Feli and Donna Iovoni and myself, John Mitchell, were the first to ski the new trial trail from the Dog Loop Junction at County Line , through the woods (some great downhill terrain) around the forest edge to Scales Glad. Well done, GMNC! This run was beautimus and the conditions were perfect – highly recommended!

Skyway hut on a nice sunny day, April 7, 2023.

Everything at Skyway was nicely groomed. Saw the cat heading across Scales Lake road towards Country Line.

Many people enjoyed the very nice, wide grooming on Ward Trail today (Feb 1, 2023) – see attached photo. Thanks, Gordie!

Classic skiing was fantastic in the heavy snow on 1/2/23. Tip of the hat to our groomers for keeping the trails in such great shape!

There were lots skiers on the lower part of Ward Trail this morning (Friday, Dec. 20, 2022). About 2 to 3 inches of new snow on the packing that had been done yesterday (Dec. 29). The Staircase and Wild backcountry trails were also tracked by skiers and snowshoe trekkers. The packing on Ward made it easy to access some hills, which were much fun this morning. I encountered 2 small, newly downed trees about 1 to 1.5 km from the Ward trailhead, but they were easy to ski around. Photo shows some “earned turns” on “Gretchen’s Hill” in the lower Ward area.

The Ward Trail was nicely groomed by the GMNC today (Dec. 9), and classic track was set in time for the weekend – see attached photo. The 1 ft-plus of new snow on the backcountry trails in the southern part of Ward System has been tracked by skiers and snowshoe trekkers on Staircase, Wild, Finney, and Sheep Trails, the southern part of East Ward Trail, and the Skinned Horse-Overlook Route.

Lots of skiers and snow shoe trekkers were out today on Ward Trail! The Trail was clear of downed trees today. The Ward area is a good option for avoiding crowding at County Line and Skyway during busy weekends! Today, the Ward Trail crossing of the outflow stream from Deep Slough Reservoir was not passable on skis – see attached photo. Hopefully the forecast snow will fix that problem soon. If not, take Deep Slough Trail, which parallels Ward Trail. Deep Slough Trail crosses the Deep Slough Dam and avoids that stream entirely. We saw a few exposed rocks, but we avoided hitting them. Still, rock skis are advised on the early season snow.

We skied on the Lower Part of Ward Trail and Staircase Trail this afternoon, Nov. 12, 2022. The recent snow/wind storm brought down 4 trees across Ward Trail between the Trailhead and Junction No. 3 (Staircase Tr./Ward Tr.). There’s also a small tree down across the lower part of Staircase Trail. But, it’s easy to ski or snowshoe around all of these. We heard of trees down on East Ward Trail, and there are likely newly fallen trees on other parts of the Ward trail system. The Ward Trail was packed by the groomers before the last storm, and many people have tracked much of the Ward Trail System since the last snow fall. Included photo shows a 12-inch diameter tree that fell across the “lower/southern Ward Loop” of Ward Trail.