings and welcome!
We had a warm day yesterday. It got up to +37F. There was mixed sun and clouds. We did see some melting. On the deck rail it was about half of the 4″ that we got the other day. On the trails it melted into the base so no problem. It got down to 19 last night so it did freeze up. Right now at 10:15am Friday it is 29 and we are not expecting it to get much warmer today.
My travels yesterday took me from Silver Cliff to Crivitz and out to Crooked Lake. Here in Silver Cliff I wouldn’t hesitate to ride though there may be some very occasional wet spots and thin spots. I did see the groomer go by the house last night.
Crivitz was a lot thinner and while there was about 95% coverage the ground wasn’t far under the snow. Along Hwy W it looked on the thin side to me going west from Crivitz to about Parkway Rd and W. From there west the snow got deeper and conditions improved. Crooked Lake looked great.
There is not a lot of snow in the short term forecast. There is a chance of some flurries tonight and a chance of light snow Sunday morning and mid-day as a clipper system grazes us. There is another clipper system showing up for about next Wednesday and several bigger storms in the long term.
The thing that caught my eye on the 16 day GFS was a frame from next Saturday. They are showing a split flow with very cold air north and a storm to the south. We are in between. The interesting part is that there is super cold air just to our north and warm air close to the south. Upper air temperatures not too for north of International Falls is shown at -38ºF, and it will barely be cold enough to snow in Chicago (+27ºF). (These are upper air temperatures 2-3,000 feet up at the 850MB level) It is quite the temperature gradient for such a short distance.
As you can see from the tightly packed isobars there is a pretty good pressure gradient as well, indicating that it might be a windy day. Honestly I don’t think that we have the whole picture on this yet, so it will be something to watch. Will it be a big storm? Will it be a big cold blast? Will we end up in comfortable conditions? I don’t know yet but I will be watching.
We have an event coming up next weekend.. There is a meat raffle Saturday at Crazy Guys Bar in Athelstane that benefits the Near North Snowmobile Club on Jan 11th.
Get it while you can… The nice folks that run Fisher’s Camp are not renewing their lease as they move on to other things in February. They have brought good food, nice people, and fun times, as well as a lot of live music. This weekend they are having the Liver Killers playing live Saturday night. I saw them at a bluegrass festival last summer and they are very good. Augie, one of the owners, is in the band and is himself very talented. Check it out if you are in the area.
I am planning on being at Rapids Resort Saturday from noon till 5pm to meet you guys and take pictures. Again stop in if you are in the area. Just ask and I will be glad to go out and get a picture with your group.
I am off to go and jump into another very full day. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB
A hot off of the trail update from one of our regular friends..
Hi Ray, let people know the 18 trail leaving south from crooked lake
to just south of Mountain is really bad. Mud holes and plowed sections
plus very thin snow. Leaving Crooked lake North on the F trail just
gets better the farther north you go. Yesterday morning we rode from
McCaslin to Townsend and were warned by people there to steer clear of
100 miler trails due to lots of water. So we rode south.
We will be riding past the Rapids today and through the logging area
behind the Rustic to try and go towards Goodman/Dunbar. I’ll report
what we find that way later.
Thanks for the update!
I will be opening comments again after this weekend once people start riding.
RJB