Monday night update

Update Dec 15: In PLPP today, grooming will be occurring on the single-track trails of Moraine, Fox Creek, and Boulton Creek. Watch for the snowmobiles and give them room. 

Castle Lookout to Baker Creek is *mostly* tracket. 

Normally we can ski straight through from Castle Lookout to Baker Creek, but the trail has about a half-kilometre gap in the middle, as Chuck’s trip reports describe. 

Regarding the gap, Chuck remarked “Not worth walking, especially in ski boots, and you would have to post hole between the road and trail.”

In the past the trail was single trackset, but I see from Chuck’s photos that it is now double trackset, at least portions of it. 

Read Chuck’s two trip reports for more details and photos:

Castle Lookout to Protection Campground

Baker Creek to Protection Campground

To enjoy the most scenic section of this trail, start at Castle Lookout. The views open up at 1.1K and continue to 3.3K. Hopefully you can do it on a sunny, blue-sky day to get the full effect of the beautiful surroundings. 

It’s a pretty easy trail except for one spot which could send you flying onto the road. The steep downhill to the road soon after you start out from Castle Lookout is too narrow to get a good snowplow going, so it’s a good idea in certain conditions to walk down. On fresh, soft snow it is quite manageable on skis. 

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Beer and Chocolates 

Christine Grotefeld submitted the following comment…

“Two of us were volunteering at Pocaterra Parking Lot on Sunday to inform people about park passes and were impressed by the support and kindness that people showed. We were even offered beer (which we did not accept) and chocolates (which we did accept) . Thanks to Ken Hewitt and others for spearheading the program to groom ski trails.”

Will Ken be overwhelmed with people asking to be volunteers?
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Another warning, this time from Steve, to NOT descend Packers. 
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Confederation golf course

Thanks to Ken Farley for this first-hand account…

“Confederation GC. If you are unable to head out of town, Confederation GC is skiable – with rock skis. The driving range is groomed for skating with four 200 M tracks. The rest of the course has man made tracks comprised of a few CM snow, bits of grass, some twigs and the odd rock. There were 6-8 others skiers out while I was there the past few days. Don’t forget your rock skis!”