'Tis the season?

It was the first day of winter, but the season was nowhere to be seen at the Wolf Lake Multi-Purpose Trail System.

Yes, the parking lot at the growing cross-country ski destination just east of Brainerd had traces of snow. Same for the old forest road that runs through a portion of the trail system. But early Wednesday afternoon, instead of skiing groomed trails, three visitors pedaled through beds of leaves on the forest floor as temps crept well into the 30s.

Perfect winter mountain biking conditions: No snow. And no deer flies.

“This is a nasty deer fly area,” Bryan Pike, natural resources manager for the Crow Wing County Land Services Department, said of summers in the six-mile trail system.

And while Pike said the system was “developed as a ski trail first,” with the most mild and dry December in recent memory, Wolf Lake is the perfect retreat for those looking for their mountain biking fix.

The trails, a combination of old forest roads, wind rows and paths cut by the county, offer hilly to flat terrain with easy, moderate and difficult loops. There are a few fairly steep stretches that might be intimidating for some cross-country skiers, but they make for exciting runs for mountain bikers.

Still, Wolf Lake isn’t a mountain biking mecca like, say, the new trails in the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area. But again, this is a cross-country ski facility first. Still, as the CCSRA trails closed in early November, Wolf Lake is open to mountain bikers and will be until there’s enough snow to groom the ski trails.

There is a plan to allow fat-tired mountain bikes in the Sagamore Unit of the CCSRA when there’s enough snow, but that won’t happen at Wolf Lake. When the snow flies, that’s it.

So until then ...

“Mountain biking is becoming more popular. And if you’re looking for an opportunity with the mild weather to use the trails,” Pike said of the Wolf Lake trail system, which opened in 1995 but remains a bit of an unknown in the area. At least as a mountain biking destination. Pike said more and more cross-country skiers are finding Wolf Lake. And the trails also are open for hiking and horseback riding.

A draw for skiers might be that Wolf Lake isn’t a grant-in-aid trail, meaning there’s no need to purchase a ski pass. Instead, the county supports the trails through its recreation fund and timber receipts, Pike said.

Another draw for any of the users is the forest that engulfs the trails. A mixture of hardwoods and pines, Wolf Lake features towering 100-plus-year-old red and white pines. One huge, spiraling white pine in particular serves as a landmark of sorts in the trail system.

“These red and white pines are over 100 years old. They give the area a lot of character,” Pike said. “It’s like a miniature Boundary Waters.”

With mountain biking opportunities. At least until the snow flies.

BRIAN S. PETERSON may be reached at brian.peterson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5864. To follow him on Twitter, go to www.twitter.com/brian_speterson. For his blogs, go to www.brainerddispatch.com.