Yesterday Itasca State Park was host to the NorthStar conference meet put on by the Ellefson family. The course was a lap around Mary lake among the beautiful pines and big rolling hills. Races like this are fun to go to. Very low key, you can ski on the course to get to a nice vantage point and the atmosphere among the racers is "fun". The race was #10 for Jake since the start of January. Lots of racing. Little bit more than we planned for but thats how it turned out and Jake was committed to helping his team to try and win a meet.
Lars Ellefson and Jake pre-race with Jonell, Jess and Grandpa and Grandma walking to the start or, "halfway back to Park Rapids".
Karen Skoyles at the start near Mary lake ready to take pictures. Skoyles has done a great job getting ton of pictures to skinnyski.
Jake and Dylan on the back side near the end of the loop.
Racers finishing up the lap on the west side of Mary lake. Not many hs ski races pass by fish houses and what not. Good stuff.
Enjoying the warmth of the sun post race. No fire needed.
Grandma and Grandpa.
Driving back home noticed a nice little slide from a cornice falling off on the cliff edge of the Ponsford prairie. Another area that needs to be visited if crust cruising conditions fall in to place. Pretty hard not to drive anywhere and notice the incredible potential looming on the fields and meadows. And for the sake of the Red River valley, a slow melt freeze process would be best.
Freshly groomed snowmobile trails. There is no structure but skiing on this midweek can be good fun and later in the winter, good mountain biking. Judging the surface from county to county I think the Forest Riders club have it figured out.
Bogging down and working hard. Don't see many Bombardier groomers in the Midwest. More of a mountain cat.
With snow piling up, lot of people getting stuck lately. Paul Douglas said last week snow at colder temps make for worse roads. My pov is that on snow pack, warmer temps makes things greasy and slippy and can attest having pulled out a lot more cars when temp 25 degrees or warmer compared to 15 degrees and cooler.
Just takes some practice to get the backing up skills dialed in.
Early Saturday morning out on Island Lake trail. Expected some good drifts and not disappointed. At farthest point out where it drifts nicely, got off to side and buried big time. You get off the pack this time of year with anything and you are done. Took a hour to dig out just to unhook the Ginzu that was pinched. I thought about cutting the back seat but chainsaw was wedged as well. Another three months of winter on tap.... but with longer days, generally warmer temps, February tops as best month of the year. Enjoy!
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