Trails

 Trail Reports:

    Skiing

    Snowshoeing

 Skiing

 Snowshoeing

 Winter Camping

 Mushing

 Links

 Winter Events (Under Construction)

"In the incomparable splendor of long trails through the forests of the 
north, I have ridden with bears, watched the eagles soar, and glimpsed the gray 
wolf silently watching me ride." H. Erdman, Journal entry, May, 2005. 

Welcome to Backcountry Winter Trails, the winter trails, exploration, recreation and backcountry travel website sponsored by the Backcountry Trail Patrol Association of Minnesota. Our passion is to encourage recreation and exploration in the backcountry areas of in Minnesota, Wisconsin and upper Michigan on skis and snowshoes, and discover the "undiscovered season".

Detailed trail descriptions of the trails we have adopted and patrol, and land manager links are located on our "Trails" page.

Click here for detailed information on our winter trails at Sand Dunes State Forest Recreation Area, near Zimmerman, MN

Current trail conditions can be found at

     To see our latest activity schedule, check out www.trailpatrol.org 

News

Welcome to the Backcountry Trail Patrol Association's "Backcountry Winter Trails" website, and the return of "wintersnowtrails.org"!

We are hoping for another early December snow to kick off patrol operations in a big way, like in 2007. Backcountry patrollers are already working on the trails at Sand Dunes State Forest, Lake Maria State Park, Springvale County Park and Spirit River Nature Area, preparing tem for winter. Our X-C Ski Season Warm-up is already planned for the first week December, at Lake Maria State Park.

We want to remind you to get your Great Minnesota State Ski Pass at any place you can buy fishing or hunting licenses, and get out on the trails. The ski trail pass is not required for skiing at Springvale or Spirit River, or for snowshoeing, but we still encourage you to buy one, because all of the ski pass money goes towards our great x-c ski trail system.

Think Snow, and we'll see you on the trails!

   Who Are We?

The Backcountry Trail Patrol is a non-profit, volunteer trail safety, education and assistance organization that provides services to all trail users in the forests and parks of Minnesota through x-c ski and snowshoe patrol in the winter, and mountain bike patrol in the summer season. Although the Backcountry Trail Patrol is normally thought of as a mountain bike patrol, the roots of the patrol go back to 1992, when the same park rangers who would start the bike patrol three years later, were given responsibility for the volunteer ski patrol in the Anoka County Parks. The rangers and volunteers went to training with the Hennepin (now Three Rivers) Parks volunteer patrol and the National Ski Patrol at Wild River State Park, and what would become the Backcountry Trail Patrol was born. In 2000 the group started patrolling the ski trails at Lake Maria State Park and Sand Dunes State Forest. As time progressed and the patrol grew, we developed our own training programs and added training in trail care, grooming and area operations, as well as snowshoe patrol and winter camping. We also started winter safety education and outreach programs including our annual Backcountry Winter Workshop and the Junior Snow Ranger program. Since 2001, we have served as the official ski patrol at several races, including the City of Lakes Loppet Urban Ski Marathon.

This page was updated last on November 10, 2008 (c) www.wintersnowtrails.org