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Maine XC Ski Reconnoiter
We traveled to Maine recently for vacation. The first half of the trip was
essentially "unplanned and freestyle" but thankfully it turned out that we visited some of the main Maine XC Ski areas. On the way to visit an old friend we drove through the Sugarloaf/Rangely area where we did not stop, but which is well known for their XC skiing. I believe that national Masters were held in Rangely recently. We stayed the first night with John Chase, and his wife Susan Fierce. John and I were ski mates about 20 years ago when he was serious into biathlon and skied on the US team. A coincidence occurred last year as I was out on a pole hike and ran into a woman who turned out to recognize me. Turns out that she is John’s mother and happens to live in Maine just down the road from where we have some property. Anyway, that led to getting together and visiting John and Susan at their XC Ski Resort, A Fierce Chase, in Monson, Maine. Monson is about 500 miles from our home in Rosendale, but interestingly enough I can walk out my back door and hike to A Fierce Chase on trails: It is at the foot of “The Hundred Mile Wilderness” section of the Appalachian Trail (AT), and I have hiked on trails from my back yard here in Rosendale, to the AT. The 100 Mile Wilderness ends at the northern terminus of the AT, Mt. Kathadin, in Baxter State Park. John is quite the groomer, and when he took over the XC operation at Williams Lake in Rosendale, the place was in its glory. I didn’t get a great look at the trails at A Fierce Chase, but he and Sue said that they are very skiable and very enjoyable. They really know skiing, and what makes skiing fun, so I bet that I’d love to ski there. Check it out at http://www.afiercechase.com From Monson we drove east the state to Millinocket via a private forest road, and then to first Presque Isle, and then to Fort Kent. These facilities and others are operated by a non profit foundation, The Maine Winter Sports Center. See http://www.mainewsc.org/Facilities/facil_home.asp .. Their goal is to reestablish skiing as a way of life in Maine. They are an impressive group, and the facilities seem to be top notch. Presque Isle facilities are still under construction, but they will most certainly be up and running in full when they host the 2006 Jr. World Biathlon Championships. I roller skied a dedicated lighted 1 km course that accesses the biathlon range. I found the course tough, not because of long climbs or wicked down hills, but because I am out of shape and there was no long downhill to recovery. I ran into some biathletes from New York State who were getting coached through USA Biathlon and MWSC. The next day I ran into them again in Fort Kent where I skied their 1.3 km dedicated lighted roller ski loop. I really liked that loop, but still, no real recovery. Fort Kent is hosting a Biathlon World Cup this year. The MWSC seems to be at a cutting edge cutting edge. I know that last year they took a group to New Zealand to train on snow in August. We were so impressed with the opportunities they provide young skiers and all Mainers to experience XC Skiing. Clearly they have a competitive focus, and it would seem that they have as a goal to seed USA Biathlon and XC ski programs. This is a model that is probably based on the Scandinavian club system, but I am not totally sure of that. All I know is that they seem to have focus and the means and desire to move XC skiing forward. Downeast (or on the northeast shore) we checked out Cobscook State Park ( http://www.state.me.us/cgi-bin/doc/p....pl?park_id=15 ) which grooms the gentle terrain of the roads there. The setting is absolutely beautiful, and the place I am told gets and holds snow better, most of the time, than Acadia National Park ( http://www.nps.gov/acad/ ) which is a beautiful ocean side park best visited in off season, IMHO. When in Roque Bluffs, ME I roller ski the area around Roque Bluffs State Park, http://www.state.me.us/cgi-bin/doc/p....pl?park_id=23 ) and have a great 15 km out and back course that is a joy to ski owing to the views and being bathed in the negative ions of ocean air. I have always found it easy to roller ski long distances next to the ocean, and used to love doing 50 km sessions at Gay Head in Martha's Vineyard that included Lobsterville Road and the Gay Head Lighthouse Road. But that was before Roque Bluffs became our yearly summer destination. Gary Jacobson Rosendale, NY |
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Maine XC Ski Reconnoiter
Gary,
Sounds like a fun trip. One of the things that seems so amazing about the Maine Winter Sports Center is that in addition to its impressive competition programs, there is a huge grass-roots focus as well. One part of their mission is to improve the health of individuals, families, and towns in Maine through skiing, and they have done this by recruiting huge numbers of young kids, parents, and grandparents in various programs. They all center around youth skiing, but they get everyone to participate by getting adults to invest in the activity to help their kids develop. They have been wildly successful, and I hope that the model that they have created will make its way out of Maine and spread elsewhere. They have had the luck of a huge financial backer, but the concepts are pretty straightforward and can be successful across the country. They have created hundreds of new skiers in tiny rural communities where previously XC had not even been a blip on the RADAR. Eli Brown, one of the Nordic Program Directors of the MWSC was telling me the numbers of skiers they created in each city of they county they are in, and I thought he was talking about numbers for the entire state. -Nathan http://nsavage.com "Gary Jacobson" wrote in message ... We traveled to Maine recently for vacation. The first half of the trip was essentially "unplanned and freestyle" but thankfully it turned out that we visited some of the main Maine XC Ski areas. On the way to visit an old friend we drove through the Sugarloaf/Rangely area where we did not stop, but which is well known for their XC skiing. I believe that national Masters were held in Rangely recently. We stayed the first night with John Chase, and his wife Susan Fierce. John and I were ski mates about 20 years ago when he was serious into biathlon and skied on the US team. A coincidence occurred last year as I was out on a pole hike and ran into a woman who turned out to recognize me. Turns out that she is John's mother and happens to live in Maine just down the road from where we have some property. Anyway, that led to getting together and visiting John and Susan at their XC Ski Resort, A Fierce Chase, in Monson, Maine. Monson is about 500 miles from our home in Rosendale, but interestingly enough I can walk out my back door and hike to A Fierce Chase on trails: It is at the foot of "The Hundred Mile Wilderness" section of the Appalachian Trail (AT), and I have hiked on trails from my back yard here in Rosendale, to the AT. The 100 Mile Wilderness ends at the northern terminus of the AT, Mt. Kathadin, in Baxter State Park. John is quite the groomer, and when he took over the XC operation at Williams Lake in Rosendale, the place was in its glory. I didn't get a great look at the trails at A Fierce Chase, but he and Sue said that they are very skiable and very enjoyable. They really know skiing, and what makes skiing fun, so I bet that I'd love to ski there. Check it out at http://www.afiercechase.com From Monson we drove east the state to Millinocket via a private forest road, and then to first Presque Isle, and then to Fort Kent. These facilities and others are operated by a non profit foundation, The Maine Winter Sports Center. See http://www.mainewsc.org/Facilities/facil_home.asp . Their goal is to reestablish skiing as a way of life in Maine. They are an impressive group, and the facilities seem to be top notch. Presque Isle facilities are still under construction, but they will most certainly be up and running in full when they host the 2006 Jr. World Biathlon Championships. I roller skied a dedicated lighted 1 km course that accesses the biathlon range. I found the course tough, not because of long climbs or wicked down hills, but because I am out of shape and there was no long downhill to recovery. I ran into some biathletes from New York State who were getting coached through USA Biathlon and MWSC. The next day I ran into them again in Fort Kent where I skied their 1.3 km dedicated lighted roller ski loop. I really liked that loop, but still, no real recovery. Fort Kent is hosting a Biathlon World Cup this year. The MWSC seems to be at a cutting edge cutting edge. I know that last year they took a group to New Zealand to train on snow in August. We were so impressed with the opportunities they provide young skiers and all Mainers to experience XC Skiing. Clearly they have a competitive focus, and it would seem that they have as a goal to seed USA Biathlon and XC ski programs. This is a model that is probably based on the Scandinavian club system, but I am not totally sure of that. All I know is that they seem to have focus and the means and desire to move XC skiing forward. Downeast (or on the northeast shore) we checked out Cobscook State Park ( http://www.state.me.us/cgi-bin/doc/p....pl?park_id=15 ) which grooms the gentle terrain of the roads there. The setting is absolutely beautiful, and the place I am told gets and holds snow better, most of the time, than Acadia National Park ( http://www.nps.gov/acad/ ) which is a beautiful ocean side park best visited in off season, IMHO. When in Roque Bluffs, ME I roller ski the area around Roque Bluffs State Park, http://www.state.me.us/cgi-bin/doc/p....pl?park_id=23 ) and have a great 15 km out and back course that is a joy to ski owing to the views and being bathed in the negative ions of ocean air. I have always found it easy to roller ski long distances next to the ocean, and used to love doing 50 km sessions at Gay Head in Martha's Vineyard that included Lobsterville Road and the Gay Head Lighthouse Road. But that was before Roque Bluffs became our yearly summer destination. Gary Jacobson Rosendale, NY |
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