Huron Meadows adds snow guns, lengthens XC ski trail, opens tomorrow

Sat, Dec  7, 2013 - By Mike Muha

Huron Meadows Metropark in Brighton, Michigan, has added three additional snow guns and has lengthened and rerouted the man-made-snow trail.

Two years ago, Huron Meadows leased (and eventually bought) a snow gun for covering the cross country ski trails. This year, the park was able to obtain three additional guns to greatly increase its snow making capabilities and to provide redundancy incase a snow gun required repairs. The early cold weather a couple weeks provided the perfect opportunity for Huron Meadows to begin building a snow pile. After last week’s thaw, that snow pile is now being spread on the trail. Last year, the man-made snow and cool weather allowed groomed skiing up until Easter.

Snow guns building a pile of snow (photo from November 25)

The Blizzard Trail has been rerouted and extended. A new section of trail adds a hill to the otherwise fairly flat course and lengthens the trail from 1 kilometer to around 1 mile. The part of the trail that went onto the golf course has also been moved into the trees to get skiers out of what could sometimes be a brutal wind.

Huron Meadows will officially open for cross country skiing tomorrow, Sunday, December 7, at 9:00am. A Metroparks pass is required to enter the park and a trail fee is required to use the man-made snow trail. The trail will be groomed for skating and possibly for classic.

Huron Meadows is also the site of the Frosty Freestyle 5/15K and Krazy Classic 4/12K cross country ski races on Saturday and Sunday, January 11 and 12, 2014

First layer of snow on the cross country ski trails (photo from Friday morning). Much more snow to be layered on top and grooomed for Sunday's opening.