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Warming shelter on the Zillmer Trails ready for snow and skiers

Posted by Tom Held on Jan. 12, 2012

Nordic Skiing, trails

If the snow arrives as forecast, skiers will have their first opportunity to check out the new warming shelter on the Zillmer Trails in the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest.

The building sided with white pine is a fitting memorial to Mike Krueger, who made the Northern Kettle Moraine his home and treated it as such. He volunteered for 16 of the 18 years that the Friends of the Northern Kettle Moraine hosted a candle light ski at Zillmer, and his wife, Faith, provided the initial $5,000 donation to start the building fund.

The timber for the 30-foot-by-40-foot shelter was harvested from the forest. Inside, visitors will find pine walls and a cast-iron wood stove.

Mike Healy, a Milwaukee-area biker and skier, checked out the shelter, which was officially dedicated in December.

Perhaps, the prevailing wisdom is “if you build it, the snow will come.”

That seemed a flawed cliché for much of the winter, but the forecast calls for six to eight inches of snow to fall Thursday and Friday on the Zillmer Trails south of Campbellsport.

A light dusting of snow made for some marginal skiing in the area earlier this season, but that shelter should be a much more welcoming place with deep snow leading to the door.