The final race newsletter went out to all pre-registered participants late this morning. It is also linked in the Archived E-newsletter page on our site for all to read (newsletter opt outs and those that did not provide an e-mail address with registration). The highly anticipated map of the new Forestville Section is included in this information. If you are in the area and skied at the NTN Forestville trailhead in the last two days you were blessed with this information as a reward for keeping your fitness up prior to the impending warm up.
As a reminder – at this time we request your assistance in keeping this year’s race trail in race ready condition when you are in the area. Race grooming is scheduled to be completed late Thursday night and very early Friday morning and then we will leave it alone as temperatures on Friday are forecasted to be in the mid 40’s and temperatures are also expected to be above freezing all of Friday night across much of the Noquemanon trail. We are asking all to refrain from walking, skiing or biking on any race trail sections from 12:01 AM this Friday January 26 through race day Saturday January 27. This includes the NTN Forestville trails. Exceptions to this will be the Junior Noque skiers racing Friday afternoon/evening on the NTN Forestiville trails. Please pre-ski and wax test at other locations in the area to preserve the trail starting later on Thursday night – Blueberry Ridge is a great close-by option. Thank you in advance for helping us provide everyone with the best course conditions possible. Signs are scheduled to be posted near the finish line at the Tourist Park Trail head to attempt to keep walkers etc off of the trail. We will do what we can, but please note we will not be able to have anyone camp out all night to wrangle people that don’t follow directions on signs.
The Deer Lake crossing, the Basin crossing, and the lower ponds will most likely have some slush that develops on the surface of the snow due to the significant warm-up forecasted to arrive Thursday night and the wet-heavy snow that arrived early this week. That does not mean there is a lack of ice on any water crossing…in fact there is a lot of ice out there and we are not dealing with ice with no snow on top (ski bases don’t like ice without a covering of snow or something else). As mentioned grooming is planned for Thursday night/Friday morning and then our trail crew is going to leave it alone as the temperatures Friday night are not expected to drop below freezing – so, we will just have to see what happens. We, unfortunately, can only control so much, but that is a part of the Noquemanon and what makes it a rugged and wilderness ski epic. A big thank you goes out to our trail crews that have put in a lot of hours of hard work to prep these areas so they can be as good as possible. At this time, plan for some possible slush on top. Snow coverage remains excellent.
Finish line work continues today as well as some course signage work. There are so many details that go into this weekend and many, many, many volunteer hours. Thank you to all.
We are very much looking forward to a great day on Saturday – mild temps and partly sunny…these race day’s don’t come along too often. This race committee member plans to be out there on the 50K course with a smile (until I realize how out of shape I am).
More updates will be provided as we make our way to Saturday!