Fortunate, indeed, is the snow sport enthusiast who spends an hour touring the cross-country ski trails that loop through the north face of The Blackwater. Whether a member of a visiting team or a townsperson shuffling on wood slats, these beautifully maintained paths take you through the full range of human emotions--as you climb through mature hardwood forests, careen down breath-taking hills to the river floodplain, and pick your way through a dump. You start at the lodge, and quickly pass westward to the Holley Trails--a network cut on a steep ridge overlooking the river.
Exhilerated by a tough climb and descent, one strides east, past the T-bar lift and lodge, and sprint up to the stand of sugar maples exposed by the Woodsmen's Team's selective thinning operation in recent years.
Suddenly, the skier's senses are challenged by the unexpected, as the trail leads through a maze of stored or abandoned oil tanks, aluminum ductwork, rusting cyclone fencing, stacked pallettes, firebrick and other unidentifiable stuff.
The overall effect is beyond words to describe. The skier returns to the lodge numbed by the rich visual contrast of the course, the yin and yang of natural beauty and aging hardware. The metaphor of physical and environmental challenge is lost on no one.
