It’s been a marginal snow year up in Birkieland. There’s been a freeze-thaw cycle which has taken what snow there has been and melted it down in to ice, canceling the Birkie Tour and leaving those of us with race plans fretting about bare ground. Trail reports have been spotty; it sounds like there’s skiing, but it’s not the great conditions we know and love.

But things are getting better. A few inches of snow fell in the last week. And yesterday, the Birkie Trail threaded the needle with no rain and a hefty dump of good, base-building snow (which may save the City of Lakes Loppet down south, too). Here’s a picture from Hayward. Temperatures today and tomorrow should stay in the low 30s (forecast model chart), so the snow will hold, and then the mercury nose-dives for the weekend.

The longer-term news is about the same. A little snow, a little cold, and some worries, but no huge warm-ups or storms. It would be nice to get a couple feet of base in the next week and add to it beyond. But that may not be in the cards this year. It might be more of a 2007-esque nip-and-tuck wait-and-see type of year. And, rest assured, we’ll bring you the best speculation we can muster.