Has all this snow gotten you a little down?
We understand it can be difficult to navigate through the winter months, and we’re not even talking about trying to drive the narrow side streets as a large plow truck attempts to do the same. When you live in this winter wonderland we call New Hampshire, there’s no sense in trying to avoid it, because you might as well just find a nice bear family to hibernate with if that’s the case.
Instead, we encourage you to embrace the snow and all it has to offer. And the Capital Ski & Outing Club might just have the perfect thing to help turn that winter frown upside down.
“Mother Nature is being quite generous with us right now,” said club president Bill Mitchell. “Right now we have just about the perfect conditions.”
Just about every day, you can find one of the club’s trusty volunteers at Carter Hill Orchard and White Farm cruising around on a snowmobile with something dragging behind. No, it’s not someone out for a joyride, but rather a piece of equipment used to help groom the trails for cross-country skiing.
You see, the Capital Ski & Outing Club is much more than just that fairly priced ski and skate sale that takes over the Green Street Community Center each December. They also have a network of trails for you to ski on each and every day free of charge.
And when we say free, we mean you should probably leave a small donation in one of the drop boxes to help with all the trail grooming, because it’s the right thing to do.
There are more than three miles of groomed skiing trails at Carter Hill Orchard, along with just about anything you need to go on a little winter adventure.
“When the Larocque’s bought the company, they said we have a place to store your equipment,” Mitchell said.
With a variety of skis, boots and poles housed within the farm stand, someone who has never skied can go try it for a minimal charge – which is all done on the honor system. They’ve been doing it the self serve way for about 10 years, and it works. For $5, you can uses skis, boots and poles for half a day, and as you can probably guess, it’s $10 for the whole day. And the prices are even broken down if you have the boots and skis and just need poles, or any combination.
“It’s first come, first served,” Mitchell said. “You fit yourself and off you go.”
There are also a couple sleds, like the kind you can drag behind you, to rent so the little ones can get out. Just think of the extra exercise you’ll get.
The money raised won’t make the club rich anytime soon, but the hope is to offset the costs associated with maintaining the trails.
“It works well most of the time,” Mitchell said.
And the best part is that you don’t have to use them at Carter Hill. Mitchell’s fine with people taking them to other spots in the area, but you do have to bring them back in a timely manner. Remember, this is the honor system, people.
“I don’t care if people take them for multiple days as long as they bring them back,” Mitchell said.
The four-plus miles of White Farm trails, located off Clinton Street, connects with Memorial Field and state-owned property and is for a beginning skier. It’s flatter and more easy going than the varied terrain at the orchard.
“There’s always people skiing at White Farm,” said head groomer Frank Muller said. “Until there’s no snow.”
And in case you were wondering, yes, the almost 3 feet of new snow in recent weeks has created some of the best cross-country skiing conditions you’ll find. It also means Muller and Fred Symmes, who heads the Carter Hill operation, along with the other trail volunteers, have been spending a lot of time out on the snowmobiles so all of you can have perfectly groomed trails to ski.
“As far as I’m concerned, too much snow is never enough,” Symmes said.
The first step to preparing the trails is to pack it down. With the help of the wind, the packed down area will catch some fresh powder and a pass with the drag will make it ideal for skiing. There are both skate and classic trails, so there’s options depending on what you’re looking to do.
“Depending on the conditions, you could groom every day or every other day,” Muller said. “It’s all weather-dependent.”
It takes about two hours to get the trails ready for the day and there’s no shortage of people waiting to use them. They even create trails for multi-use so snowshoers and hikers don’t get run over by out of control skiers and the ski trails stay in good shape.
But when it comes to grooming the trails, Muller said an experienced snowmobile driver is key and then knowing the area and where the trails are the next step.
“People from the whole area come to ski these trails,” Muller said. “It’s a regular draw.”
There’s even a Facebook page, Concord Community Nordic Trails, which provides pictures and updates about the trails for those who don’t like surprises.
So why not give it a shot? It might help the next month (or two) go by a little quicker.
“It’s the type of sport that doesn’t cost a lot to participate,” Mitchell said. “And it makes the winter go by a lot faster.”
