Friday, December 12, 2008

The Sugarbush Trails...almost ready!


The Sugarbush cross country ski trail system, outside of Tofte and Lutsen, has some of the best skiing on the North Shore, hands-down. For me, it's where I discovered the joy of well-groomed ski trails, after years of crashing through the woods on wilderness trails.

As of today, the trails are not yet officially open. Above is a picture taken today at the most popular trailhead, Britton Peak, just up the Sawbill Trail from "downtown" Tofte. If you look carefully, you'll see the gate up over the trail about 100 yards in. The trails were rolled earlier this week, which means the groomer rode the trails with a large rolling drum behind the groomer, packing the trail but not setting track. The major winter storm this weekend should provide all the snow they need to groom the trails and open them up.

If you're dying to know when the great Sugarbush trail system is ready for skiing, either check Skinnyski or visit the Sugarbush web site and subscribe to their timely e-mail notifications. Sarah Lynch at Sawtooth Outfitters says she's receiving many phone calls about the trail grooming. "It'll go online as soon as it's done," she told me.

Here's the view the other direction, what they call the Bluefin Trail. This is the connector trail down towards Lake Superior.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those truly are some of the best trails in the state, which is saying something. Just huge, beautiful, so well groomed, and beautiful. Can't wait to get back out on them.

Andrew Slade said...

Right on, Greg...maybe I'll see you up on the trails!

mek said...

That's so close to where we were this past weekend - one of our favorite parts of the North Shore. We moved to the Twin Cities (from CA) in 1992, and it wasn't until I went up north that I realized I could indeed love this state, too.

Andrew Slade said...

It's great that we here in fly-over land have won another convert. Thanks for your comment!