Banadad Ski Trails Open for Seaon

A big holiday present to those waiting to ski Northeast Minnesota’s  Banadad Ski Trails.  On December 21, trail staff finally removed the last of the brush and down trees blocking the 41 Kilometer of the Banadad Ski Trail system.  According to trail staff member, Jim Raml,  “while  we still have a bit more clean-up of some of the ice/snow cover brush over hanging the trail, at least you can get through.  The Lace Lake, Tall Pines, Knopp and 4 kilometers of the east end of the Banadad Trails are tracked.  Depending on snow condition the remainder of the Banadad  should be traced by mid next week.”

Opening of the trail this year was delayed do to a wind storm in October that drop many large trees into the trail and a November rain followed by snow that bent over the side brush into the trail.  It took trail crews considerable more time then usual to clear the down trees and side brush.

Most of the Banadad Trails are located within the BWCA and it is the BWCA longest track ski trail.  The system is centrally located along  the 200 kilometer Gunflint Nordic Trail System.  Maintenance and grooming of the Banadad System is provided by Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B .

Aw Wilderness- What Good are Wilderness Trails if they are Not Maintained?

An Op Ed article in yesterday’s New York Times by Ted Stroll, a San Jose, Californian lawyer, caught my eye.  Stroll argues in the article, “Aw Wilderness” that  “despite millions of people who have visited the country’s national parks, forests and wildernesses this summer, the Forest Service has become increasingly strict in its enforcement of the Wilderness Act. The result may be more pristine lands, but the agency’s zealous enforcement has also heightened safety risks and limited access to America’s wilderness areas.”

In the article Stroll reminds us of the death of skier in 1970 who became lost on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness’ (BWCA) Kek Trail. As a result the Forest Service put up signage to help mark the trail but then removed their signs claiming their interpretation of the Wilderness and BWCA Acts prohibited signs in the BWCA. The result as Stroll reminds us- last year two experience hikers became lost on the same trail.

However while Stroll argues they became lost do to the lack of trail signs, I believe that in this case it was not only the lack of signage along the trail but also, and perhaps more importantly, due to the Forest Services’ failure to maintain the trail. Luckily the lost hikers were located but only after an extensive and, I might add, a very expensive search operation conducted by the Forest Service and local law enforcement.

Over the years maintenance of the trails within the BWCA has been sadly neglected. The Forest Service, who is charged with the responsibility, tells you they do not have the resources to get the job done. Current Forest Service interprets of Wilderness legislation prohibit the use of any power equipment for maintenance within Wilderness areas.  I would argue that, given the limited availability of Funds it is hard to understand how the Forest Service can come up with sufficient resources if all their wilderness maintenance must be done using only non-mechanical equipment.

A case in point- most of the 21 miles Banadad Ski Trail is located within the BWCA where maintenance most be done using hand tools and travel to remote work sites must be done on foot. As a result the cost/mile to maintain most of the Banadad is about $2000/mile. This cost if power equipment were allowed would easily be cut in half and the work could be done in November when no one is using the Boundary Waters.

To me it makes more sense to allow the use power equipment for maintenance within the wilderness areas i.e., BWCA, when appropriate, and where this use would reduce the maintenance cost. If such equipment were allowed the Forest Service could reduce their maintenance cost, and provide the public with safer and more usable trails.

 

Banadad Sequesters Carbon in Tree Planting

Tree Planting along the Banadad

 
The Banadad Trail Association, friends and neighbors this spring are planting six hundred red and white pines and 100 white spruce trees in previously logged and “blow-down” areas along the eastern end of the Banadad Ski Trail and around Little Ollie Lake. Some 350 trees went into the ground over this past weekend. The remaining trees are planned to be planted during this week by local members of the Association, guests and staff at Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B. As in previous years, the tree planting is a way for the Banadad Trail Association to insure that the maintenance and grooming of the trail remains carbon neutral. Similarly Poplar Creek B&B, in joining with the Association in this project, is seeking to sequester the carbon produced by the use of its vehicles in these new tree
This weekend project was injunction with the Gunflint annual Green-Up.. The year’s event attracted some two hundred participants who in addition to the tree planting along the Banadad began clearing the underbrush, called –releasing’” around trees previously planted during the event in past years.

Storm Clearing Continues on the Banadad

Trail Alert- Portions of the Banadad Ski Trail remain closed due to the accumulating on alder brush and small trees caving them into the trail and making the trail impassable.  Crews of two to four people composed of Boundary Country Trekking's staff, members of the Banadad Trail Association and other Gunflint Trail residents have been out daily clearing the trail but the going is slow, wet and cold. It has been taking the crews four to five hours per mile to clear the brush. Thus far the Lace Lake and Tall Pines Trails are open and tracked. Twenty kilometers of the Banadad's thirty kilometers have been cleared. It is expected that the remainder of the Banadad should be cleared and re-opened by Februrary 10. Stay tuned folks!

Snow Continues on the Gunflint Trail

In the mid-Gunflint Area from the “Pines” to about Gunflint Lake winter still lingers on in the shady spot and in the woods where continues snow from one to two feet remain. Along the Banadad Ski Trail the ski conditions are still great with bare spots only in sunny open areas. Once you get much past the South Gunflint Lake Road where the Ham Lake Fire took place conditions change drastically. Here must of the snow is gone- must likely due to the lack of shad in this area’s burned over forest. Also, as it usually happens, the upper Gunflint area again this winter received a bit less snow then the mid Gunflint, which may have helped it to melt faster.

Temperature are hovering in the 30s to 40s.

Gunflint Spring Snow no April Fool Joke

April Fools Day brought 12 - 14 inches of heavy wet snow to the Gunflint Trail's Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B and along the Banadad Ski Trail. On the morning of the first with guests planning to leave for home the roads and driveways into the B&B's two rental cabins had to be cleared. Plowing began at 7:30 am and five hours later the two and half miles of roadway to the Gunflint Trail was open and the guest were able to drive-out. In departing the guest declared the snow fall was great and they would not have been disappointed had they been snow bound for another day.

Then guess what? It is still snowing- so far another 3 inches today.

The Banadad remains snowed-in. The trail groomer is expected to begin opening the Trail on Friday, after the snow has settled a bit making it easier to groom. It is anticipated that about 5 or 6 kilometers of the east end of the Banadad and the Lace Lake Trails will be tracked by this coming weekend. According to Boundary Country Trekking which maintains the trails, it is anticipated that with the addition of this snow fall the Banadad should remain ski-able well into April.

Total measure snow on the ground at Poplar Creek Guesthouse is now 32 inches.

First Skiers Through the Banadad This Winter

Gunflint Trail-With the temperature hovering above freezing, the ski conditions on the Banadad Ski Trail were not great, as Erik and Karl Hoeg became the first skier to complete the entire 31 kilometer Banadad non-stop this winter. The two boys time was about 4 hours. They both are very good skiers and they explained afterwards that had the ski conditions been better they certainly would have made the trip much faster. Their parents shuttled a car to the western end of the Banadad then skied in from the western trail head, about 7 kilometers, where they met-up-with Erik and Karl. The pair were staying at one of Poplar Creek Guesthouse’s cabin with their parents.

The Nordic Ski Season Starts on the Gunflint

The cross-country skiing season has begun along Minnesota’s famed Gunflint Trail as the snow piles up- over nine new inches of snow fell yesterday. More is expected this week. With yesterday’s snowfall, area lodge owners along the Gunflint report eighteen to twenty inches of snow now on the ground.

Beginning in the village of Grand Marais, Minnesota, on Lake Superior’s North Shore, the Gunflint Trail is a paved pathway winding 60 miles through the Superior National Forest to Saganaga Lake on the Canadian border. In winter the lodge owners cooperatively operate the 216-kilometer Gunflint Nordic Ski Trail Network. This trail network consists of three interconnected ski trail areas; the Central and Upper Gunflint Trails connected by the Banadad. Both classic and skate skiing opportunities are offered amidst an unspoiled Northwoods wilderness backdrop.

According to Bearskin Lodge and Nordic Ski Center’s Bob McCloughan, which along with Golden Eagle Lodge maintains the Central Gunflint Ski System, “the groomers are out on the trails. We expect the trails at our end of the Gunflint Nordic Ski Network to be open for great skiing by this weekend.” Those responsible for the Banadad and Upper Gunflint Ski Trails expressed similar optimism.
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Nordic Skiing is by definition an eco-friendly sport but the Gunflint area ski trail managers have taken this one step further. Last year, the Banadad Ski Trail became “carbon neutral” with the purchase of carbon credits to offset the emissions of grooming. This year, the Central and Upper Gunflint ski trail systems are adopting carbon neutral strategies. The cost to sequester the carbon released into the atmosphere from the maintenance and grooming for the Gunflint Nordic Ski Trails will be invested in planting of trees along the Gunflint Trail.

Along with their investment in the environment, lodges along the Trail catering to skiers are offering some new amenities this winter. At Bearskin Lodge, the dining room, which has been closed for a number of years, will open under the direction of noted local chef Judy Barsness of Chez Jude in Grand Marais. Bearskin is also offering dog sled rides this winter.

Skiers skiing the Banadad Ski Trail will find a new Olga’s Hut at Croft Yurt Camp and at the Trail’s eastern end the Tall Pines Trail has been extend to form a new 3.5 kilometer loop trail. Gunflint Lodge is adding a broomball rink. At Gunflint Pines a lighted ski trail is planned. While at Moosehorn Bed and Breakfast skiers will be greeted by new owners.

Winter Events- This winter Gunflint ski lodges are jointing with lodges throughout Cook County in a new winter ski event called Volk ski Festival - planned from January 31 to February 8. Later, Gunflint Trail businesses will celebrate the snowy season during the annual Winter Tracks festival February 26 to March 1.


For more information call Gunflint Skiing at 800-338-6932 or go to Gunflint Skiing.

Snow Continues on the Gunflint Trail

After three to four inches of new snow the last few days on the Gunflint Trail, Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B now has a measured eight inches of snow on the ground. More snow is predicted for Saturday and Sunday. While the Banadad Trails are yet to be tracked, local skiers have been out. It is expected tracking of the Banadad Trails should be getting underway by next week.

Packing of the Banadad Ski Trail Underway

With about four inches of snow now on the ground, the final stage of maintenance of the Banadad began yesterday. This stage is the packing, which is done by snowmobiles running back and forth along the trail to compact the snow in preparation for setting track. During this process any remaining trees and brush blocking the trail are cleared with handsaws and nippers. Usually the packing takes about of week. After that as soon as another four to six inches of snow falls tracks can be laid down and the Banadad will be opened for skiing.

Getting the Banadad Trails Ready for Skiing

According to Ted Young co-owner of Boundary Country Trekking and Banadad Trail Coordinator, “opening the 39.8 kilometers of the Banadad Ski Trail System is no easy undertaking. Twenty-seven Kilometers of the trail system are located within the BWCA where only hand tools can be used to cut the summers accumulation of brush and down trees and crews are only able to travel to the work site under their own power-by foot or canoe. The remaining portion of the trails, outside the BWCA, power equipment including mowers is allowed and when possible used. Annually some 500-600 of labor is require to open the trails for skiing each year. This year’s maintenance will be no acceptation.”

Over the pasts two weekends nine volunteers from the North Stars Ski Touring Club and thirteen volunteers from Adventure Vacations, a Twin Cities based adventure travel company logged 332 hours cutting brush and down trees along the Banadad and hand cleared the Tall Pines Trail. Prior to this volunteer effort, Boundary Country Trekking, staff had cleared and mowed the Lace Lake, and Seppala Trails outside the BWCA. Earlier this summer a group of eight youth and staff from the Minnesota Conservation Corp spent two days widening approximately 1.2 kilometers of an overgrown portion of the Banadad around Moose Kill Hill.

As a result of these efforts, to date the Lace Lake, Tall Pines and Seppala Trails and the first 1.6 Kilometers of the Banadad now only needs snow to be opened for skiing. Along the 32 kilometer Banadad, most of which is within the BWCA, crews have cleared 21 kilometers.

Minnehaha’s Academy’s High School Ski Team is scheduled to work on the trail in mid-November. They will round out this years volunteer maintenance effort. Then, as in past years, the remaining clearing of the Banadad will occure when snow arrives and the trail packing by snowmobile groomers can take place. These groomers, as they pack, will hand-cut the remaining brush in the remote interior sections of the trail, which volunteers could not reach.

Young when on to state that, “normally there is enough snow to start skiing on the Lace Lake, Tall Pines, Seppala and the eastern end of the Banadad by Thanksgiving. Packing and tracking of the full length of the Banadad is usually completed and the trail opened for skiing by mid-December.”

Volunteer for Fall BWCA Ski Trail Clearing

Join the "Banadad Beavers" for a Work Weekend clearing the summer's accumulation of brush and downed trees and bridge replacement projects along the Banadad Ski Trail. Most of the Banadad is located within the BWCA, where the use of power equipment for maintenance is prohibited. As a result, just to get the trail open for skiing each year requires some 600-650 hours of hand labor. Your help is needed!

This Fall's Trail Clearing Weekend Schedule

• October 4 – Saturday work all-day; Reduced rate lodging available through Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B.

• October 9-12 – Sponsor, Adventure Vacations, a Twin Cities based touring company- for more information contact Karen at 651-644—0333 or 866-910-0300

• October 11- Saturday work all day; Reduced rate lodging available through Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B.

• October 23-26 Sponsor, North Star Ski Touring Club for more information contact Tom Rice tjr@rhys.net.

• November 6-9 Sponsor Minnehaha Academy Ski team; also open on Saturday, November 8 to others. Work all day; Reduced rate lodging available through Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B

• November 15 - Saturday work all-day; Reduced rate lodging available Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B.

All volunteers receive special reduced lodging rates at Poplar Creek Guesthouse or at the Banadad Yurts and free parking along the Banadad Ski Trail during the 2008-09 Ski Season.

For more information view - Boundary Country Trekking or call 800-322-8327.

Following the trail clearing the east end of the Banadad is normally open for skiing with the first good snow- sometime near the end of November. However the entire Banadad and the Croft Yurt is not available until about mid-December.

Banadad Ski Trail Carbon Offset Award Announced

Seagull Lake Resident, Jim Raml was the recipient of this year’s Banadad Ski Trail Carbon Offset Award of $134.44. Raml is planting some five thousand trees on his property ravaged by last Spring’s Ham Lake Fire. The planting of his property got underway this week.

“This award,” according to Ted Young, Banadad Trail Manager, “should at least help Jim plant a small portion of the tree needed to reforest his burned over property.”

According to calculation made at the end of the ski season this year’s maintenance and snowmobile grooming of the Banadad released 1.733 tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. The CO2 was produced by five mid size cars and one large van traveling some 3900 miles with volunteers maintenance crews to and from the Twin Cities to the trail, and 995 miles of snowmobile trail grooming.

In calculating the cost of off-setting this carbon the Chicago Climate Exchange's "Forest Accumulation Tables” for the amounts of CO2 that can be sequestered/acre by age group of white and red pine surviving for a least ten years was used. This was then multiplied by the amount of CO2 the Trail produced times the number of trees planted/acre times the cost/tree. From this it was determined that in order to sequester the carbon the Banadad produced this past year 335 trees would have to be planted at cost of $.134.44.

“It should also be noted” Young went on to state “that, Raml was the driving force behind and the author of a quarter of a million dollar Scenic Byways grant application, that if approved, will provide much of the funds necessary for the Gunflint Ranger District to implement their proposed Ham Lake Fire reforestation program.”

Season's First Skiers Through the Banadad

Four members of the Haley family from Fayetteville Georgia were the first to ski the entire Banadad this ski season. Starting at the Banadad’s western trailhead on January 21 the family skied the 12 kilometers to the Croft Yurt where they spent the night. The next day the family skied the trail’s eastern end to the Tall Pine Yurt. The trail grooming was only marginal at best due limited snow conditions- but according to the Haley’s, “the trail was ski able” and they did have a great time.

Two other parties of skiers, one from Aitkin Minnesota and the other from Colorado, followed the Haley family on the trail over the past two days.

For additional information on the Banadad including current trail conditions go to Banadad.

Ham Lake Fire – Good News on the Banadad

It was known that last spring’s Ham Lake Fire had burned over a portion of the Banadad Ski Trail but it was not known how much of the forest surrounding the trail was burned. From the fire maps it appeared the fire had burned through the red pine plantation located approximately eight miles west of the eastern trail head near Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B. This plantation was planted sometime in the 1960’s following the completion of the Moon Lake Timber Sale.

When the season’s first trail crew reached the burned over area the other day they found that the fire had passed over a half mile of the trail. And sure enough the fire had burned through that red pine plantation but the good new was that about three-quarters of the red pines survived and the forest floor had been cleared of competing vegetation. Now if, and only if, the surviving red pines should just happen to produce and release seed cones in the next few year the forest floor should be clear enough to regenerate a new red pine forest.

Boundary Country Trekking on List of Top Eco-Friendly Nordic Ski Businesses in North America

The Gunflint’s Boundary Country Trekking, was one of ten cross-country ski businesses featured for their commitment to the environment at MSNBC.

The article - “Cross-Country Ski Resorts Go Green-Top Eco-active operations committed to environmental programs,” written by Roger Lohr cites Boundary Country’s plan to offsets the carbon produced on the Banadad Ski Trail. The company plans to determined the cubic tons of carbon emissions associated with the trail maintenance volunteers transportation to the site, grooming and other mechanical equipment used on the trail. . The carbon produced will then be offset by investing in the Gunflint Trails reforestation program -“Gunflint Green-up.”

Lohr also stated that, Boundary Country Trekking’s Statement of Sustainability and comprehensive Implementation Plan,“ sets the standard in the XC ski world.”

Of the ten cross-country ski businesses featured in the article two were from Minnesota. Maplelag Resort, in Callaway, was the other Minnesota business listed.

Gunflint Skiing in the News

Boundary Country Trekking’s Gunflint Lodge to Lodge Skiing program, this month, appeared in two Magazines- the November/December issue of AAA Living and the December issue of Midwest Living. In the Midwest Living article the author, Lisa Meyers McCuntick, skied from Bearskin Lodge to the Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B and then travel on to Gunflint Lodge dinning at the Tall Pines Yurt's were she had the Mongolian Firepot Dinner, Trail Center Restaurant and Gunflint's Justines in route. Also appearing in the Midwest Living Magazine was recipes from Barbara’s Kitchen at Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B and Gunflint Lodge’s Justine’s Restaurant.

Banadad Ski Trail is Going “Greener”

Boundary Country Trekking, which maintains and grooms northern Minnesota’s Banadad and Adjoining Ski Trail System announce that the Banadad is going carbon neutral beginning with the 2007-08 ski season.

According to Boundary Country Trekking’s Ted Young, “we intend to purchase carbon credits to off-set the carbon contributed to the atmosphere by our snowmobile grooming, our use of mechanized tools outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) and for the carbon added by the vehicles driven by our trail maintenance volunteers to travel to the Banadad.”

The Banadad, is a thirty-five kilometer trail network centrally located along the Gunflint Nordic Trail System. Most of the Banadad is located in the BWCA Wilderness. Within the BWCA non-motorized hand tools are used for maintenance. Some mechanized tools are used for maintenance outside the wilderness. Each fall volunteers most of who travel from the Twin Cities assist in the maintenance. Snowmobiles are used for grooming.

“Operating a carbon neutral ski trail system,” Young continued. “ is consistent with our company’s sustainable business policy and commitment to the environment.”