This weekend’s new ski area was Camel’s Hump Nordic.  It consists of 35 miles of groomed and backcountry trails on both private and public land.  It’s very cool of the landowners to let people go through.  I love places like that in Vermont.

It was around 20 degrees so I was getting very warm as we went up Bear Scat Draw, but there was also occasionally a very cold wind, so I was back and forth on my layers all day.

From Bear Scat Draw, we took Big Baldy to Dead River Run to Stagecoach Road up to the new yurt that Vermont Huts Association has coming online just today.  We checked it out and it looks very comfortable – double bunk beds and a futon to sleep six, woodstove, table, and propane stove.  I’ll have to see about getting some reservations since I really like the trails here too.

It was really warm in front of the yurt so I wanted to stop and eat lunch there, but we weren’t quite hungry yet, so we decided to keep going.  Corrie convinced me to at least try a black diamond trail, with the understanding that I could turn around or take my skis off and walk, so we went up the ungroomed Catamount Trail to Lion’s Ridge.  There was a very steep part that I had to sidestep up, and definitely did not want to ski down, but we were able to avoid coming down that way later.

Photo by Jeremiah

Photo by Corrie

We were trying to get to a view of Camel’s Hump and ran into another steep part, with the added complications of the trail being slanted to the side and a U-turn at the top.  I sidestepped my way up again, which took much longer than before, but the view was pretty good.

Photo by Jeremiah

Photo by Corrie

I wasn’t looking forward to going back down, and had already decided to take my skis off and slide down on my butt, but when it came to it, I watched how Corrie skied down and decided to try it.  I did fall coming around the U-turn and slid a little bit to a less steep spot, but then I was able to ski down the rest of the way in fits and starts.

Once we were back on the easier part of the trail, it turned out Camel’s Hump had been behind us the whole time.

Back down Lion’s Ridge and Stagecoach Road to the yurt, and we sat down in the sun in front of it to eat sandwiches.  I guess the wind was just blocked there because it felt really nice even sitting still.  When we did get moving again, we backtracked a little bit so we could go down the ungroomed Crow’s Foot and Lower Crow’s Foot.  We’d had warning from a volunteer at the trailhead that these trails had been logged and not all the waterbars fixed so we knew to keep an eye out for openings.  Corrie and I both fell at one of them.  Overall it was a fun run down, although I fell again when the trail ended at the groomed Big Baldy, a lovely faceplant.

We skied Big Baldy back to Stagecoach Road and then went down Gully-Whumper to Northern Lights, where there were views of the Adirondacks.  From there it was just a short distance over Toothacher Swamp back to the trailhead.

Photo by Corrie

We were out for a while and were on at least Camel’s Hump State Park and Huntington Town Forest land in addition to the private land.  Another great ski day with 6.3 miles!