Bluff Farm, Memphr. Ski Touring Foundation 12/31/17

On a frigid late afternoon on New Years Eve, we managed to squeeze in an hour of XC skiing while visiting the in-laws in Newport, VT. There wasn't enough time for our short visit to hit up an alpine area, but luckily, Newport has a "hidden gem" of a cross country network called the Memphremagog Ski Touring Foundation.  These feature free groomed terrain at several locations.

The newest location is at Bluff Farm on the shores of the lake, just 3 miles from Canada. It was near 0F, breezy, and being late in the afternoon on New Years Eve - completely empty. The loop is 1.5 miles long, and winds it way through a maple grove, open fields, a gully, back in the open field, through the woods, then back in the fields to the car. I xc skied, Scott snowshoed, as you can do either on the same trail.

Snow was perfectly-recently groomed, no ice. The scenery changes a lot in that 1.5 miles, making for diverse terrain. The trail is close to an intermediate level - mainly due to a quick downhill and steep climb in the gully area.  Hope to go back again sometime.

Start of trail through maple grove


View of Bluff Farm


Trail


Gully


Woods


End of Trail

Those pics look very peaceful.

Was this a downhill/alpine resort of touring XC?

Nope...this is a new portion of the MTSF Nordic system.