If you are a new member, welcome! If you’re a returning skier, thanks for joining us for another season. Below is some basic information and a few tidbits about how the club functions that will set you in the right direction for a season of great Nordic skiing.
Trail use:
- Using the trails is on the honor system. We’ve decided as a club not to spend money on passes or tickets. Instead we encourage honesty by all who use the trails. We hope that people will pay what we believe is a fair fee to support maintaining these great trails, and we appreciate your support.
- Friends can join you for a ski or two, but beyond that we encourage them to join ANSA.
- Others who come to ski the trails for a day should go to Lost Valley and purchase a day use pass.
- Trail maps are available online, and on the kiosk at the parking area.
- Signs now mark all intersections and give the shortest and easiest routes back to the Lost Valley lodge.
- We encourage you all to read the trail etiquette section.
- Please please please don’t walk on the trails. The divots you leave take a long time for the volunteer groomers to smooth out. If you must, for some emergency reason, please stay to the very edge of the trail or just off it.
- Pets are not allowed on ski or snowshoe trails. They will also leave marks and poops that take a long time to fix.
- Fat bikes are not allowed on our trails. Our trails are groomed by snowmobiles, so are too soft to be fun for fat bikes, and the ruts you leave… you guessed it!... take hours of volunteer groomer time to smooth out, and are dangerous to skiers.
- Snowshoe Trails: There is a network of snowshoe trails that are another fun way to get out into the woods. Do not snowshoe on the ski trails – stay on the snowshoe trails only.
- Days are short, so many members ski before dawn or after dark by headlamp. This is allowed, and actually great fun with the current generation of headlamps, but we encourage you to take precautions like skiing with a buddy and having a cell phone available.
Communication:
- We use a google group to send occasional messages including on club events and grooming updates. The ‘group’ is set up as a one-way communication from us to club members, but does not allow members to post back, to avoid cluttering inboxes. If you don’t want to receive updates, you can unsubscribe. If you want to communicate back, use auburnnordic@gmail.
- Our web page includes trail maps, club news, and more.
- There is an ANSA facebook page that we encourage you to follow. This is a good place for posting photos and updates on how much fun you’re having skiing and snowshoeing.
Grooming
- A Bates student described our grooming succinctly – “you’re grooming is the best – not the first, but the best.”
- Our grooming is done by volunteers, and with snowmobiles rather than Pisten Bullies. As a result it can take a little while to dig out after a big storm. We also avoid over-grooming, so that our snow lasts when other’s nearby are done. Patience.
- Grooming reports will be provided on Facebook, the ANSA web page, and googlegroup updates.
- Please avoid skiing right behind the groomer. The snow at first is very soft and you’ll leave deep ruts. Soon, in 20-30 minutes, the snow crystals freeze to each other and set up to form a firmer surface.
Parking:
- Please avoid parking on Perkins Ridge Road if at all possible. Cars come fast and aren’t always looking for roadside pedestrians.
- Parking is available in the trailside lot (1465 Perkins Ridge Rd by GPS) or across the street in front of the apple pickers’ bunkhouse.
- In the spring when the sun turns the parking lots into mud, favor the lot in front of the bunk house. If both lots look dicey and you need to park along the road, please park as far off the road as you can.
- A port-a-potty is in the parking lot for pretty much the whole season.
Club activities and camaraderie:
- Please say hello to your fellow club members – we’re a nice bunch of folks all out here together to have some fun on the snow.
- Student skiers: Part of our mission is to support youth skiing in our community.
- Auburn Middle School and Edward Little High School ski teams practice most weekday afternoons.
- Sunday afternoon from 1:30 to 3:30 is the Bill Koch ski program. Although there is a certain entertainment value in watching these kids on skis, parking is as a premium, so please plan accordingly. You may want to ski a little earlier on Sundays.
- Ben Lounsbury, an experienced Nordic skier, is glad to offer pointers to help people feel more comfortable on skis. Ben will have fluorescent tape on his ski poles so you can find him.
- We try to have a couple moonlight skis during the season to enjoy one of winter’s great joys – night skiing without a headlamp! Magical.
- ANSA has a volunteer board, looking for new directors to join us. We meet twice a year, and provide guidance to club functions.
- Remember that we are a volunteer organization, so everything that you are enjoying has been done by club members. If you see something that needs doing – from a downed limb to a new bridge, please pitch in!
Emergencies: the home of Bruce and Whitney Condit is across the street from the trails. Feel free to come knock on the door if there is something they can help with.
ANSA works in partnership with Lost Valley to maintain these trails – most of the land is theirs. Please support Lost Valley whenever you have a chance. Make it a destination, and ski over for a cup of cocoa or a burger and a beer.
See you out on the trails! And LET IT SOW!