Gunflint Trail- The big news on the Banadad is that after twenty years of managing the Banadad Ski Trail Boundary Country Trekking has turned over the management duties to a newly formed non-profit- the Banadad Trail Association. The mission of the Association according to Karen Monsen, the association’s president, “ is to maintain and enhance the Banadad Ski Trail, preserve the history of the forest and the trail, and promote the appreciation and care of wilderness lands which the trail runs through.”

The Association has retained boundary Country Trekking as the Trail’s maintenance coordinates.

Other Trail news-two more miles of the Trail’s remote interior within the BWCA were widened this summer. In August a five-person crew from the Minnesota Conservation Corp (MCC) working out of “spike camps” along the trail spent eight days widening and clearing another two miles. According to the Trails maintenance staff, “the wilderness section MCC cleared due to it’s remoteness has been neglected you years and was about to be choked off by brush. It is now cleared six to eight feet wide and all the overhanging brush is gone. MCC did a great job!”

On the other end of the Banadad outside the BWCA, with the aid of a Minnesota DNR grant the Tall Pines Trail has finally been re-surfaced by a bulldozer. Four year’s ago the trail was hand cleared but due to the Trails rough surface grooming was impossible and skiing difficult. Finally with the bulldozing completed the rocks and ruts are gone and the Trail is groomed and ready for skiers.

Skiers traveling the BWCA’s Banadad Ski Trail this winter will be greeted midway along the trail by greatly improved overnight accommodates. A new twenty-foot yurt was erected earlier this fall at Bedew Lake. Olga’s Yurt as this new yurt is called replaces the old Olga’s hut. The name Olga is of a mythical character created by guests staying at the yurt camp many years ago. Olga’s Yurt will serve as the main lodging at the camp with overnight accommodation for up to seven guests and house the camp’s dining facility. The older Croft yurt will provide additional lodging for another four guests.

With fourteen inches of snow on ground the groomers are out grooming the entire forty kilometers of the Banadad Trails.