20 MAR 2010 0700 Partly CLoudy

I guess this week, the lack of winter weather has gotten me in the mood for not posting this week. We had a couple of nights where the temperatures dropped to the low 20's, though last night it did not drop that muh.

A few days ago we did have periodic snow flurries all day, but nothing in the past couple of days....

It sounds like grooming has still been occurring at Cabin Creek, though I am not sure how well the conditions are. Your best bet is going to be getting up high, such as on the Summit Nordic Center's trail system, or perhaps even Mt. Amabalis.

Currently it is Partly Cloudy and 32.4 degrees.

Grooming

Grooming at cabin creek and erling, went well. Trails will be really icy tomorrow morning it was groomed when it had slush, amabolis was groomed today. I went right at the Y. Grooming will continue as of right now next week, but if it looks like snow will not be available I will finish up and call it a season. I will be sure to let people know so you can get one last trip up. Thank you.

Robert lind
R&R Grooming

Grooming

I tryed grooming last night and early this morning, but the snow has turned to ice I am going to have to come back in the afternoon for sundays grooming. Thank you

Robert lind
R&R Grooming

Grooming

I am currently grooming at cabin creek, it is snowing lightly and has been for most of the night there is just a slight trace of fresh snow since last night and about 8 inches in the last two days. There is only one dirt spot left showing on ozbaldy, the rest is covered and groomed nice. There is no tracks, groomed to the Y on amabolis and tomorrow will make my way to the top.
Erling- a few bare spots on the road and would like to give it as much time as possible when the snow is coming so I am not mixing dirt in. Thank you.

Robert lind
R&R Grooming

Cabin creek

No grooming at cabin creek tonight, this is to try and let any potential snow accumulate so I don't keep mixing dirt in with the new snow. Thank you

Robert lind
R&R Grooming

Cabin creek,Erling

Grooming a cabin creek took place last night and will take place everynight this week. Conditions are slushy, snow is thin on the viking and berg. The road seems to be holding up. I cannot set track at this time, but we are working on being able to in the next week. I am leaving the track on the road and grooming to one side, but on the course I am forced to take it out. Amabolis is holding up well, ozbaldy there is one very lage bare spot, and I am saving snow for this sundays race to cover that up. Thank you.

Robert lind
R&R Grooming

Cabin creek

I am currently grooming at cabin creek its is snowing lightly, but the trails are very icy and difficult to groom, expect bad conditions tomorrow unless we get some accumulation for which I will be back out there tomorrow afternoon. A classic track is virtually impossible to set right now, because of how hard the snow is. The skate lane is satisfactory on the road. Around the viking skating would be very difficult. Because of the ice balls, brought up from my groomer. Sorry for this and I will have them ready for the weekend.

Robert lind
R&R Grooming

Cabin creek

Grooming at cabin creek will take place tomorrow at 3 p.m. Having trouble, but I will pick back up tomorrow and ready for the headlamp series.

Robert lind
R&R Grooming

Cabin Creek/Erling

I am currenty grooming at cabin creek. It is raining and the snow is slushy. I will be grooming Amabolis today... and there will be grooming for tomorrows holiday tonight. I will be grooming Cabin Creek and Erling everyday this week, Feb 14- 21. Thank you.

Robert lind
R&R Grooming

Cabin creek/Erling

Grooming at cabin creek and Erling late tonight and into the morning it is currently raining, trails are slushy. Snow is expected late tonight I will ensure a fresh course if there is new snow. I will be off of the trails by 6 or so and hope that allows enough setup time. Good luck to the racers. Thank you.

Robert lind
R&R Grooming

Cabin creek/erling

There is no grooming at cabin creek and erling today I am haveing equipment problems. Thank you.

Robert lind
R&R Grooming

Cabin creek/Erling

1100 just finishing up grooming at cabin creek and Erling. I apologize for the late grooming and late update I expected some fresh snow. It is currently raining. Thank you.

Robert lind
R&R Grooming

Cabin creek, Erling Stordahl

Grooming took place late last night and into this morning, trails are firm and there is a light dusting of fresh snow, I will be grooming this morning untill noon or so. It is currently snowing and 32 degrees. Thank you.

Robert lind
R&R Grooming

13 JAN 2010 1615 Lake Easton Grooming

From: Schmidt, Tim (PARKS) Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 4:04 PM
To: Winter (PARKS); McConkey, Pam (PARKS)
Cc: Lake Easton State Park; chris@
Subject: I-90 Lake Easton program

Well it is raining today. Due to this fact we did not groom Hyak to Crystal Springs. With the lack of snow depth we did not want to till the snow opening the surface to increased snow melt. With the limited amount of use we get mid week thought we might save a little snow for the weekend. I talked to Chris today and we discussed our reasoning.

The sledding hill remains closed. As a matter of fact we have closed all sledding at Crystal Springs. The small area that we use for the small kids cannot handle all of the pressure (use) by everyone. It quickly becomes overcrowded which becomes unsafe and there is no way to control it. This puts extreme pressure on the staff in the sno-park and when we close or attempt to limit the use the public does not understand. "we paid our sno-park permit and now you will not let us sled?" is what the staff hears. We also have uncontrollable problems with sledders walking further east on the groomed cross-country trail in search of places to sled. This has let to numerous users trespassing on the adjacent sewer Lagoon property and using a very steep hillside (more like a cliff) along the north side of the JWPT. Again, people do not understand that they should not be sledding in those areas. (it also chews up the ski trail). So as strange as it may seem, it is easier to tell people that there is no sledding at Hyak and sending them to other areas then it is to allow them to come in and have certain high expectations then telling them that they cannot sled in certain areas or we close an area or limit a certain areas use.

I am also ordering signing to post on the JWPT stating that there is no sledding east of the parking area.

Overall the grooming has been going well. The sno-cat is operating well. Kassbohrer will be in the park mid-February to perform the mid-season maintenance. This will cost us nothing (unless we find a problem) as part of the compensation worked out from the summer maintenance they did. The trail between Hyak and Crystal Springs remains in good shape.

Please post somewhere on the web page that the section of the JWPT east of the USFS 5400 road to Easton is shared use, snowmobile, x-country ski, snowshoe and dog sled. Snowmobiler's need to use caution.

Park staff will be putting up better signing indicating that this section is a shared use trail. We will also be putting up speed limit signs on this section (25MPH) due to the shared use. The trail is being groomed and is flat, smooth and fast and is a temptation for snowmobiler users.

Lake Easton still has approximately 3/4 of the trails groomed.

We have cut back on the weekend hours for the temp groomer operator. We will only be grooming the JWPT once a day until the sledding hill reopens.

Tim

Grooming Blog

When Robert sends out his emails to report on the status of his grooming it will automatically appear in this blog.