Generally gorgeous sunny weather and nicely groomed trails continue to make the Alturas and Park Creek ski areas a first class destination for cross country enthusiasts. Although mechanical difficulties have been a pain to deal with as our 2 quad tracks and a snowmobile all broke down at the same time, grooming has continued non stop with our back up gear with no real drop in quality. The Quad track is now back in service at Alturas where the oldest snowmobile in our fleet proved to be a quirky but dependable replacement. Warm weather with highs in the 50’s means that the trails have been going through a 3 bears’ soup cycle of too cold, just right, too hot. Temperatures are predicted to be falling later in week with more snow on Friday. For almost real time ski grooming reports for the Sawtooth trails you can check out the BCRD’s on line nordic pulse maps.

As you may have heard, three of our four grooming machines broke down last week in some kind of cosmic coincidence. On Friday we headed to the boneyard and resurrected the oldest snowmobile in our fleet of groomers – the old yellew Skidoo, hoping that it could once again work its magic at Alturas Lake while we wait on repairs to our newer machines. Remarkably it started right up and was able to pull the roller around all trails on the highway side of the creek. Yellow and red flashing lights on the dashboard came and went and siren alarms bleeped loudly on occasion, but it did keep on truckin’, laying down some respectable but slightly rough corduroy. On Saturday, Davinius will attempt the trail from the bridge to the lake. No classic tracks right now but real progress nonetheless. At Park Creek, Adam, our first man of grooming, is still laying down some great trails with the last running snowmobile there.

The annual Alturas Lake Soup Kitchen will take place today at its traditional site on top of the Over The Hill Trail from 11 to 3. After a successful Park Creek Event yesterday, the weather looks to be more cooperative today and the soup lineup is going to be steamingly delicious as always. Be there or be square,

PARK CREEK SKI FEST AND CHILI FEED AND POKER RUN IS ABOUT TO START. 11-2 AT THE PARK CREEK SKI AREA. DON’T MISS THIS FAB EVENT.