Activity

20 members of Nature Manitoba’s Grey Hares skied Petersfield – Netley Creek on Wednesday before lunch and Matlock after lunch.

Most of us found skiing on Netley Creek to be interesting, especially those of us who have paddled on it.
I was on skating skis because I had read a trail conditions report on Happy Trails’ Facebook page dated 2022-Dec-26 that said: “The trails along Netley Creek are freshly groomed. 2 classic tracks with skate ski in between.”, I saw photos of wide corduroy beside classic tracks, and the Trail Maps page on Happy Trails Ski Club’s website says: “8 kms of groomed trails that begin next to the Petersfield Hall and loops along the north and south shoreline of Netley Creek. This trail is also groomed for the Skate Skiers”. A skate ski track did not exist today. The classic track only ran along the north shore of Netley Creek. However, near the classic track, sometimes on one side of it and sometimes on the other side, was what I first thought was a snow-covered ice skating trail, but was probably a walking trail because I was able to skate ski on its entire 8K length, although I could not edge a ski in many places.

After lunch we skied the Dunnottar/Matlock trail starting from the Matlock General Store. (Thank you to the store staff for letting us use their washrooms, and for being very friendly and helpful.) We skied to the 2nd road crossing (1.75K out + 1.75K back). The tracks were good, but most of us found it to be a boring trail (straight and flat). The strong wind and very cloudy day also influenced our decision to not ski the full length of the trail.