On a Saturday at dusk in the Vermillion Highlands, Tim Loesch of Rosemount is tethered to his dog, Dude, a gigantic, enthusiastic golden retriever. They've just started learning to skijor.
"It's a blast," he said. "He likes to run."
Loesch hesitates to talk about skiing the Lone Rock Trail. Right now, he's the only one out here — aside from a reporter and her skiing companion — and he rather prefers that.
"It's very peaceful," he said. "Unlike all of the other parks around, it's not developed. There's not that many places [like this]."
The 10.5-mile trail, south of UMore Park in Rosemount, is far enough out and sufficiently tucked into the rolling terrain that it's easy to feel alone. The trail winds through fields and patches of native prairie, alongside barbed-wire fences and windbreaks of pine. Cockleburs and soybeans peek out of snowdrifts. Sections of the trail zigzag down into marshes and stands of aspen, birch and pine.
Loesch likes the remote feeling of the place, and he puts in about 50 miles out here a winter. Occasionally, he said, he meets a person skiing, snowshoeing or hiking.
In contrast, that same evening, more than 1,000 people crowded into Lebanon Hills in Eagan, another Dakota County cross-country ski destination, for its annual Trails by Candlelight. The parking lots were full, and buses with fogged windows crammed with people and skis ran back and forth from a nearby church.
On the Marsh Lake beginner loop, a relatively flat trail, the chatty groups of skiers fell quiet as they headed single file into the dark woods. Glowing luminaries led the way, and through the trees, skiers could glimpse the frozen moonlit lake and the flashing red lights of other skiers. At warming bonfires, park workers served cups of hot chocolate.
