Tuesday February 26th, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

It looked like I got my wish that the mid-30s days would consolidate the loose snow and make it groom down well. In my travels to Lakewood/Townsend/Carter yesterday all of the trails looked like they groomed very well. The now packing snow laid down very nice and flat.

So far the biggest downside is the roads taking a hit. Even the 0.000005% road salt/sand mix that they use around here is effective at 36 degrees, and a lot of formerly ice covered roads are opening up.

I did not see any blown out areas of the trails at all. Right around sunset the NST (railroad grade) trail in Lakewood was looking a little slushy on top, and that was about the worst of it. Most likely that will end up being a hardening process as temperatures fall below freezing nightly. From what I saw the trails looked to be in very nice condition.

The mid-week storm still doesn’t look like it is coming our way. The GFS moved it about 100 miles north, the NAM model still has it going over Indy instead of Milwaukee or Sheboygan as would be ideal. The GFS would bring us an inch or two, the NAM would leave us in the cheap seats again, watching from a distance.

That is unfortunate for us, it is a heck of a storm. There are a lot of blizzard and winter storm warnings along its path. The TV said that a place in northern TX had 19″ of snow and blizzard conditions with the high winds.

At least we will get the cold behind it, which is a good thing at this time of year. Had it been sunny yesterday our 36 could have easily crossed the 40 degree mark.

While we have a great ice base and trail base, I am going to suggest riding as soon as possible. The trails are in great shape, but that can change fast in March. Carpe diem and get it while it is so nice.

Have a good Tuesday and thank you for visiting!

RJB