When you think of cross-country skiing, your first thoughts might not be about hills and speed. But my kids’ skinny skis have seen plenty of both because it’s their favorite part of the sport. So our recent skiing adventure on the groomed cross-country trails at Libby Hill in Gray was right up their alley.

We met some friends at the trail head and decided the best route for the group — five kids ranging in age from 6 to 14 — was the Moose Odyssey Trail. The trail twists and turns up and around the small mountain. It’s 3.1 miles but offers smaller loops if you know how to read a trail map.

Additional Photos

The kids enjoy the descents on the Libby Hill cross-country ski trails in Gray – and they often come down the hills in a crouch position. Wendy Almeida/Staff Writer

Unfortunately, my map reading skills tend to elude me each time I visit this trail system, but more on that later.

The first half-mile of this trail has a 100-foot elevation gain. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but on cross-country skis it’s a heart-pumping endeavor. Our 6-year-old friend lagged a bit behind, so I picked up my pace to keep up with the older kids. My friend hung back with her little one.

After that initial climb, the trail leveled off but still had plenty of small hills. The kids found a particular hill they really liked, so we lingered there.

If you have recreational cross-country skiing kids like mine, you’ll discover there is a natural tendency to ski on knees and butts (with boots still in their bindings). In case you have never seen this, let me assure you that my kids and their friends can glide down hills in either position fairly easily. For me, it’s not only undesirable to contort my less than nimble ankles for this, it’s far from an easy thing to balance down the hill without a wipeout.

We had planned to ski a smaller loop of the Moose Odyssey Trail — about a mile — by using a connector trail. I missed that turn-off, but luckily spotted a trail map on a tree after I realized I wasn’t where I had planned to be. After consulting the map, I thought we could catch another connector trail a short distance away.

A few minutes later, my 11-year-old friend questioned my directions when he hit a fork in the trail. “Wendy, the yellow trail is on the right. I thought you said it would be on the left.”

Normally I’m a decent map reader, but for some reason I am never exactly where I think I am supposed to be on the Libby Hill trails.

The older kids and I decided to play it safe and ski the full distance of Moose Odyssey — all 3.1 miles  — because I knew it looped back to the trail head. Since this was one of our first snow season outings, we were all pretty tired by the time we met up with my friend and her 6-year-old there.

We all compared notes on the trail system and agreed the grooming was great and the hilly terrain a ton of fun for our intermediate skiers. But we also agreed it’s not the easiest trail system to navigate because of its winding nature. The twists and turns can confuse even those with a good sense of direction — and that is before taking in to consideration the distraction a couple of kids can be.

But the blazes and posted maps are easy to spot and I’ve never actually been lost. I’ve just spent more time out on this trail system than I had planned during each of our visits (in both winter and summer).

My 14-year-old has a plan for the next time we visit this trail system.

“I am going to take my water bottle on this trail every time, because it always takes longer to ski and hike around here than Mom says it will. But it is always fun — especially when we’re skiing down the hills.”

During our next visit this winter — and there will be another one because we really liked these groomed trails — we will plan accordingly. If we estimate our chosen path will take one hour, we’ll just plan for two.

Staff Writer Wendy Almeida can be contacted at 791-6334 or at:

wea@mainetoday.com

Follow her on Twitter at:

Twitter.com/RaisingMaine

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