I let myself be influenced by Ken's report from yesterday and covered many of the same trails and found similar conditions. My route was:
P17 => #53 => #51 => P19 => #50 => #55 classic => #55 blue => #55 shared
=> Renaud => #54 green => Lusk => #54 green => #55 => #50 => P19
=> #51 => #53 P17
With the exception of 51 & 53 all the trails skied were newly trackset - firm and fast with a good powder surface for control and climbing. 51 & 53 were hard and glazed and choppy out of the track - on the hills they were so hard that it was difficult to set an edge for control on the downhills or to set the grip wax on the climbs. Ken wanted to assign more stars than allowed - I've taken two stars away from the score I assigned to 50, 54. & 55 and assigned to them to the score for 51 & 53 giving an average of five. The tracks on 51 & 53 were still good and delightfully fast - it's just that, with the choppiness and glaze, they would be a challenge for many of the P17 community who prefer a softer and easier ski.

There's an interesting phenomenon on Taylor Lake and Lac Renaud. I believe they're called "snow rollers" - anyway they're rolls of of snow that are created and built-up by the wind as it pushes them across the surface of the lake. The ice of both lakes is scattered with them - they look like the work of elves. Regrettably I decided not to bring my camera with me so I couldn't get a picture of them.

On the positive side of Demsis they did a great job of maintaining the quality of the recreational trails, over the weekend, in addition to the great effort required to groom the trails for the loppet. On the negative side I met the "Brown Lake Express" again on #51: this is the snowmobile, pulling a maintenance sled, that uses 51, 53, & 52 to deliver water and propane to Brown Cabin - all the other contractors were able to use Brown Lake to deliver water to Brown Lake - when there's an alternative there's no need to use narrow classic trails.