Mark your calendar for the 6th Annual Candle Luminary Ski which is fast approaching on the evening of December 26th. Next Wednesday from 6-8 pm a 2 km trail illuminated by the glow of candle luminaries will be open, starting from behind the Four Season Chalet on the north side of the Houghton County Fairgrounds at 1500 Birch Street in Hancock. This free and family friendly event is open to skiers, snowshoers, snow bikers and even walkers subject to trail conditions. Join us for the most magical night of the year at Maasto Hiinto. Refreshments will be available in the chalet afterward. If you have them, bring your leftover Christmas goodies to share. If you would like to volunteer to help set up for the event Wednesday afternoon contact John Diebel, john.diebel@sbcglobal.net or (906) 281-1486. For more information go to:

https://keweenawnordic.org/candle-luminary-ski/

We hope to see you out on the trail next Wednesday night!

Give some love and appreciation to the Portage Health Auxiliary which has been a loyal sponsor of our annual Barnelopet. For 2019 they have awarded the Keweenaw Nordic Ski Club a $500 grant to help sponsor the Barnelopet. This is a timed but non-competitive course that Keweenaw Nordic Ski Club and the Sons of Norway have been offering for many years now to Copper Country youth. It is a family friendly event with parents skiing with the youngest skiers. Four courses of distances varying from 1 km to 6 km are available to choose from based on ability and age. The next Barnelopet is scheduled for the afternoon of Sunday February 10th. Come ski, cheer on the participants or volunteer. Below we have a picture of Portage Health Auxiliary Directors Billie Bloomfield (far left) and Ronda Bogan (far right) presenting the check to KNSC Treasurer John Diebel and President Jay Green at a ceremony Wednesday afternoon. Nine other community service organizations also received funding from Portage Health Auxiliary in this round.

If you haven't had a chance to meet our new Chief Groomer, here is Colin Pekkala setting tracks in Churning Rapids earlier today. Stop and tell him hello if you see him on the trails. His father John Pekkala is also grooming Maasto and Churning Rapids this winter.

Here are some other shots from Maasto and Churning Rapids today. The trail is still a little rugged and will be until we get enough snow to level it out with the drag. But there were no big water holes and the kick and glide were excellent.

Grooming Report #2 Mostly Good!

Early this morning all trails were rolled. Tracks were set everywhere except for Mud lake, New River trail, and most of Churning Rapids. We will try to set tracks on all Churning Rapids trails tomorrow, excluding the Spring Creek reroute. Conditions are improving and we're seeing mostly good conditions everywhere. The Quincy trail, Mud Lake, New River trail and the River trail in the gorge still remain pretty rough. The River trail still has a couple wet spots as you will see in the picture below.

The worst section of the River trail is pictured here. This is next to the Railroad Ravine

Between intersections 4 and 5 on the Pine Loop

Double tracks were set on St. Urho's loop

Grooming Report #1 Fair to Good

All trails were rolled today, and tracks were set on the city-side trails. There isn't enough base yet for us to drag trails, so expect many bumps and uneven trails. There are still a few open water spots, but most are freezing up. Trails are pretty soft since we are not adding any weight to our implements. Adding weight on our implements in low snow conditions will potentially damage the comb. Current conditions vary from fair to good.

On the Quincy trail between intersections 7 and 8. This section is in great shape since the trail is so smooth

The New River trail is one of our roughest trails. It will take much more snow to get this trail level

Right by the Tomasi trail head. Tracks were not looking to bad

Seen again on the Quincy trail. This was the only trail that was double tracked today

Intersection 3 Fixed!

Today we took our John Deere tractor out to fix one last spot before grooming begins. Intersection 3 is right at the start of the Pine Loop off of Tomasi Rd. Large holes were dug on the sides of both trails to keep trucks from driving through. We refer to these as "tank traps". Next year we hope to install a double gate here to simplify the fall to winter transition.

There was around 6' of clearance between the tank trap and the tree. Our roller is about 10' wide

We would be able to get through this spot, but the pile of dirt on the right would be a problem all winter

The 6' of clearance before is now over 12'

The piles of dirt were cut back and moved into the tank trap. There's plenty of room to get our roller through now!

Trail closed signage and more rolling!

Today we put up closed trail signs at intersections; 9, 16, and 18 on the River trail along the river gorge. We are only able to open the middle section of the River trail due to flood damage. We also put up closed trail signs at the south end of the Outback trail and intersection 28. We did not have enough time this fall to fix the washout near the cemetery. The last two closed trail signs were put on the old spring creek trail in Churning Rapids. We relocated this trail further back from the creek, so we will be able to groom through there this season. These closed trail sections are shown on the new map.

Seen at intersection 9 off St. Urho's loop

At intersection 18 by the pedestrian bridge

Our new Can-Am Outlander was taken out for the first time with the new tracks installed

Most of the city-side trails were rolled while putting up signage. We also rolled the Mud Lake Bypass, Spring Creek, and Diagonal trail in Churning Rapids. There are still too many wet spots and exposed stumps and rocks to do any grooming until we get more snow. We will need around 1' of new snow to continue grooming.

There are many wet spots like this that remain