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.

Pilot Knob Ski Race

Come challenge yourself to ski the hills in beautiful Pilot Knob State Park.  This is a great preparation race for the American Birkiebeiner.  Enjoy eating lunch in the warming house afterwards.  Any profits from this race will go towards the costs of grooming the trails in the park.

February 4, 2017
both races start at 8:30 am

27 km freestyle race.
9 km freestyle race.
Lunch included for racers.
Awards to top 3 overall, male & female each race.
Racer's fee is $15.00.
Family and friends welcome to lunch also(free will donation).
Classic skiers are welcome to join the freestyle race also.  At least 90% of the course will be tracked.

Start & finish located at the warming house.
Register day of race only.  Please email, text or phone if you plan to attend so as to make sure there will be enough food.

Sponsor;   northiowanordic.com/ and the Forest City nordic grooming crew.

Contact;
Jeff Hovinga
641-590-2739
jhovinga@wctatel.net

Pilot Knob State Park
2148 340th St. Forest City, IA 50436

Iowa Winter Games - Prairie Springs Nature Center - Cresco - Course Photos from Today

Here are some shots from most areas on the course.  Conditions are very good.