27Apr 2025 by Neyman, Jenny

Spring trails report

Trail conditions as of April 26, 2025: Welcome to the weird world of weather! We were still skiing at the end of April last year. This year? The trees are budding, the ground is rapidly thawing and a pair of mallards have claimed the pond off Coyote. It won’t be long before the trails are ready for summer! Some trails are drying faster than others. Here’s a rundown of what to expect if you head to Tsalteshi: Singletrack trails are closed. Our STX maintenance crew is heading out Monday to evaluate conditions. They’ll likely open in a week or two. All main trails are open to foot traffic, fat-tire bikes and dogs. Please avoid obviously wet spots to not leave ruts or holes. Find trail maps on our website. Or…

08Mar 2025 by Neyman, Jenny

Winter Rules suspended

Maintenance/grooming

Like it or not, spring has apparently sprung. We're unable to groom and there is no appreciable snow in the forecast, so we're calling a wrap on the winter that largely wasn't. As of today, Winter Rules are suspended. That means the ski trails from the Skyview and Wolverine (K-Beach) Trailheads are open to foot traffic, bikes and dogs. Be warned: The trails are icy! On the bright side, conditions are firm enough to be great for walking, running and biking without much sloshing in slush or mud. But shoe and tire traction is recommended. Mud and breakup sinkholes are starting to appear but so far are easily avoidable. Share the trails! Always assume a moose could be around the next bend. The neighborhood caribou are still making occasional appearances.…

18Oct 2024 by Neyman, Jenny

Tsalteshi opens new maintenance building

Maintenance/grooming, TTA Board of Directors, Uncategorized

[caption id="attachment_4681" align="alignright" width="241"] Ricky Gease, director of the Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, talks about the importance of outdoor recreation as a driver of Alaska's economy.[/caption] Tsalteshi Trails Association is thrilled to welcome the newest member of the TTA family — Hetl Qenq'a, which means "Sled House" in Dena'ina. The new 36-by-60-foot maintenance and storage building replaces our 20-year-old, 16-by-24-foot snowmachine shed. The shed could barely fit TTA's active snowmachines, had no space to work on machines and couldn't fit any of our other equipment. The new building has dry, heated and secure storage for all our equipment, plus room to grow. It will increase the lifespan of our grooming machines — and likely our groomers. This is the first time in Tsalteshi's 30-plus-year history that we'll…

10Sep 2024 by Neyman, Jenny

Tsalteshi open house

Events, Maintenance/grooming, TTA Board of Directors

Tsalteshi Trails Association has an open house for its new maintenance building from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 12 behind the pool entrance at Skyview Middle School. It's free and open to the public, with food, music, tours of the building and information about what's new with Tsalteshi Trails. For more information, email info@tsalteshi.org or call 907-394-6397.

20Aug 2024 by Neyman, Jenny

New weather station

Maintenance/grooming

Thanks to grant support from the Rasmuson Foundation, Tsalteshi now has weather reports from the trails! Scroll to the bottom of www.tsalteshi.org and you'll see real-time conditions from the Skyview Trailhead. As we move into winter, we'll use these readings for the temperature cutoff for our youth ski program. No more calling the time and temperature number! No more trying to translate weather readings from the airport! Find out exactly what's happening on the trails.

28Oct 2023 by Neyman, Jenny

Help stop bike trails modifications

Maintenance/grooming, Safety

We need your help! We’re seeing a steep increase in unauthorized trail modifications lately — people putting in shortcuts, jumps and extra features — primarily off our singletrack trails. We get that our trails might seem a little bland for riders looking for a spicier experience. But this is not the way to get more challenging features at Tsalteshi. All trail construction has to go through a design process that includes safety, layout with other trails, sustainability (erosion control and ongoing maintenance) and approval by our board, insurance underwriters and our landlord, the Kenai Peninsula Borough. Renegade trail mods have been a problem throughout the history of the trails but it’s getting really out of hand lately — people doing dirt work, using saws, building structures, etc. We remove them…

05Oct 2023 by Neyman, Jenny

Survey says…

Documents, Events, General, Maintenance/grooming, Tsalteshi Ski Trails, TTA Board of Directors

TTA survey spring 2023 Thank you to everyone who completed our trail user survey this spring. You gave our Board of Directors a lot to discuss. The survey provides important information about our users, what you value about the trails, areas we could do better and what you’d like to see in the years ahead. We are factoring your responses into our current operations, programming, priorities and areas of growth in the future. In reviewing survey results, several themes emerged: Projects We’re with you — we would love to do ALL THE THINGS!!! As a nonprofit organization, Tsalteshi must seek grants and raise our own funds for any developments we pursue. And we have to balance long-term sustainability with desired improvements. The last thing we want is to spend too…

30Aug 2022 by Neyman, Jenny

Maintenance building

Maintenance/grooming

What’s going on above the tennis courts?!? Tsalteshi is breaking ground on a long-time dream come true — a maintenance building that can hold all our equipment! If you’ve ever seen the groomers have to precision park the snowmachines to fit them in the existing shed or watched them move two just to get to one in the middle, you know why this is so needed. Thanks to a Recreational Trails Program grant through Alaska State Parks and local support, we’re constructing a 36-by-60-foot building that will provide secure, weatherized storage for all our machinery. No more having to leave equipment outside! No more having to tow off machines for minor repairs! No more having to juggle equipment between a shed, a Connex and a lean-to! The project will include…