Category: Cross country skiing in Maine

Winter Means Cross Country Skiing In Maine.

Cross country skiing in Maine, one of the best ways in winter to get exercise and lots of eye candy at the same time.

What Exercise Do Your Do In Winter Outside Your Maine Home?

This Maine blog has highlighted outdoor recreation of all types for any of the four seasons. But right hand raised high, I admit downhill skiing has over shadowed the posts about the cross country strapping on the boards kind.

The elevation of your spirits being chair lifted up and away to the top of a Maine mountain is pretty darn awesome.

It allows your focus on what’s really important in life to come into sharper view. The conversations on the lift, the laughter in the lodge getting rigged up before or back into your street clothes afterwards energizes a person big time. You can do more when you exercise in Maine, a place with so many options that are no cost or low charge readily available. That let you unplug and recharge get revitalized.

Sugar Coated Maine, Don’t Miss A Season, Make Winter Sparkle Part Of Your Vacation Plans.

But cross country skiing where no high priced lift ticket is involved because none of the machinery an alpine ski facility creates is needed for use of these boards.

It provides the cardiovascular work out and places you smack dab in the middle of wildlife and natural surroundings in Maine. Without the need to slide the plastic with the magnetic strip. With narrower cross country skis waxed to match today’s temperatures, you not limited to the same trails that are limited on a down hill mountain course. Head out over an open farm field, an abandoned pasture, across a frozen lake and up, down, around twisting pathways through wooded sections.

Outdoors, Maine Is All About Being Outdoors Any Chance You Get All Year Round! Kids Play Outside, Adults Don’t Forget To Do The Same In Maine!

All the senses get a work out. You see the new sparkling snow pulling down the pine or fir tree limbs like they are defeated and shrugging their shoulders. You smell the fresh clean crisp air that your lungs call for the harder you work.

You hear the crunch of your skis on the snow compaction and as you lift one, push off with the other with poles planted to help guide the glide process.

You are getting a work out but don’t even realize it because all the senses are being fed with Maine outdoor beauty. It’s like manual labor working on a farm when you can have a good conversation at the same time. It is humbling and you realize how grateful you are for the chance to hit the trails whenever you can. Not much sharing needed or bumping into people involved.

Like kayaking, the lack of spending money just adds to the take away sensation cross country skiing.

Hitting The Snow Sled ITS Trails In Maine. Some Move You Fast Like Old Railroad Beds. Others You Can Poke Along And See More Countryside And Wildlife. You Can Cross Country Ski On These ITS Trails But High Tail It For The Woods When Those Ice Rocket Whine And Pass Your Wrap Speed. Side Trails Work Best For Cross Country Ski Adventures To Avoid the ER Visit.

We are so so lucky to live in Maine where outdoors, wide open space, beautify surrounds us year round. So many options to tap into when recreational is needed to shake up the routine and blow away the cobwebs when stuck inside too long. Cabin fever is a real illness if not addressed with doses of outdoor fresh air fun and bright but not as strong sunshine overhead mixed with the cobalt blue skies. Winter intensifies the scenery. You are not cold because you dressed with layers and did it with the right gear.

Cross country skiing with moonlight under the stars so brilliant overhead lighting trail.

Opens up a new World which is one of the best workouts that is take your time not tuck it in and whip down a mountain side like a speeding bullet. If your hands and feet are properly protected you won’t be cold from the vigorous work out cross country skiing. Take your time, set your own pace.

So cross country skiing in Maine. My local Rotary club raised thousands of dollars to purchase an enclosed trailer, to fill it with cross country skis of all sizes for kids to use. To learn the beauty and fun of sliding, gliding on cross country skis beneath your feet. In areas like Stockholm and New Sweden you see lots of local folks preserving the Nordic outdoor traditions. Many even have a sauna, that they race out of to roll in the snow. I was told you pronounce sauna by thinking of a female pig… “SOW and your expression for indifference when you don’t want to do something someone else does and you utter ” …nah”.

Animals, Pets Can Cross Country Ski With You Too! Just Remember To Pack The Dog Biscuit For Their Snack When You Are Munching On A Lunch Trailside. The Family Dog Works Up An Appetite From The Fresh Open Air Workout Too!

This blog post should also include snow shoeing and ice skating that are all designed to get you off the couch and to turn away or lay down your screen time device. But those two pastimes will be hashed out in greater detail in future posts on the winter recreation options in Maine. Pond hockey, ice fishing, who says not much to do outdoors in Maine during winter? Humbug. We’ve covered snow sledding to a higher degree previously.

What you need to know to lease or buy for cross country skiing in Maine?

What will it cost to do either? Renting vs buying cross country skis debated at this link. In Maine, there are lots of outlets to buy cross country skis and let’s tap into the LL Bean channel as one local place to shop if you are bent on buying cross country skis.

Bean also like other recreational sports has clinics and gives helpful advice on the topic. Around the state of Maine there is lots going on when you Google the topic of Maine cross country skiing. Like this from the Outdoor Center news in Fort Kent. Or Maine is one big honking state, let’s check in with available Bethel Maine cross country skiing options.

Maine Moose Jogging By A Maple Syrup Tapped Grove. Spring Air Stirs The Wildlife. He Won’t Hurt You… Bring Your Camera Cross Country Skiing to Capture Some Eye Candy.

Check Uncle Henry’s, Craiglist for cross country ski equipment that was purchase, outgrown or never used. Pre-owned appeals to the frugal nature of living in Maine.

You will fall cross country skiing.

But lots of people zinging by you like at a Maine downhill ski course won’t be a concern. Not a lot or any people watching you to feel embarrassed about when you do lose your balance and wipe out. Learning to turtle to get back up. Unlike using the gravity of a hill after a motorized lift to the top of a Maine ski mountain, cross country involves way more effort and higher calorie burn.

Getting up hill and dale with your own power not a low idling diesel doing all the work adds to the work out and the endorphins released in the gray matter. The trail is not often groomed silky smooth and flat. Ridges from past skiers can help or hurt the sliding your feet to keep moving along the trail.

Downhill skiing is like lazy man’s lobster where you are transported up the hill over and over.

Limited by the number of slopes and whether you are double black diamond or blue square or green circle rated. Cross country skiing is like cracking open the Maine lobster you boiler, crack each joint to get to the sweet meat. Does that make sense? It will when you trade in the fat wide skills for downhill powder for the long skinny ones to carve trails across a picturesque pasture setting.

Working Close, Dedicated, Dependable, That’s Maine. Small Towns Are Super Connected And Care About Each Other Dearly.

Many cross country ski areas are only groomed if at all occasionally. But you can make your own course if one is not close by or time just does not allow that big a chunk of it to get to and from the trail loop layout you really want to use. Many farms in Maine are converted to cross country ski slopes that are mild not wild and with warming huts adding to the comfort level. Snacks around what’s grown on the farm are part of the fun. Agriculture tourism is just starting to get its sea legs and really helps to prop up the economical health of any area in Maine.

The World Cup Biathlon helped take cross country skiing to a whole new level in Maine and was watched by millions worldwide. Here is the woman’s video snippet we shot and uploaded. Another of the World Cup competition of the mens division. Where you shoot a gun, are timed and go round and round a crowded course off cross country skiers with competitors from around the globe.

Are you up for back country skiing in a remote setting in Maine?

Bring your sleeping bag, a cook stove, a first aid kid and go off grid. Get below radar in a hidden section of Maine you can not get to by car where there is not rumble strip sound or engine jake brakes heard because highways are missing. Listen to winter sounds, the pine and fir needles vibrating and humming in the breeze. See snow releases from trees that make mini white outs like flour explosions.

Maine Winter, Less Colors Than Fall’s Explosion Can Still Be Dramatic Too! Ever Climbed Mt “K”?

Studying the tracks of animals that share their habitat with you in the silence of the season called Maine winter. Other cross country skiers have hit the trails before you or maybe you are breaking your own path in the new fallen white soft blanket of Maine snow. Like cutting into a new hot out of the oven Maine pie you can feel a little guilty or very fortunate getting the first slice of whatever is home made delicious.

Moving your arms forward and backward diagonally. Your feet and legs ahead then flowing behind you in back and forth synchronization with those arm glides. There is a rhythm. You’re settled into it.

Except you are not on a Nordic track staring at paneling in a cellar rec room.

No no, you are on an exciting path outdoors that is familiar or brand new exciting. It’s social when you see others cross country skiing as a family. And you stop for a lunch at a diner along the trail or open up the meal you packed. Unscrew the lid on hot tomato soup or whatever is in the thermos to quench the thirst. Sometimes you see no one on the trails except signs of animals that hurry and scurry leaving their foot print in their forage for food. You stop at a brook or lake to listen, to reflect, to rest. Then looking around ask is everyone ready? As you slide the gloves back on, reach for the skis with the straps on your hands to keep from loosing them down an ravine or just sliding down a hill on crust.

No motor, just your own two legs are what you ride on cross country skiing.

Two arms planting the poles too is an important part of the propulsion on the snow trail that is varied to be interesting.

Maine, Making Our Own Fun. Wake Up, Get Outdoors And Slide, Laugh, Spill. We Ski, We Skate, We Don’t Hibernate.

As you go at your own speed and get better at the art of cross country skiing the more you make time to do it. Here is another easy, all established trail system cross country ski option at Pineland Farms that has 5000 acres of outdoor living attached to it. All ages can do the cross country skiing and the pace is set on an individual basis.

The New England Outdoor Center in Millinocket Maine offers lots, not just cross country ski recreation. Anytime Mt Katahdin is in the backdrop of whatever your are doing in Vacationland, her majesty adds to the experience. Her look changes with the season when fall colors explode around her and snow caps her crown in winter. This is just a taste of where you can cross country ski in Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

December 30, 2018
Maine, She Starts Slow And Slowly Grabs Every Single One Of Your Heart Strings

Maine, what’s the big attraction?

For many it is a lot of little things. But always, a major part of the pull to Maine is the friendly nature of the small communities that dot Vacationland

Lots of space, plenty of fresh air, clean water and drop dead gorgeous Maine scenery.

But it is more than the elbow room and hard working family oriented folks that call Maine home.

Horsing Around In Maine. What Is Your Hobby, Passion, Pastime That Recharges You?

The location wedged up into Canada adds a two nation vacation aspect to those who discover Maine. The state of Maine can boast 3,478 miles of rocky, sandy, scenic coastline. That weighs in more than California and if you add in the islands, the shoreline tally jumps to over 5,000 miles of land bordering water. Water fixes everything remember?

And lakes, think there is enough waterfront to enjoy with 2677 lakes or pond in Maine? An extra 222 lakes or ponds without names are on that list too if you add them in to the tally. There are also another 1022 too small lakes that were catch and released, thrown back in small fry.

But there is more than the blue green of the water and heavily forested lush landscape of Maine to grab your attention on Vacation here. Hiking up Mount Katahdin or a slew of other trails. Ski Sugarloaf USA or Sunday River or one of the smaller low cost family friendly peaks.

Explore, Discover Maine. The Back Roads, The Hiking Trails, The Water Ways. We Are Outdoors More Than Inside All Four Seasons In Maine! Like That Where You Hang Your Hat Now?

Biking around a Maine island that a ferry delivers you to or sitting down at a snow sled club or grange hall type public supper to get close to the locals breaking bread. That is the best way to go to a deeper level with the Maine natives. That often leads to more than vacation visits but a permanent relocation to Maine when the timing is right to head north. And leave the city crowds, the urban hustle and bustle, shuck and jive behind in the rear view mirror as you head up I-95.

Low cost properties help remove the sting of a move to Maine too.

No mortgage and being free and clear is a better feeling than saddled with debt. You can enjoy living more, avoiding the race through life if you don’t have to hold down three jobs to barely cover expenses. To keep the wolf from your door. You don’t need to make a lot of money to live in Maine because the outdoor recreation does not come with a high price tag to sample. And people help in the DIY, pitching in to help with house hold projects, splitting winter heating wood. Everything is community minded and the folks are intimately connected. It is home grown not store bought and more involved. The kids have work ethic, everything is not handed to them and there is less entitlement in Maine small town living.

Loons On A Maine Lake. They Put You To Sleep. Sometimes They Wake You Up! Maine Lake Vacations Are Reasonably Priced.

No traffic, less people. Camping is big too in Maine and the wildlife, the back drop of Mother Nature is more than enough to make it memorable. Check out the Maine communities. Find a section of Maine beach to dig your toes in. Bring your fishing rod, strap on a bike to your rear trailer hitch receiver. Pack the picnic basket. Don’t forget your swim wear.

So it starts with an innocent vacation to Maine and mushroom clouds or snow balls from there for most people.

Maine is the way life should be. Everyone who visits or relocates, moves to Maine has different connections. Some remember being a kid and visiting a grandparent’s farm. Their parents grew up in Maine but had to seek employment outside the state after a war ended or a poor farming or timber year forced the shuffle of feet.

Renting a lake camp in Maine for a long weekend. Picking one spot to come back to or exploring to find your favorite nook and cranny. Relax, you have a life time to get to know Maine better. Are you looking for your next mailing address and considering Maine?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

June 12, 2018
Maine Winter Fun | Sliding, Sledding, Ice Skating, Skiing.

When old man winter arrives in Maine for another visit, the simple outdoor outdoor traditions return.

The ones started in our youth and preserved into adulthood. You begin to know how much fun you forgot climbing on a pedal bike is when you push up the kickstand. And take it to new unexplored places in Maine which is a six hour long state. That has so many choices for outdoor fun not matter which of the four seasons you find yourself enjoying.

Maine Outdoor Living, We Keep It Real, Simple, Honest.

Ever used pedal power, two wheels and commanded a bike to tour a Maine island? The same joy you remember as a kid returns when you bundle up and grab a snow sled. Trudge up a hill to climb aboard and let gravity be your engine to pick up speed. Heading to the bottom with family and friends of all ages. To do again, just one more run.

Traditions in Maine, the best ones started as a kid.

Introduced by older brothers and sisters. Where you used your imagination, were not parked on a couch killing time inside just because the thermometer mercury sits a tad low in the glass tube.

Sliding downhill in Maine means fresh air, crisp clear scenery, seeing your breath. Exercise, hot chocolate after you hang up your wool mittens. Climbing out of the layers of outerwear to cozy up to a wood stove crackling fire. Falling asleep tonight happens quicker, goes deeper when you downhill slide in Maine.

Sugar Coated Maine, Don’t Miss A Season, Make Winter Sparkle Part Of Your Vacation Plans.

What else happens in Maine winter? Ice fishing with pretty elaborate shacks for the social aspect. Snow sledding the ITS trailers with motors, carbide runners, radiation under your feet and electric thumb warmers. Downhill and cross country skiing. If you are cold, you are not dressed right or need to pick up the pace in whatever outdoor pastime you picked for pleasure. Shovel a walk way, clear off a porch roof and you don’t need a coat zipped high with a scarf wrapped around your neck. You are plenty warm and full of energy to do more outdoors in Maine.

Kids know how to have fun in a marshmellow world all around Jack Frost had a hand in creating. Maine is like the snow globe kids buy or make for their parents for Christmas. When someone took the time to snow plow or shovel off a small pond. And drops the black circle that causes the spirited pond hockey game to begin in earnest. Skating, puck handling combine with the lines formed for a friendly hockey contest. Bonfires to warm your bones and to detach, dream, stare into the dancing flames.

The simple pleasures are not store bought or needing batteries during any of Maine’s four seasons. There is no software associated and it is a return to your childhood rituals.

Walking on cleared sidewalks in a small town under street lights or around town to window shop. Sure, being careful for slipping up on the ice down under means easy does it. But get outside. To enjoy the splendor day or night of Maine communities or the deep woods, an open field with a white cover frosting. Depending on what type of snow you have outside to work with, snow men, digging tunnels and making forts to defend the backyard is one option. If thick snow that supports someone’s weight on bear paw snowshoes is not crusted over and offers crust sliding on flying saucers and slippery magic carpets. The pattern of ice crystals, snow flakes and magic of crisp, clear frost add a sparkle to Maine winter living.

Small Maine Town Christmas Light Parades Welcome Santa, Entertain The Little And Old Alike.

Winter in Maine is peaceful.

There is a silent roar as new snow falls and everything gets muffled sound wise. Crunching snow under your boots, the sharp sound of scraping a windshield to make it safe for winter travel. The distant whine of a two cycle snowmobile with tuned exhaust. Or a chainsaw working it’s way through a thick hardwood tree trunk or dissecting a smaller limb.

The snow plow rumbling by on a country or US highway. The pulleys of a ski area rumbling as your pommel t-bar or chairlift pass by the galvanized tower. The sound a toboggan makes as it eats up a run down over an iced over groove loaded with laughing passengers. Hanging on to the one in front of you with feet tucked around them in one long human chain ready for what’s ahead. But preparing for what to do if things go sideways.

All those sounds help the journey back into what you did as a kid in Maine when the calendar months are those of winter. Maine winters are not harsh or scary and we still spend our recreational time outdoors. Ask a kid, be one again. Don’t black out winter in Maine or you miss out big time.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

December 25, 2017
Baxter State Park, One Neat Source For Recreation, Wildlife, Exercise

Baxter State Park, one beautiful gem that awaits the visit, return trip

I know lots of people who make it a habit to hike Mt Katahdin and the many other trails around the state’s highest mountain. That do the up and down taking different trails to make it new and different. That hike Mount “K” a couple times a year.

Baxter Park, Have You Hiked Any Of The Peaks? Been To The Top Of Mt Katahdin, Maine’s Highest Elevation? How Many Times?

There is something about seeing the snow capped mountain while driving a car and imagining the winding trails that lead to the top from a distance. Baxter State Park, Mt Katahdin like the state of Maine tugs at your heart strings once you get close enough and fall in love with the many outdoor facets of Maine.

Mt Katahdin is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, was the pride and joy of Governor Percival Baxter who back in the 1930’s made it a life long mission.

To set up, protect and preserve this granite intrusion in unorganized Vacationland. That is far from the standard tourist traps of shop til you drop, so many eatery options coastal Maine is famous for attracting visitors. There are a slew of hiking options, elevations of all sizes and design. But Mt Katahdin that is the centerpiece of Baxter State Park.

To be kept forever wild. Baxter State Park was a gift from Governor Percival Baxter, starting with 6000 acres and ending up over 201,000 acres donated to the people of Maine. Baxter spent his personal fortune over 32 years creating the dream that became a popular vacation destination for many hikers, campers, wildlife enthusiasts. Baxter was a true public servant through his life. There has been an effort to make the state facility into a national park like Acadia is Downeast. More on the latest in the debate about Baxter State Park becoming a national park.

Baxter State Park, Local Jewel Created By Governor Percival Baxter Back In The 1930’s!

When the conversation topic comes up on whether keep the park the way she is or make Baxter State Park a national one, the same talking points are hashed over.

The land preservation plan if you want Baxter to become a national park promise a boost for the local economy. For Millinocket that not longer enjoys the steady rattle and hum of many paper making machines lubricating the open and shut of local cash registers. The high paying paper jobs, the trickle down spin off from them are gone leaving a one big sucking sound. One huge gaping employment hole in the region. All the employment eggs in one basket with little diversification did not help either when Great Northern Paper went to its knees.

Baxter State Park.

Forever wild, protected, deeply loved. Those against the move to make Baxter change designations from state control to national status will mean further government control shuts down local industry and hurts future growth. The land that makes up Baxter State Park in Picataquis County is a landscape that inspired early conservationists from Henry David Thoreau to President Theodore Roosevelt. It is a hotly debated topic, right up there with the legalization of marijuana for medicinal or recreational use. When you pull into a gas station to refuel. Running in to settle up and grab something cold to drink or a snack to munch on. You hear it in the grapevine in public places being discussed. The local newsprint and online recycled electrons media streams bang the drum on the subject of how best to classify Baxter State Park.

Baxter State Park, Ever Camped There? Hike The Trails And Explore Mt Katahdin, The Other Peaks.

Regardless of the park’s demise and whatever her designation status, plan that trip to Baxter State Park.

Take the little ones up Horse Mountain, 1400′ high and first on the list to cut your teeth. To develop the bug to hike for life. The Katahdin Loop Trail is over 9 miles long. You want to start early and keep in mind the clock is ticking. See the sights, the wild flowers, the long vistas along the way, all the animals that live at Baxter State Park.

But be prepared for a rugged Knife’s edge that sprewls granite boulders haphazardly to the sides. Creating the long narrow pathway at the top, after you reach the table land above the tree line. Where there is no place to hide from the wind, up high where the eagles soar.

The Saddle Trail has some steep sections too and the more tedious sections of your hike up Mount Katahdin will be above the tree line, where you are exposed.

Meet The Locals At Baxter State Park! Mister Moose May Continue To Eat, Ignore You Or Could Smile For The Kodak Moment. Everyone Wants, Needs To See A Moose When They Visit Maine.

Where everything is out in the open, windy, and a long way down as you crank your head around. The trail ascent and descent demand your respect, to watch your step. You won’t have trouble sleeping the night after the hike up and down Mt Katahdin.

There is nothing like reaching the top and watching the clouds drift by a mile up on Maine’s tallest peak. But stay hydrated, bring something warm and breathable for clothing for the trip up and down whatever peak you are determined to master every given day.

Baxter State Park.

Make the visit part of your family tradition for the exercise, the beauty, the memory making. Sample her outdoor clean air, cold clear water. And for the work out to capture the long jaw dropping view that awaits whatever elevation you decide to conquer.

Baxter State Park, when you make Mt Katahdin your destination. Here is your hiking check list for Baxter State Park. Don’t forget your camera and post those images from Baxter State Park.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

July 7, 2017