This afternoon I skated from P5 up the GP to Mica, up the CP to Mulvihill, back down the parkways to Pink Lake, then back up the GP to P5. Conditions were not perfect, but better than I had expected. The water-saturated snow left behind from Thursday's rain has been crushed into a fine ice powder in the skate lane, deep enough to provide pretty good control while skating. It squeaks a bit like styrofoam under the skis! The classic tracks were deep, very firm, and fast on the downhills. There is quite a bit of leaf/twig debris in the snow but it didn't seem to affect glide. Demsis has put in a very wide snowmobile lane outside the classic tracks on the GP. While is a good idea, providing a path to keep walkers and snowshoers off the skiway, the width seems a bit excessive (enough for about three snowmobiles running side by side!). The skate lane has been correspondingly narrowed, and as a result near Pink lake there was a lot of damage to the classic tracks from skaters.

The main problem today was the cold- my feet were freezing on the downhills! A bit of warming sun would have been nice. Overall it was a very pleasant ski, and well worth the drive.