If Paul wants to do the Wakefield triangle that’s OK for him - but, for me, it was more of an easy gliding day to do the #55 loop around Taylor Lake. I needed an easy, classic “classic-day” as a change of pace from a week of skating.
My route was: P17 => #53 => #51 => P19 => #50 => #55 (counter-clockwise) => #50 => P19
=> #51 => #53 => P17

As Paul noted it was beautiful out there. The new snow was wet and stuck to the trees - the experience going through areas of snow-covered evergreens was special.

The new snow could be slow and had that “real” texture treasured by “real” skiers; however, in places it was also fast, Under overhanging trees the snow didn’t hit the trail so the fast granular track was still there; in the areas touched by the sun the tracks developed a glaze. Going down hills going from slow to fast and back was wonderful balance training. With a bit of frost in the snow overnight the classic trails should turn into an experience-not-to-be-missed.

Track-setting was ideal everywhere. I must have missed Paul by about five minutes since I passed the tracksetter just past the 50/55 intersection so, unlike Paul, I didn’t get the benefit of the new tracks.

One comment on the tracksetting. In all the years that I’ve been doing #55 the blue section has been a misery. Even in good snow years there was gravel, rocks, and open springs showing. Today it was in great shape - even the open spring had been expertly covered. Thanks to André and the tracksetting team for a great job on a problem trail.