• Return to Main Page: MinnSki (Nordic Skiing in MInnesota)

Ever noticed how imprecise the ski trail maps are? While we all appreciate the organizations which create these maps, the serious skier (racer) needs to know exact distances and elevations for determining workouts. Thus, MinnSki provides this Garmin Ski Trail Distance Portal. 

A few comments …

• It would take your host, the NorthstarNerd, a long time to ski and measure all the trails in Minnesota and its neighboring regions.
  .
• Garmin Trail Reports are welcome! Please email Rich Hoeg. I will need the exact distance in kilometers, and a link to a trail map or detailed description which describes your ski route. Currently measured trails are listed near the bottom of this page.

See my blog post that compares the difficulty of various ski trails including the City of the Lakes Loppet, the Mora Vasaloppet and the American Birkebeiner trails by measuring Garmin data for feet climbed per kilometer.

Use MinnSki’s search engine to learn more about any of these trails

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Garmin Foreruner SportTracks Tutorial and Data

• View MinnSki Garmin Forerunner Tutorial: YouTube | AVI Format
• Download and view source file (highest resolution)
  
• Note: SportsTrack software is available w/o charge (more tutorials)

Sample Brule River Workout Image (click to view full sized)

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Garmin Measured Ski Trail Distances

Outstate Minnesota

• Boulder Lake (11.30 km: route | garmin)
• Lester Amity (8.01 km: route | garmin)(photos)
• Korkki Nordic (9.47 km: route / garmin)
• Suomi Hills | Marcell | Northstar Lake Loop (14.53 km)(photos)

Twin Cities Metro

Cleary Lake: trail map

• Ironwood Loop with Bypass (6.04 km)(Alan Bain) 
• Lakeside Loop (4.32 km)(Alan Bain)

Eagle Lake: trail map

• Pike Lake Trail (2.59 km)

Elm Creek: trail map

• Classic + Mud (9.52)
  
• Valley Trail + Northern Lights (5.00 km)
  
• Valley Trail (2.62 km)

French Park: trail map

• Lagoon (1.80 km)
• Meadow + Skyline (5.13 km)
• Meadow + Skyline + Lagoon (7.11 km)
• Skyline (3.94 km)

Murphy Hanrehan: trail map

• Knob (3.02 km)(Alan Bain)
• Kettle (6.00 km)(Alan Bain)

Upper Peninsula

• Trail Report #1

Wisconsin

Brule River: trail map

• After Hours Ski Trails (13.82 km)
• After Hours Ski Trails (18.00 km)(add #2 to #1 for 18 km)

See my blog post that compares the difficulty of various ski trails including the City of the Lakes Loppet, the Mora Vasaloppet and the American Birkebeiner trails by measuring Garmin data for feet climbed per kilometer.
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SportTracks Data: (often multiple laps)

• After Hours Trails (Maple+Oak+White Pine+River+Loop)
• Birkie Tour: One | Two (Cable to Hayward)
• Boulder Lake (south loop)
• Eagle Lake (Pike)
• Elm Creek (Classic+Mud)
• Elm Creek (Valley)
• Elm Creek (Valley+Northern)
• French Park (Meadow+Skyline)
• French Park (Meadow+Skyline+Lagoon)
• Lester Amity (outer loop)
• Suomi Hills (Suomi Hills + Northstar Lake)

MinnSki is a proud paying supporter of SkinnySki.Com

Remember, link to the main MinnSki page to access other cross-country skiing resources such as MinSki’s LinkedIn Group, Twitter List, and Custom Google Nordic Skiing Search engine.

• Return to Main Page: MinnSki (Nordic Skiing in MInnesota)

MinnSki has created a custom Google Search Engine. By design, this index does NOT include manufacturers and ski shops. Our focus is the non commercial side of Nordic Skiing (cross-country skiing) with a primary focus upon Minnesota and its neighboring regions. However, recognizing the contribution that local ski shops make to Nordic Skiing in Minnesota, they are linked later on this page.

If you have suggested additions for this search engine, email the NorthstarNerd!

Here are links to the 61 sites presently indexed:

Magazines

• Cross-Country Skier
• Master Cross-Country Skier

Organizations & Clubs:

• 4H-CANSKI (Bayfield / Ashland area)
• Brule X-C Club
• Central Cross-Country Ski Association
• Duluth Cross-Country Ski Club
• Ely Nordic Ski Club
• KAXE Ski Talk (Grand Rapids)
• Minneapolis Ski Club
• Minnesota Nordic Association
• Minnesota Youth Ski League
• National Cross-Country Ski Education Foundation
• North Star Ski Touring Club
• Prairie’s Edge Nordic Ski Club (Fargo / Moorhead)
• Wisconsin Nordic
• Wolverine Nordic (Ironwood)
• WAMXC.Org (Woman and Men who XC)

Portals:

• Cross-Country Skiing: Northwest Wisconsin
• SkinnySki.Com
• Ski Post
• Silent Sports (only the x-ski part of the site is indexed)
• Twin Cities XC Commentary (one skier, a wealth of information!)
• Wood N Skis (x-ski heritage & history)
• XC Ski Forum

Racing: Minnesota Skinny Ski Series

• Boulder Lake
• City of the Lakes Loppet
• Minnesota Finlandia
• Mora Vasaloppet
• Nordic Sprint
• Pepsi Challenge
• Twin Cities Championships

Racing: Other

• American Birkebeiner
• FasterSkier.Com
• River View Loppet (Brule)
• Seeley Hills Classic (Hayward area)

Ski Trails: Minnesota

• Bemidji Ski Trails
• Boulder Lake Management Area (north of Duluth)
• Duluth Ski and NorthShore Trails
  
• Gunflint Trail
• Minnesota DNR Cross-Country Skiing
• Minnesota DNR Snow Depths
• North Shore Trails (Lake Superior)
• Pincushion Mountain Trails (Grand Marais)
• Snowflake Nordic (Duluth)
• Spirit Mountain Nordic Ski Center (Duluth)
• Sugarbush (Tofte)

Three Rivers Park (Twin Cities)

• Baker Park
• Bryant Lake
• Carver Park
• Cleary Lake
• Crow-Hassan
• Eagle Lake
• Elm Creek
• French Park
• Hyland Lake
• Lake Rebecca
• Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve

Ski Trails: Upper Peninsula

• ABR (Ironwood)
• Noquemanon Trails (Marquette)

Ski Trails: Wisconsin

• Blue Hills Trails (NW Wisconsin)
• Friends of Lake Superior Nordic (Bayfield / Ashland area)
• Levis Mound Ski Trails (Black River Falls)
• Northwest Wisconsin

Ski Trails: Other

• Thunder Bay Nordic Trails

MinnSki is a proud paying supporter of SkinnySki.Com

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The next section of this page links Minnesota commercial ski shops and services. While not part of search engine, they are a valuable part of our community.

• ABR Ski Shop | Ironwood
• Continental Ski Shop | Duluth
• CyclovaXC | Twin Cities (Nordic Ski Portal)
• Devils Track Nordic Ski Shop | Grand Marais
• Finn Sisu | Twin Cities
• Gear West | Twin Cities
• Hoiggards | Twin Cities
• New Moon Ski Shop | Hayward
• Pioneer Midwest | Twin Cities
• Revolution Cycle and Ski | St. Cloud
• Ski Hut | Duluth

Welcome to MinnSki!

Cross-Country in Minnesota (and nearby)

> Garmin Measured Ski Trail Distances

> Google X-Ski Search Engine (also browse sites)

> MinnSki LinkedIn Group

> SkiCam Man (a unique perspective!)

> Ski Trail Difficulty Ratings (Garmin data)

> And more!

> Nordic Skiing Blog Posts

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You may have noticed that MinnSki is a sub-site of NorthstarNerd.Org.

NorthstarNerd.Org is dedicated to open access sharing of knowledge at no cost to the user. You will never find an advertisement on this site. Should you ever get lost on this site, use the Nordic Skiing link in the top menu bar to return to MinnSki.

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A few past blog posts related to Nordic Skiing (view all via the Northern Life Category):

• Wabos Loppet Photos (Lake Superior wilderness ski train)
  
• 2012 American Birkebeiner GoPro Photos
  
• Nordic Skiing Through America’s Northern Forests
• Max, the Skiing Accordionist
• Skiing Through the Boreal Darkness
  
• Nordic Skiing Leisure (ski down a waterfall)
  
• Trail Difficulty Comparison (Birkie, City of the Lakes, Vasaloppet)
  
• Mora Vasaloppet (ski cam man photos)
  
• City of the Lakes Loppet (ski cam man photos)
• Marine O’Brien Ski Race (head cam shots of water in the air!)
  
• Twin Cities Championships (nice crash sequence)
  
• Ski Cam Man
  
• 2010 Nordic Fashion Show and Cross-Country Ski Review
  
• Project Polar Bear (ski with an expedition north to Hudson’s Bay)
  
• 2009 American Birkebeiner
  
• Lost to 6 Swedes .. Beat 11 Swedes! (one Swede was Sven: age 73!)
  
• One Armed Skier Builds Dorm in China (skiing for a cause)

and finally, the classic

• A Skier Cooks His Cast

You can link to the Nordic Skiing Category to read all the posts. I promise some new, and unique content each Winter! Stay tuned. If you have suggestions or comments, please contact your host, Rich Hoeg … the NorthStarNerd.

NorthStarNerd is a proud paying supporter of SkinnySki.Com

Early this morning (around 7 am) before church I read about DARPA's red balloon challenge. As my mind wandered during Pastor Mark's sermon (sorry!) I thought … gee … between my corporate Yammer network, and the Yammer Best Practices network … I could put together a virtual team that would reach across the USA into hundreds of large corporations and involve their techies!

Thus, when I got on my computer after church and got ready to set my plan in action. Darn! Wouldn't you know … a bunch of MIT students set a network into action and located all the ten balloons in under ten hours. I was already too late before I even started! Next week I'll pay more attention in church!

One of DARPA's goals was to see how quickly social networks could be utilized to achieve a common goal. In this instance the answer was "fast". For an interesting analysis, link on over to General Electric's Global Research Blog. They have a nice post with links which will fill you in on the competition.

The map below shows where the balloons were found (click to view full sized). Thus, as you can see the task was both difficult and a geographical challenge.