The infamous Blue Hills Bill crawled out of his burrow this morning and delivered his annual prognostication to the awaiting crowd in downtown Bruce, Wisconsin.  Read on...

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Suffering delusions,

from weather confusion,

To his doctor did go

Blue Hills Bill;

‍For temperature tricks,

Doc offered a fix,

"You must swallow

this nasty big pill."

‍Shadow not missing,

Bill was heard hissing,

"Climate change means

it's time to adapt;‍

With snow in the Hills,

delay not your thrills,

Ski like crazy

'til you are tapped!"

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‍Comments from the crowd

• 2/2: I'm not wasting any time, heading to the Blue Hills right away! --Bruce, WI
• 2/2: Ski now or forever hold your skis. --Rice Lake, WI
• 2/2: Thanks for the advice, Bill.  Carpe diem! --Ladysmith, WI

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