Pilot Knob

Pilot Knob lake is in great shape for both classic and skate skiing.  Our local boy scout troop had their annual winter campout last weekend.   All had fun trying out cross country skiing.  We also set up a little Nerf gun competition in honor of the winter Olympics.

Waterloo Irv Warren

Many thanks to those responsible for the grooming at Irv Warren. Skied both classic and skate this morning and conditions were soft but good. Had basically crossed off the Cedar Falls, Waterloo area from my skiing map with the abandonment of the trails at the local "state park" but Irv Warren is a refreshing option. Thanks again!

Linn County Conservation Trails

Morgan Creek has been rolled and groomed.
Wickiup Hill has been rolled and groomed.
Matsell Bridge has been rolled and groomed.
Pinicon Ridge has been rolled and groomed.
Squaw Creek has been rolled and groomed.

Lots of people out on the trails, enjoy!

Kent Park, Oxford, 2-12-18

Kent Park, Oxford 2-12-18

Skate lane groomed.
No classic track set. 

Thanks to grooming folk for freezing this morning!

Ashton CCC, Iowa City 2-12-18

Ashton CCC, Iowa City, 2-12-18
Ashton skate deck has been groomed.
Classic groove left alone for now as in good shape.
Thanks Greg for suffering through the cold.

Ashton, Kent Park, & MacBride 2-11-18

All three are groomed; Ashton CCC, Kent Park, & MacBride MNRA!
Skate deck groomed
Classic track at Ashton is good, no classic at Kent Park.
Thank you grooming folk. 

MNRA MacBride, North Liberty 2-10-18

MNRA MacBride, North Liberty 2-10-18
Trails have been rolled.
Thanks to Nick...

Kent Park, Oxford 2-10-18

Kent Park, Oxford 2-10-18
Trails have been groomed, not sure if classic groove set. 

Ashton CCC, Iowa City 2-10-18

Ashton CCC, Iowa City, 2-10-18

Trail groomed and classic groove set. 

Compliments of Greg!

Pilot Knob State Park

Both the road and the lake have been groomed this morning.  The lake should be excellent today for both skating and classic skiing.  The road should be good for skating but the classic tracks are in poor shape due to shallow snow depth.

Prairie Springs XC Ski Trails

Finally got a fairly decent snowfall. All trails have been groomed and skating should be decent. Classical track is good in places (like Bike Trail and Campground Road and Campground Trail but ground showing in bottom of track in other areas like the Meadow. Here are some pics so you can judge for yourselves. We have received about 8 inches since last Saturday.

Crow Creek Park and Palmer Hills Golf Course

Bettendorf, IA

Trails at Crow Creek and Palmer were groomed today.  Ski conditions are very good with 2-3" of packed snow.  Crow Creek has both skate lane and classic track.  Palmer clubhouse is open for ski rentals and dining.  More snow expect this weekend.  Skiing should be good for the next week.

Waterloo Irv Warren

Tracked and groomed but a stiff north wind! Pretty firm, but that wind is blowing over tracks and a dog and bootwalker mucked up about 500 yards. Typical north Iowa conditions! 🙃

Kent Park, Oxford 2-9-18

Kent Park, Oxford 2-9-18
Trails have been groomed.
Thanks to Jason for the smoothing services.

Linn County Conservation Trails

Skiing tracks

  As of Wednesday afternoon.

PINICON RIDGE
   Pinicon Ridge, Flying Squirrel…tracks rolled

   Matsell Bridge – tracks are rolled

   Squaw Creek – Tracks are rolled

   Wickiup Hill –tracks are rolled and groomed   (no classic track yet)

   Morgan Creek –tracks are rolled and roomed (no classic track yet)

With more snow anticipated for the weekend, this could be updated

Thanks!

Ashon CCC, Iowa City 2-8-2018

Ashton CCC Iowa City 2-8-2018
Ashton has been groomed, no classic groove has been set due to lack of snow.
There is a skier made Classic track for now.
Please advise any foot traffic to stay off the ski trail.
Thank you Greg Duethman for the AM grooming work.

Irv Warren Golf Course - Waterloo

Skied Irv Warren this afternoon.   Good skating lane although conditions are soft.   No classical track set due to insufficient snow.

Morgan Creek, Linn County 2-7-18

Morgan Creek, Linn County 2-7-18
Trails have been rolled at this time.
Thanks to Jeremy for reporting. 

MNRA McBride, North Liberty 2-6-18

MNRA McBride, Oxford 2–6-18
McBride has been groomed but snow cover is thin.
Not enough snow to set a classic groove.
Our thanks to Geoff for the cold weather work. 

Kent Park, Oxford 2-6-18

Kent Park, Oxford 2-6-18
Trails have been rolled at this time and awaiting more snow!
Thanks to Jason for taking on the cold. 

Irv Warren GC, Waterloo, 2-6-18

Irv Warren GC, Waterloo 2-6-18
Irv Warren trail was compacted and groomed on 2/6/18 at 8:30am.  Please access the trail from the Byrnes Pool parking lot.  Please do not ski over golf greens.  Snow is thin in some spots, additional snow will be needed before it can be groomed again.

Ashton CCC Iowa City 2-6-18

Ashton CCC, Iowa City 2-6-18
Ashton has been rolled, tracks may be set later today depending upon snow depth.
Please coach hikers, runners, etc to stay off the groomed ski path.
Thanks to Greg Duethman for his cold weather work!

Race cancelled

Unfortunately, due to poor trail conditions, this Saturday's Pilot Knob Ski Race is cancelled.  Because of the roller coaster weather pattern with warm ups and rains, plus it being a low snow year there is not enough snow to race on.

I did roll the lake after getting about an inch of snow Saturday night just to keep some desperate skate skiing alive here.  There are no classic tracks remaining.

This is a very tough year for skiing!
Jeff

Pilot Knob Lake thin spot.  

If only it was like this all the way around.

Iowa Winter Games Update - Races Rescheduled to Feb. 17

Iowa Winter Games Cross Country Ski Races have been rescheduled to February 17, 2018 because of current trail conditions. Stay tuned for trail updates. As of now, trails are not skiable. See previous posts on ice and water issues.  Check the Iowa Ski Trail Update or Ski Cresco Facebook for trail and race updates.

Prairie Springs Skit Trails - Prairies Edge Nature Center - Cresco

Beautiful day for skiing today. Skiers I spoke with seemed happy with the conditions all things considered. Temperature at 3 PM was 30 degrees, so I don't think we will lose a lot of snow today or get an icy crust for tomorrow. Dry Creek Trail was much better after rolling a second time last night. All trails and loops should be skiable tomorrow (no diagonal track has been set because of snow depth) at least until 2 PM when temps are predicted to get quite warm. There are areas like Minears Field that are open and subject to a lot of direct sun and two inches of packed base will melt off in those areas quickly.

Hope you can get here and get some time in on the trails tomorrow! After Friday, all bets are off!  Skiers from several counties enjoyed the trails today.

Prairie Springs Cross Country Ski Trails - Prairie's Edge Nature Center - Cresco

Skiing is very good in areas and fair in others. Bike Trail, Campground Road, Campground Trail and Campground are very good. The Meadow Loop is good and Minears Field (except for one stretch of 10-20 yards which can be double poled) are good. The Hill Trail is fair on the uphill and good on the flat stretch. The Dry Creek Trail is fair.

I will be going out to roll the River Trail and River Loop, and the Nature Center Trail shortly, but I don't expect either of these areas to be very good because of terrain and/or wind exposure.

See photos for more info. If you are going to ski these trails, better do it before Friday afternoon as it is supposed to get near 40 degrees and some stretches will melt and expose bare ground.

Prairie Springs, Cresco 1-16-2018

Prairie Springs, Cresco...

Rolled most of the trails this afternoon and early evening.  We have had 5-6 inches since the rain and melt last week.  Because of the wind, we still have some bare spots in the Nature Center, but the Campground Road, Campground, Campground Trail and Bike Trail should be in good shape.  Minears Field, Hill Trail, Dry Creek Trail are fair to really good in spots.  I will ski tomorrow and finish rolling the other trails and give a report.

South Hills Golf Course Waterloo

Skied South Hills Golf Course this afternoon.   It was packed on Thursday and the skating skiing was good today.   The base is thin with grass sticking through in places (too thin to set classical tracks).   The main loop is 1 mi around with a 60 ft climb between the ridge and valley so providing somewhat of a hill workout.

Pilot Knob State Park

The 1.5 km loop on the lake was groomed this morning for both skate and classic style skiing. Snow was again pulled in from the sides to build up the depth a little more and to help us survive a bit of a warm up this week.  The classic tracks were in very good shape.  The skate lane was good but there were some small chunks in the old snow that will hopefully come out in the next grooming.  With the sun shining and other skiers out, it was a great day to ski the knob!

Irv Warren Golf Course - Waterloo

Skied Irv Warren this afternoon.   As Brett noted below the ski trail was packed on Tuesday.    The base is very thin with grass sticking through in many places.   It skied (skating) quite well today.   A complete loop is approximately 2.2 miles.

Ashton CCC, Iowa City

Ashton CCC, Iowa City, 1-4-18 9:00AM
Ashton has been rolled and groomed this Thursday AM, surface should set up quickly with cold temps. Beware gopher mounds on the north and east sides.
No Classic groove yet, not enough snow depth.
Thanks to Greg, Paul, and Matt for working in the cold temps!

Irv Warren GC, Waterloo IA

Irv Warren GC, Waterloo IA.
Irv Warren trail was compacted and groomed on 1/2/18 at 3:30pm.

Morgan Creek Park and Wickiup Hill Learning Center

Trails at both areas have been groomed. Ranger Shaun said the conditions were not good and he would give it a grade of C.

Pilot Knob Lake

The 1.5 km loop around the lake in Pilot Knob State Park has been groomed today for both skating and classic skiing.  No other packing or grooming has been done on the road or on the golf course as of yet.  

Prairie Springs XC Ski and Snowshoe Trails - Cresco

We have plenty of cold but not a great deal of snow!  We had two light snowfalls this past week and have 3-4 inches on the ground.  Rolled the Bike Trail, Campground Trail, Campground Loop and Campground Road on Friday afternoon.  These trails are on smooth surfaces so they look pretty good, but the packed surface is only a couple of inches on top of no base so won't hold up long; but we have to get started making a base!  I would classify conditions as marginal.

Remember the Iowa Winter Games Classical and Freestyle races are here on January 27 - 10 AM Classical and 2 PM Freestyle.  Happy New Year and Happy Skiing!

Pilot Knob Lake

Here's an update on Pilot Knob Lake just east of Forest City.  We had about 1/2" of snow on the ice from a couple of weeks ago.  The ice was finally thick enough to work on by Monday the 25th.  By using the snow mover it ended up being about 1/2" of packed snow.  Tuesday it skated surprisingly well.

Working with 1/2" of snow on ice surface the 25th

Skated very well but only 1/2" thick

We received another 1" last Wednesday night so it again was scraped on to trail.

Rolling a fresh 1" last Thursday.  Base is packed at 1"

A couple of us were enjoying skate skiing Friday while it was snowing.  And the glide was again good even with about 3" of fresh fluffy snow on the 1" packed base.

Skate skiing Friday the 29th.

We ended up with about 4 to 5" of fluffy snow Friday.  So it was rolled again Friday night.  Plus I pulled the tracksetter behind the roller to lay our first classic tracks of the season.  I'll try to take the Ginzu out today or Monday for a better finish.  

This is a flat 1.5km loop on the ice of Pilot Knob Lake.  It can be accessed by parking at the sledding hill parking lot, start at the warming shed and ski south.

Rolling 4 to 5" of fluffy snow over 1" packed base.

Pulling tracksetter behind roller Friday the 29th

Kent Park, Oxford 12-31

Kent Park, Oxford IA 12/31/17 9AM.
Trails rolled at this time, no classic tracks as insufficient snow depth.

MNRA MacBride - North Liberty, Iowa City

MNRA MacBride - North Liberty, Iowa City 12-30 2:00 PM

Trails rolled at this time. Grooming may happen tonight. 

The 2nd annual Pilot Knob ski race was held Saturday.  We had a total of 29 skiers which was up from the 16 last year.  The park was in great shape for the race and having temperatures in the 20's made for an all around great day.  Thank you to all of the great volunteers that helped direct skiers & bring food and to North Iowa Nordic for contributing to expenses.  It was truly a pleasure to be able to ski with all of you at my favorite trail!  Jeff

Start area

Jen Juhlin of Iowa City

John Curtin of Des Moines 

Scott Duffus of Tripoli

Pilot Knob road at 26' wide

More pictures will be posted soon on facebook "Pilot Knob Ski Race".

Prairie Springs XC Ski Trails Groomed Tonight - 2-2-17

Groomed tonight. Very warm Tuesday and very cold yesterday so trails were icy. Broke up the surface of skating lanes, left much of the diagonal track alone because tearing it up and trying to get a deep set track would have been very difficult. Did fix diagonal track in some areas like north edge of Minears Field. Skiing should be good, will ski tomorrow and give a report. Also, opened the Hill Trail. River trail still closed because of a large ice area.