Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

Skied a loop around the historic site and the prairie.  Reconstruction is being done on 80 acres nearest the interstate and thus some of the trails indicate closure.  Quite a few drifts in the prairie trails with a little grass sticking through.  But plenty skiable.  There were tracks (not groomed) that had blown in.  About 2 miles as an outer loop.  You may find you need to take your skis off to cross sidewalks or roads to get those miles in.  

Ames - East River Valley Park/Carr Woods

 Was groomed January 15.  We skied it around noon on the 16th.  Was pretty soft and thus fairly torn up by skies, hikers, and snowshoes.  A little grass showing in small spots of the tracks.  Skate deck is very soft.  Some tiny sticks on the groomed area but nothing to be worried about.  Lots out skiing.  Fun to see that in Iowa!  

Irv Warren Golf Course - Waterloo

 Irv Warren was groomed this morning for both classical and skating.    The classical tracks are excellent.   The skating lane is a little soft but should be in good shape tomorrow.   Special thanks to Waterloo Leisure Services for grooming on a Saturday.

Cedar Rapids grooming

Cedar Rapids has groomed at Ellis and Twin Pines Golf Courses, Jones and Seminole Valley Parks, and the Sac and Fox Trail on January 3rd. I skied the 4 mile perimeter of Jones yesterday, January 6th. They had laid a parallel set of tracks and also "rolled" a separate single track that at times crossed over or under the parallel tracks. By yesterday the tracks were generally blown in but otherwise it has plenty of hills to make the ski interesting.

Brynes Park/Irv Warren

 Thanks Waterloo Leisure Services for the rolling of the trail today. With such a small amount of snow the trail was in very good condition for skating. Some, but very little grass was visible. It skied very quickly today, some soft spots, but very few. Hopefully we can make it for a week or so on this snow. Thanks again and great job Waterloo Leisure Services!

Pilot Knob

 Pilot Knob was fantastic again today. Jeff does a great job of grooming for a great trail. Get to Pilot Knob before the snow is gone, great conditions, great trail.

Pilot Knob State Park

 This area hasn't seen as much snow as the new snow belt through central Iowa has this year. 🙂 And it's great to see your areas thriving. I enjoy seeing pictures of other trails! So here's a picture of the road through Pilot Knob Saturday.  Fortunately we've got enough to play too!  I typically post about grooming at forestcityski.blogspot.com 

Happy skiing!

chichaqua bottoms

Classic tracks at their best! Fast and firm!

Brynes Park/Irv Warren

 Groomed this morning, best conditions we have had in my memory. Get out and enjoy the weekend!

CLEAR CREEK TRAIL - IOWA CITY

Excellent classical today. Between Ashton and Clear Creek the conditions were awesome for classic, skating and fat bikes!

Kent Park

 I skied classical at Kent Park yesterday and what a treat! The trails were in fantastic shape with well formed classic tracks and a wide smooth skate lane. It was about as perfect as I’ve ever skied on. Get out there if you can! 

Crow Creek Park

Trails were groomed at Crow Creek Park on Wednesday.  We have about 4 miles of skate lane and about 70% of that is tracked for classic skiing.  Very nice skiing conditions even with the hiker foot traffic. The tracks are some of the best I have have seen for CCP and they have firmed up the last couple days.  We'll be grooming later today to clean up the hiker foot traffic.  Note that CCP grooming is supported 100% by volunteers - time, money, blood, sweat, and tears. :-)  And we love doing it!

The City of Bettendorf also has groomed ski trails at Palmer Hills golf course.  They have a free XC ski clinic planned this weekend for today and tomorrow.  They have ski rentals, as well.  Here is a link to more info on the event.  https://sites.google.com/view/qc-nordic-ski-clinics

Morgan Creek Park

It just doesn't get any better - ever. Freshly groomed and both the skate lane and classic tracks are perfection. The walkers didn't get the message that it is a ski trail but they never do.

Brynes Park/Irv Warren

 Thanks again Waterloo Leisure Services, the trails are great! Classic track is just perfect and the skate trail has a lot of snow on it. It was soft today and got chopped up a bit, but with some packing of the trails this week they should be perfect by the weekend.

Crow Creek Park

Skied at Crow Creek Park again. Trail conditions are the same as yesterday- excellent. Pretty cold out there and I only saw a couple hardy souls. I stayed in the wooded area for protection from the wind. It’s amazing how quickly you can get your camera out, take the picture and put your camera away when it’s 3 degrees. 

Crow Creek Park

 Trail conditions at Crow Creek Park are excellent!  It was cold out there today, but very worth it.  The skate lane was firm and I think there is more groomed trail for skate then there was a couple weeks ago.  Lots of options to do loops with hills or stay on the flat.  The wooded area is my favorite area to ski in Crow Creek Park and there are a couple of loop options down there.  The classic tracks were in good shape as well.  I'm not sure, but I suspect the city of Bettendorf is supporting the grooming efforts at CCP.  Chapeau!

Irv Warren Golf Course – Waterloo

 Skied Irv Warren with my classical skis today and skated yesterday.   The classical tracks are in excellent shape – the best I have seen at Irv Warren.   The skate deck is very good too.   It has been a couple of days since grooming but the skate deck is holding up very well.

 A special thank you to Peter and Waterloo Leisure Services for grooming in this cold weather.

Irv Warren Golf Course - Waterloo

 Re-posting from Waterloo Leisure Services web page.

Ski skating and classical tracks were groomed on 2/8/21 at 1:30pm.

Pilot Knob State Park

 Thoroughly enjoyed skiing at Pilot Knob today. Jeff does a wonderful job of grooming the road and down to the lake, which is one of the best if not the best place to ski in Iowa. Slow skiing because of the cold temps, but just a beautiful environment to spend time skiing. Thanks Jeff!

 Linn County Conservation cross-country ski trail update

Location	Miles	Date of Last Maintenance	Rolled	Groomed
Matsell Bridge Natural Area	5	2/05	✔	✔
Morgan Creek Park	3.8	2/05	✔	✔
Wanatee Park	3.5	2/01	✔	✔
Wickiup Hill Learning Center	3.3	2/05	✔	✔

Drifting snow currently is an issue along the trails.

More information about cross-country ski trails available at LinnCountyParks.com Look for the Cross-Country Ski Trail grooming button.