Lake Vermilion Area Trail Report – January 15, 2025

By Brad Dekkers, Assistant Area Supervisor, Parks and Trails, Department of Natural Resources

With the new snow we got this past weekend, we have been able to get groomer equipment out on the our trail system in most places and get an initial groom in. Where the trails go through swamps and exposed areas, they are showing grass and ground after the first grooming pass. But overall trail conditions are much better than they were before grooming.

We will be grooming as much of the Arrowhead and Taconite State Trails as possible before this coming weekend. As mentioned in previous trail reports, the two segments of the Taconite from Big Aspen to Pfeiffer Lake and from the Blackbear trail to the junction with the Arrowhead are rough and have areas of shelf ice. These two segments may remain ungroomed until we get more snow, but stay tuned for further updates over the next couple days.

The Putnam-Fishing Lakes Trail and Lake Vermilion Soudan Underground Mine State Park trails remain ungroomed. Stay tuned for further updates over the next couple days.

We still need more snow throughout our trail system, especially in the swamps and beaver ponds. Use caution especially when riding through these areas,  as we are still finding shelf ice and even open water in places. Watch for hummocks and stumps in swamps and ponds.

There is active logging in a number of locations throughout the Grant-in-Aid and State Trail system. In those areas, slow down and give trucks and logging equipment space.

Trail conditions will be changing quite a bit over the next few days, so continue to monitor trail conditions online at https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/snow_depth/index.html