Trails & Grooming News
Our 5-year Plan for GPRA
The Club has a 5-year plan for developing the Nordic trails and facilities at GPRA. See what we are thinking at https://matsuski.org/gpra-project-roadmap/ click on “read more” for a link.
Thanks for your Help!
Big thanks to the crew that came out for the October 8th Volunteer Trails Day at Government Peak Recreation Area. A lot of people pitched in to do a lot of fun work. Digging post holes! Every item on the day’s to-do list got checked off. Good job volunteers! Thanks to the Alaska Nordic Racing gang! Trail sides on the Pioneer Loop and Mt Streams Access were brushed. Denali Loop culvert smoothers moved a bunch of dirt in buckets! Rock patrols circled the Pioneer Loop and Terrain Park. Our stadium stuff was carried from one place to a different place! Our stylish cedar portable fencing was repaired. Twenty-two post holes were dug and had posts for permanent fencing installed.
We have some work left before the snow flies and sticks. One project is finishing the lighting redesign. Electricians will trench and install wiring to the relocated light posts in the stadium. After that we will need volunteers to rehab the surface. The other project, still waiting on engineering permits, is the construction of a timing station on top of our new Stadium Seacan. We expect to do this with mostly volunteer help, so stay tuned you volunteer carpenters.
Grooming ends for the season!
The 18th of May was the last day of corduroy for the Mat-Su Ski Club’s grooming season. It stopped freezing at night this week and the snow is too soft to groom at Independence now.
Thanks to all the groomers, trail-rakers, tree-clearers, and others who made the trails so much fun for so many this winter.
Tentative Grooming Plans May 13-17
Member Appreciation Day May 15th
Bring your appetite for adventure, hotdogs and information! Join us on May 15th at 1:00 pm at GPRA for a guided hike along the planned Pioneer Loop expansion. This approximately 5-7K tour will be led by Board members and will depart the parking lot at 1pm. We will return around 3:00pm and will stop by the stadium area to share the vision for improvement. For the hike, plan on mucky terrain, walking off trail and a friendly neighborhood mosquito or two. After the hike we hope you will stay for some grilled hotdogs, a cool beverage and tasty treats. If you are one of our many Donors, please join us for this event! We can’t do it without you! We appreciate you and want to meet you. Please stop by for your donor gifts.
Tentative Grooming Plans May 6-10
Tentative Grooming Plans May 1 to 6
Hatcher Pass: road open. Crust skiing is on. Archangel Road: will groom Friday night if possible. Independence: our PB is down for repairs, we are looking at the possibility of grooming Independence without it. GPRA: grooming over for season, lots of bare spots and water, basically its over. Moose Range: pretty much over.
Tentative grooming plans April 27th to May 1
Archangel Road will be groomed very early AM on Thursday, Saturday, and maybe Sunday. GPRA – we are guessing grooming is done for the season. Independence we will see….
Tentative Grooming Plans for April 23 to 29
GPRA: Tentative grooming early AM on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. If it gets cold enough overnight.
Archangel Rd: No grooming until DOT opens road past Skeetawk. MSSC will groom when the road opens. Snow depth maybe 5 feet.
Independence: will evaluate when road opens.
Moose range: trails still snow covered, grooming is over, overnight freezing diminishing.
Tentative Grooming Plans for April 16 to 22
GPRA: Tentative grooming schedule: Early AM Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
Archangel Rd: DOT plans to clear avalanche debris off the Hatcher Pass Rd next week. The road will be closed just past Skeetawk until the work is done. We will assess and groom Archangel after the road opens. Five feet of snow still.
Independence Mine: No grooming, road still closed. Over six feet of snow still.
Moose Range: Last groomed Wednesday 13 April. The grooming season for the Moose Range may be over, still hard trails in the morning, bare spots and water appearing.