Northern Lights Nordic Ski Club

No logging quite yet other than old E/W road just south of parking lot pushed in up to loop #2. Skied entire system on excellently groomed three loops. The Sherry Lake Loop goes through two very special groups of old growth white pine and upland white cedars. Sadly, no moose tracks this time for first time in twenty years. Cross my fingers that this logging cut doesn't wipe out Stoney Ridge Loop forest. There was a DNR Fire Tower near ski trail/ logging road intersection fifteen to fifty years ago. I got in the tower forty years ago, what a view!
(Neil Gardner)

Itasca County Land Dept reports: The west section of the Stoney Ridge Loop will be closed due to a timber sale that will start up this weekend. That section of trail will be fully closed until further notice.
Map shows that except for that section, the rest of the trail system, including Sherry Lake loop, has been groomed and is open for skiing.
(Catherine McLynn)

I arrived to find it had last been groomed sometime in the previous week but not since the late week snowfall we had. That was no problem because it was only a couple inches of new snow. I skied one loop and actually encountered another person. By the time we had both made our loops, everything was skied in, and I did a much faster second loop (the farthest out and back). I like looking for wildlife signs here. Lots of grouse holes in the snow and snowshoe hare all around. I usually also find moose tracks that are always at least a week or two old, but I haven't seen real moose there since 2011. Deer tracks are always fresh.
(Bob Conzemius)