Twenty-one kilometers are groomed for traditional style skiing. Eight kilometers are groomed for skate-skiing. Warming Shack open daily, sunrise to sunset. Maps are posted along trails & at trailheads.: Take Hwy. 4 (aka. Rice Lake Road) north 18 miles, take Boulder Dam Road to either Blue Ox/Bear Paw (2 miles), Rolling Pin (2.3 miles) or Otter Run Trailheads (3 miles).
Skier’s Hotline (218)721-4903
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Otter Run: This relatively easy, level loop trail is the most "wild" of the groomed trails. Timber wolves frequently use the trail. Otter Run is 2.41 kilometers, and is groomed for a single track. |
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Bear Paw: This 2.73 kilometer trail is double tracked for both traditional and skate-skiing. Most skiers will not have difficulty with the gently rolling hills of Bear Paw. Blue Ox: is a skier’s paradise. This 4.67 kilometer trail is double tracked for both traditional and skate skiing. The trail meanders through a white and red pine managed forest to upland aspen with several backwater (frozen in winter) views of Boulder Lake Reservoir. The layout of the trail and rolling topography is great for working on your skiing technique. Take a break with a stop at the lakeside picnic table located on Beaver Bay Lookout. Nine Pine: If you’re looking to put some K’s under your skis, add Nine Pine to your outing. Nine Pine is 4.85 kilometers of intermediate level trail through a pine and balsam forest for the first half of the trail, and aspen regeneration as you near the shore. Hold that inside line as you bank through "The Can of Nerves" in the pines. As designed into most timber sales, Minnesota Power left a buffer along the shore where you can take a break at Nine Pine Lookout. See if you can count the nine pine - some have claimed there is more than nine. Lonesome Grouse: For those of stout legs and fresh lungs, Lonesome Grouse is calling - peep, peep, peep. Hey, if you’ve come this far on Nine Pine, you might as well do "The Grouse". It’s only 2.4 kilometers more, and you know, there’s a chance you might even happen across "Lonesome", calling for his mate - peep, peep, peep. |
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Rolling Pin/Ridge Runner/Timber Cruiser: "Old-time skiing" These trails are groomed for single track skiing. On the map, the trails amount to 2.18 kilometers, but you’ll have to cross parts of Rolling Pin and Ridge Runner twice (what a shame) to cover all three trails. Rolling Pin and Timber Cruiser feed back onto Ridge Runner. These are the most challenging trails with quick steep drops and sharp corners. Beware the little extra kick coming off the north side of Ridge Runner onto Timber Cruiser - also known as "Chiller Hill" - many a skier has been caught thinking they made the grade, but got kicked in der hínder on the way out of the big drop. Rolling Pin is a rolling pin cushion - be quick on your skis, and watch the corners. Ridge Runner is a glacial esker (sand and rock remains of a river that ran beneath the glaciers) rising thirty feet above the surrounding terrain. At the end of Ridge Runner, you have a choice, not a good choice, but a choice nonetheless: Do I take Rolling Pin, with the less-challenging but longest ride of all the Boulder Lake ski trails, or do I take "Chiller Hill", down Timber Cruiser? The large fenced-in area on Timber Cruiser is a deer exclosure area, which is a long-term scientific study demonstrating the effects of deer browsing on forest vegetation. |
