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Trail Report – : Hayward / Sawyer County, Wisconsin – December 15, 2022

Reporter:haywardlakes
Trail Conditions: Closed
Snow Cover: 0-5
Date of Report: December 15, 2022
Area Report:

While we love to see new snow, we actually are doing more of an ice dance than anything right now. This heavy snow will put an insulation on our lakes and swamps and slow down the freezing process until it gets really cold. This weekend moving into next week most days call for cold temps and that is a good thing! Many lakes did just freeze over within the last week and have much more freezing to do before staking can happen.

Many private gates don’t begin to open until at the least Dec 15th due to hunting but also do not open until trails are ready to groom so while today is the 15th most will not open yet. This reason is many of these trails lead to swamps/marshes and lakes which are not safe yet, therefore groomers won’t open them and groom them yet to not mislead riders to unsafe areas. The other trails that are on county land also will not be groomed yet as the ground needs to freeze more and this new snow needs to freeze, set up and then be packed down to create a good base that can withstand all season, at this point the snow and ground are still too soft. Also adding some groomers that have low amounts of snow in their areas will need about another 8-12” before they groom to not damage equipment.

The Chequamegon National Forest has not announced a date they will open yet but we are in contact and will update when the forestry decides to open.

While we are in the middle of December and it feels like time, we are a tad early yet and we are making good progress, slowed a bit with the heavy snow but still progressing along. We just need the cool temps! We will update again next week once the temps lower and we can see what Mother Nature has in store for us! Until then we will keep our Christmas wish for ice and Christmas riding!!