Unbelievable!  It keeps snowing, & snowing, & snowing!  Accompanied by persistent cold temps (it hasn't been above freezing for 37 days; 28 of the past 31 days have been below zero), every snowfall adds to the last.  Remember those mountainous snowbanks from your childhood winters?  Don't let your kids forget this one. Once again, tip your hat to our groomers when you see them out working their magic. Conditions have been uniformly wonderful, our groomers have met this winter's challenges head on. And if you notice a huge divot next to the trail, that's one of our groomers working hard to push the margins. Even the most experienced groomer gets stuck periodically - then it's time to unhitch the grooming implement, extricate the snowmobile, back up to reconnect to the grooming implement, then off to create more corduroy and set more track. It requires continuous concentration, and lots of muscle - not as easy as it looks. The Birkie is just a few days away, invite your friends to ski the Hills while visiting the area. The beauty is contagious.

It looked like March would go out as a lamb, but Mother Nature sure fooled us!  It kept snowing and snowing and snowing - topped off by a record setting May 2nd snowstorm that dropped 18 inches in the Hills!‍

Recent comments from the logbook in the warming house

• 3/25: Great night for a ski.  Love how late the sun is out.  Thanks for such great trails.  The skate lane was fast fast fast.  --Bruce, WI
• 3/28: Wow!  Skate trail is amazing.  Thank you to BHTA for a wonderful ski season.  March 28 & the sky is blue, the sun is shining & the skiing is fast. --Rice Lake, WI
• 3/29: Snowshoeing - Awesome. --Australia
• 4/1: Fantastic crust skiing on Westside & over & onto Audie Flowage, & also on Florida Loop.  Early morning skiing is fast & almost effortless.  Edge control is borderline in some places & the steeper donwhills are exhiliratingly fast.  No fooling!  --Ladysmith, WI
• 4/10: The snow cover extends unbroken at least 2 km from the warming house, & undoubtedly beyond.   --Ladysmith, WI
• 4/12: With the new snow one can ski anywhere! --Ladysmith, WI
• 4/13: Another day's pilgrammage to the Blue Hills.  Today I skied the entire Westside with side trips to Audie Lake & from Letter K north.  I recommend it to anyone that wants to leave the beaten track. --Ladysmith, WI
• 4/17: The heavy wet snow that fell 3 days ago provided a new surface which this morning's colder temperatures transformed into a firm crust.  Skating over it was fantastic, so much better than what I expected to find. --Ladysmith, WI
• 4/19: Getting Out There for a classic ski.  AMAZING. --Rice Lake, WI
• 4/24: Eastside crust ski was wonderfully fast on the ski over to the Westside & to Audie Lake.  Saw very large paw prints in the snow (wolf?).  The return ski was slower in the soft snow in the sun.  All in all a wonderful spring ski. --Eau Claire, WI
• 4/25: It ain't over 'til it's over!  Skied much of the Eastside on an unbroken crust covered with a centimeter of new snow, which decorated the twigs & branches of all the hilltop trees - until the sun melted it. --Ladysmith, WI
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The Blue Hills Trail Association Inc pursued an aggressive agenda for trail work this summer.  Now in mid August, we feel we've reached most of our goals.  Many thanks to the Rusk County Forestry Department, the Wisconsin DNR, and the Rusk County Wildlife Restoration Association (WRA) for their help.

When enjoying these trails while hiking/hunting/skiing this fall and winter, take a moment to consider the work that goes into taming mother nature. The past couple days I gained a new appreciation of the difficult task of mowing our trail system. Club member Steve P operated the skidsteer-mower donated by the WRA, and I cleared debris ahead of him while scouting for hidden rocks. A few hours after starting the mowing, Steve's skidsteer slipped off a steep embankment and was stuck in a perilous spot. After Steve cautiously exited the machine, we phoned for help and were rescued by one of our highly skilled local DNR dozer operators. Three hours after the skidsteer left the trail, we were back in action.

Mowing continued into the next day. Thanks to the drying conditions this summer, we felt fortunate to reach our goal of negotiating and mowing about ten typically soft muddy wet sections on the most distant trails of the Eastside. As we were completing the final hour of mowing operations, we found one of the many hidden rocks the Blue Hills has to offer. The head of the bolt securing the mower blade was sheared off, the blade went flying like a piece of shrapnel -- and fortunately humans and equipment survived without significant injury. Hard work, but enjoyable time in the Hills.

As stated earlier, I have a much greater appreciation for those that have mowed these trails the past 30 years. And I'm excited about the other trail work that was accomplished this summer. A lot of dozing of eroded areas was performed in July, then seeded within the past couple weeks. Grass has sprouted, those newly greened trail sections look inviting, and should provide good bird hunting habitat in addition to improvements that will enhance our winter cross country skiing.Thanks to the following for help with summer trail maintenance/improvement:

• Rusk County Forestry - major culvert planning, provision of the culvert, tree clearing in anticipation of mowing, mowing of the Westside trails and portions of the Eastside trails, and provision of grass seed.
• DNR (Ladysmith Center) - planning and dozing of multiple trail segments to enhance erosion control, dozing for insertion of the culvert, guidance with placement of the culvert silt fence, and rescue operation of the immobilized skidsteer mower.
• Blue Hills Trail Assn Inc. - $300 fee for DNR culvert permit, gas for mowing operations.
• Rands Trucking (Ladysmith) - two rolls of silt fence (donated).
• BHTA members Frank Lowry, Jan Paulsen and Tom Paulsen (bridge repair); Tom Paulsen and Jonathan Stanley (trail inspection); John Carr, Tom Paulsen, Jerry Schneider (install silt fence around new culvert and spread grass seed); Dan Bale and Tom Paulsen (spread grass seed); John Ziemer (donated use of his ATV); Dan Bale (use of his truck); Steve P and Tom Paulsen (mowing); Steve P and Jerry Schneider (clearing of the Westside Trails); Dan Bartels (mowing).
• Ladysmith Driftbusters Snowmobile Club member Tom Haasl - instructions in use of the WRA skidsteer mower.

We were able to enjoy a few more hours of  fun skiing in the Blue Hills this morning. The weather forecast suggests we are done grooming for the winter of 2011-12.Here's a bit of a recap:

1. We started grooming on December 4th, & have skied in the Hills regularly since then (a total of 98 days on groomed snow).
2. We groomed a total of 39 times.
3. December was dry, allowing only 5 opportunities to groom - but we kept skiing on our rock skis.
4. January snowfall picked up, groomers worked on 17 days that month.
5. February was drier again, requiring 11 days of grooming.
6. March produced our only decent snowstorm - & another 6 days of grooming.

We owe a big thank you to our groomers. Equipment break downs and mechanical problems were handled efficiently & never compromised the grooming. Thank you to Dan Bartels, Steve Gest, & Jesse Wimer for capturing every available snowflake & saving the winter of 2011-12! It certainly was an unusual winter (warm & dry). Fortunately, we were lucky to receive just enough snow to enjoy fun conditions for most of 3 months. Welcoming the many happy skiers that traveled to find snow in the Blue Hills was very rewarding.

‍Recent comments from the logbook in the warming house

• 3/8: Great ski today all alone!  Thanks to the groomers for all the great work this winter.  Hate to see it end. --Ladysmith, WI
• 3/9: Awesome! --author's location unknown
• 3/10: Got going 7:30 a.m. when "the window" was still closed & locked.  Thanks to yesterday's grooming (by Dan the man) we threw the window open 'til it started to get slow ~9:30.  What fun! --Ladysmith, WI
• 3/10: Another fabulous year in the Hills.  Thank you to the crew! --Barron, WI
• 3/10: Great spring skiing.  Thanks. --Minneapolis, MN
• 3/11: Great hike thru woods.  Stayed off trails.  This is what makes real outdoors men & women. --author's location unknown
• 3/13: Just checkin' out old playground. --author's location unknown
• 3/13: I was able to ski out the 'gravel road' about 2.5 km, crossing two short bare sections. to a wide melted out area then returned. --Ladysmith, WI
• 3/23: Snow completely gone - can you believe it! --Rice Lake, WI

True wintry conditions were enjoyed by a surprising number of skiers Monday morning (March 5th) - & again Tuesday morning.  Obviously these skiers have been watching their calendar and the weather reports.  Cross country skiing of this quality has been sorely lacking this winter.  If you missed out, take a look at a video submitted by a Tuesday morning skier (turn the volume way down if you find southerly breezes disturbing).‍

Recent comments from the logbook in the warming house

• 3/4: Mankind speaks & I long for the whispering silence of the forest; the forest speaks & I forget the clamoring voices of mankind. --author's location unknown
• 3/4: XC skiing for us is one of the most glorious parts of living in northern Wisconsin. Thanks so much to the Blue Hills Bunch for saving winter 2011-12. --author's location unknown
• 3/4: The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe - Through the Wardrobe into the Winter Magic of the Blue Hills beautifully groomed. --author's location unknown
• 3/5: Monday morning & there were at least 5 cars in the parking lot when we arrived! The conditions were fabulous!! Thank you groomers! --Ladysmith, WI
• 3/5: It was all worth the long wait this snowless winter just to ski on the trail today! Thanks to the groomers & Mother Nature. --Eau Claire & Ladysmith, WI

Local groundhog Blue Hills Bill didn't see his shadow this morning. "You call this winter?"

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Blue Hills Bill spent the past six weeks,

Sunbathing beneath a big tree;

It's been too warm to call this a winter,

And Bill has some advice for thee:

"Do not hesitate,

go ski the Hills now,

'Cause my shadow

I could not see;

Enjoy those trails

while they're covered with snow,

This winter has

perplexed even me!"

Two things to report

1. Thanks to John Kann (Rice Lake) for his enthusiasm and hard work laying out and clearing a snowshoe trail as part of the Blue Hills Trail system. The trail starts just behind the warming house, and heads north through the tall pines. It then loops to the east before returning to the warming house via a different route. The trail is well marked. Once you've used this trail, feedback is welcome.
2. It looks like a brown Christmas in Ladysmith. However, despite the warm weather and rain during the past week, there is still enough snow in the Hills to provide a semblance of cross country skiing. 1/2" of granular snow sits on top of the base; the base is thin but adequate; and where groomed on December 5th, the base is quite solid. Skate skiing was OK on the grassy trails today, and actually quite good on the gravel road (1-22-33-21-29). Based on my experience today, I think most of the trail system can be skied if you use rock skis, and exercise extra care on downhills. I'd avoid the back loops on the Eastside until we have more snow. If in doubt on downhills, remove your skis and walk down the side of the trail. Check out the photos to get a better idea of current conditions.

Great fall hiking is available right now. 20+ miles of trails carefully maintained by our many volunteers.

Many thanks to the crew that turned out for the annual work day on October 15th.  On that day - and on many days in the past few weeks - volunteers have liberated most of the trail system from encroaching branches, briers, and rocks; bridges have been reinforced; creeks have become more passable; & the warming house received a good dusting.

The entire system of Westside trails was cleared on November 7th (a huge thank you to Dick P, Steve G, and Tom P). All of the remaining downed trees on the Eastside were cleared on November 8th (major thanks to Jerry W and John Z).

Earlier this summer, one of our major challenges was repair of our most important bridge. It's on the East Side of the trail system, and allows multiple trails to interconnect with the East Side Core Loop.

The following pictures are from spring/summer/fall 2011 on the Blue Hills Trail.