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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

DNR to begin some trail grooming in wake of recent snow

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 1/16/25

REGIONAL— Recent snowfalls have raised hopes that the North Country may have at least an abbreviated snowmobile season, after all. Snow that fell late last week and over the past weekend left a …

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DNR to begin some trail grooming in wake of recent snow

Posted

REGIONAL— Recent snowfalls have raised hopes that the North Country may have at least an abbreviated snowmobile season, after all.
Snow that fell late last week and over the past weekend left a fairly consistent six inches of fresh powder on the ground. While that normally isn’t enough for trail grooming, Joe Majerus, Tower DNR area trails supervisor is hopeful that the 3-5 inches of hard-crusted snow left over from the late December rain and meltdown, that’s now hard frozen underneath the fresh snow will create a tough base that won’t erode as quickly is often the case with less crusted conditions.
But Majerus isn’t making any promises. “We are going to try to groom where we can, it probably won’t be everywhere,” he said. Swamps, as usual, are likely to prove the biggest challenge for groomers. The mild conditions during November and December slowed the freeze-up of swamps although Majerus said they’re starting to solidify now with the recent cold temperatures. Even so, Majerus said low water from the late summer and fall drought has made many swamps rougher, which won’t help with the grooming process.
Majerus expects this first round of grooming will be completed before the Dr. Martin Luther King weekend, which often marks the beginning of peak snowmobile season.
“I imagine it won’t be pristine, but it will be as good as we can get with what we have to work with,” he said.