A word to Jo-Ann: the world has deteriorated a bit from the paradise she described in her last report; however, around Taylor Lake things are still pretty good.

My classic tour was:
P17 => #53 => #51 => P19 => #50 => #55 shared => #56 => #55 blue =>
=> #55 classic => #50 => P19 => #51 => #53 => P17.
It was a good day for classic with good tracksetting everywhere: under trees the tracks tended to be on the icy side; in the open there was a layer of powder in the tracks. Regardless, the thaw has hardened the trails from the delightful powder of last week.

#56 is no longer the backcountry delight described by Ken and Jo-Ann - the track is a hard uneven compromise between skiers and snowshoers with about 1 cm. of new snow on top - off-track there’s about 20 cm. of heavy powder under a light crust. The track would be doable but wouldn’t have the feel of following ski tracks. It would be possible to make your own track in the crusted snow without going too deep; however, the downhills would be a challenge - it’s unlikely you would be doing telemarks.

The downhill on #55 blue is certainly doable but a touch of caution is in order since it’s on the icy side and there’s some debris on it.

I had a very enjoyable day on classic but probably skating would have been a better option for today - the skating track on #50 and #55 looked quite good.