Trails still in good shape

While a little more snow would certainly help the situation, most local trails are still in decent shape for weekend recreation.

“It’s been good skiing,” said Tom Seggerman of Tsalteshi Ski Trails behind Skyview High School.

Seggerman said everything was groomed on Tuesday, and that the tracks set have held up nicely.

“The trails have been staying in pretty good shape,” he said.

Seggerman said there is a small, one-kilometer sprint race at Tsalteshi Trail on Saturday, but shouldn’t take much time to complete, so all trails will be open to the public for the weekend.

Dave Kenagy, groomer at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, said the trails there were also quite do-able.

“A little snow would be nice, but it’s not bad. We had a lot of people on them skiing last weekend and earlier in the week,” he said.

Kenagy said a prior commitment would likely prevent him from grooming Thursday, but he would likely do some trail work today.

“I’ll try to do some renovating, including the (Headquarters) Lake, so with the low temperatures, it should be decent this weekend. Not too icy,” he said.

At the Kenai Golf Course, trail groomers are finding their work challenging, according to Bob Frates, the city’s Parks and Recreation Director.

“It’s kind of spring-like conditions here. We’ve got some spots without much snow and other areas with patchy ice, but we’re going to try and stay on top of it,” he said.

As it has been the past few weeks, the trails on the west side of the course will remain closed to skiing until more snow falls, but the trails on the east side will continue to be tended to.

“We’ll try to work them into shape for this weekend,” Frates said.

To the north, Dale Bakk, groomer for the Nikiski Community Trails, reported that conditions out his way are almost identical to last week.

“The school trails are more skiable (than the Nikiski Pool trails), but they’re still real hard and borderline icy. You’ll have to be able to handle slick tracks to skate them,” he said.

Bakk said since there hasn’t been any new snow, he hasn’t done much work on the pool trails, but on Thursday said “I might soften them up today and see if I can make them more skiable, but hopefully we’ll get more snow soon.”

While low elevation trails may be marginal, the high country trails are still outstanding, said Howard Davis of the Caribou Hills Cabin Hoppers.

“With the exception of Clam Gulch, the trails are fantastic right now. The snow up top has firmed up to where you can go anywhere now,” he said.

Snow in the high country had been deep in recent weeks, but until recently it was too fluffy to leave the groomed trails without risk of getting stuck.

However, some moderate rainfall late last week and earlier this week, followed by another inch or two of snow, really tightened things up, Davis said.

Davis said if the trail conditions remain they way they are, next weekend’s Napa Fun Run through the hills, should be fast and fun.

“That’s usually a big run for us, and people can go ahead and register for it at any Napa store,” he said.