Private Trails

Being home for a while is nice in a lot of ways, but not so good for skiing sometimes. I'm only a half an hour from school, but I'm half an hour north, which is the opposite direction we drive in for good skiing at Sleepy and Trapps. This means that the 45ish minute drive to Trapps for training turns into an hour 15 min. It's do-able, but I like to be able to actually spend time at home during break. Skiing isn't on the back-burner, but the ski, eat, sleep pattern some people get into isn't for me. I prefer the ski, eat, bowling, game night, sleep kind of day that I had yesterday.

Luckily, St. Albans has more to offer than one might expect. Within a 10 or 15 minute drive max I have three different options for training. (I have pictures that I was going to put up, but I forgot the cord for my camera, so they'll have to wait.)

The first is half a mile down the road at a family friend, Mike's house. Mike, my dad, and my brother spent a good portion of their summer cutting trails at his house a couple of years ago. The result was a solid 5k + trail system that winds its way along Mill River. The system is longer in the summer with fun, windy single track through the trees - a little narrow for skiing. While it might be a little short for a real distance ski there's a particular section of trail that I'm really fond of for a 4 - 6 minute interval. It's also fun to ski by the horses and feed them a bit on the way around the loop. (Again, I have great pictures that are stuck on my camera.)

The second hidden gem is only hidden because it's so new. Hard' ack is a rec area in St. Albans that's been open for years. In the winter there's sledding, an outdoor hockey rink, and a tow rope. Just recently my dad spearheaded the process of cutting new trails for running and skiing. This winter is the first time they've been open for skiing. Like Mike's, the trail system isn't extensive, but for something local and free it's pretty awesome. The trails are nice and wide and ski really smoothly. There's a good sized uphill, which makes for a good interval and if you wind around the trails you can get in a good length ski without feeling like you've done everything 25 times.

Downhill skiing/Snowboarding w/ tow rope to the left
Sledding hill to the right
Nordic trails extend into the trees on the right

The third trail system I'm able to use, which, like Mike's, is private property, is my old high school stomping grounds. With Hard' ack now available and closer to my high school, BFA, the team now tends to ski there more often. However, when I was at BFA we went just over St. Albans hill into Fairfield to use Dr. Dickinson's fields adjacent to his farm. (Note how ridiculously Vermont this is...using a local dentist's fields, on his farm, for nordic skiing. He also sugars. Obviously.) I can't count the number of times I've been on each individual trail. The trail system is a little bigger than the other two, extending into the woods from the three separate fields. Being over the hill, most of the time when all other areas lose snow and are looking iffy Dickinson's is able to hold on and St. A is one of the only parts of VT with actual skiing.

Pictures from my first time back home freshman year.

VT scene with Mt. Mansfield visible-ish in the background.

While it's easy to be a little jealous of people in the Burlington area during winter break (aka Adam when I read his blog...) I have to consider myself lucky. I think it's safe to say that not everyone has three (fairly) private ski areas in their backyard.