27 Jan 25 – Trail Report

It’s tough out there! 

 

We have JUST enough snow to work with. Our first groom of the 2024 ski season was 25 Jan – so having a month worth of skiing is not something we’ll complain about for the 2025 ski season! The motto of the year has been – Trail Conditions = “Good Enough”. Today I groomed and trackset the 5k and the Flats to fix up the skied out areas and try and reduce the ice on the hill. Fox, Snake, and Charlies were all in ok shape, with Josie L being touch and go (as is tradition with that first uphill feeling a lot of sunshine when it chooses to come out). You may notice a bridge bump on the MacDonald Bridge (furthest west) – it happened even though I groomed it in both directions (operator error!). When you bump the bridge it makes a little speed wobble in the trackset, so use caution.

I would like to give a shoutout to our snowshoers, who once we posted the PSA on where to walk not to disrupt the skate area / classic track completely obliged. We know it’s always awareness and let’s be honest – we could work on our signage (we aren’t perfect).


Our little groomer that could continues to work well, and despite a slow draw somewhere in the electrical system still happens to get me home each time we go out, so as long as it keeps running, we’ll keep grooming!!! 🙂

Overall, things are very positive at the ski club! With Carly jumping on board and doing a great job with the social media, as well as some news coverage – we’ve had lots of traffic in and out of the club, with unfamiliar faces showing up from all across the island! This is truly amazing, and we’ve told them all to make themselves at home as the club is notorious for being one of the friendliest places on earth (self-proclaimed). We’ve also been having more volunteer presence in the rental shop this year to try and give Tyler a day off, so bear with us as we fumble with the card reader and don’t know the prices. You may get an unintentional discount.

Steve and Rita dropped off a vintage framed ad from the 1995 Atlantic Ski Championship, which will certainly find a home in the lodge, and we continue to find gems in Shane’s 400+ picture Flickr account. We will also look to put some older gear and other things on display to continue building some culture within the lodge, as well as any line road history we can find. Spending some time this evening with Roland MacDonald and chatting Souris Line Road history always makes me realize how much history happened right there in Harmony Junction – from Riots (Haney Disturbance) to splendid weddings, with honeymoon train rides to New Zealand for their “wedding tour” for the week. I am particularly excited to have a social evening at the lodge this winter to recant some of these stories and try and capture more history. Dates will follow, but likely closer to the end of the season!

Events coming up are posted on social media along with the lodge hours!


We are hoping for snow between now and Friday, and i’m hoping to let the next couple of days to accumulate and then do a pass with the groomer on Friday over everything for a big weekend at the lodge!!!

Soon enough we’ll be complaining about the mosquitoes, so bundle up and get a lap of the flats in!

 

Chad

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