F6 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 , 2022
in the dark.”
That may be one reason so few
skiers have attempted what
Brakeley did. In 2020, 555 people
registered through-hikes of the
Long Trail. In contrast, the Cata-
mount Trail Association has reg-
istered just 105 end-to-end ski
trips in the nearly four decades
since Bushey conceived the route.
Most of these are by “section
skiers” who completed the 31 sec-
tions gradually. Just a couple doz-
en people have skied the trail in a
continuous line, Maino estimates.
By midmorning on the second
day of our ski journey, I had an
inkling of another reason so few
people have completed the Cata-
mount Trail. That day’s 18-mile
ski found me sweating despite the
cold as I hopped over streams,
clambered across fallen trees and
scraped my skis on exposed bram-
bles. A long-distance trail is a far
cry from the curated conditions of
a resort. Instead of wide-open
runs, it invites travelers to meas-
ure out the landscape in hours,
days or weeks spent on skis.“It gives you a flavor for Ver-
mont that is a totality, and it’s a
very deep and rich flavor,” Bushey
told me when I got back. “If you go
to a single ski resort and spend
two days there, it’s a very different
experience. You begin and end in
the same place, and your experi-
ence is limited.”
That deep, rich experience of
Vermont left me thoroughly tired
by the time my party reached the
cross-country trails of Blueberry
Hill Inn, where we would spend
the second night. I knew from
experience that a jar full of freshly
baked chocolate chip cookies —
the inn’s specialty — would be
waiting there. The prospect lent
spring to each kick on the final,
gentle slope of nearby Hogback
Mountain.
“You’ve had a good, long ski,”
said innkeeper Tony Clark, lead-
ing us to a room at the far end of
the inn’s plant-filled conserva-
tory. In younger days, the British-
born Clark traveled to cross-coun-
try ski races around the world,
and the inn’s outdoor centerbrims with racing memorabilia
from Russia and Finland, as well
as Norway’s famed Birkebeiner
ski marathon. Vermont still pro-
duces fine skiers: Over a dinner of
hearty soup and bread, we dis-
cussed the astonishing women’s
cross-country Olympic team,
which includes Vermont-trained
2018 gold medalist Jessie Diggins,
who would soon go on to become
the first individual cross-country
medalist from the United States
since 1976.
Dark flurries enclosed the inn
like a curtain that night, leaving a
few inches of fresh powder to
cushion our skis as we left the
next morning. With a final choco-
late chip cookie tucked into a side
pocket, I led the way along the
easygoing, eight-mile romp
toward our endpoint among the
trails of the Rikert Nordic Center.
The first day out, I had noticed
how quiet the woods seemed
whenever our conversation
lulled, but on the final stretch of
trail, the forest was abuzz. Over-
head, woodpeckers tapped theirrhythmic codes into the dead
wood of paper birches. Fresh
snow revealed the perfect trail of
a passing fox. I spotted a slender
mouse tunnel, ending in a precise
hole where the creature had nose-
dived into fluff.
Then, nearing Rikert, we final-
ly met tracks left by other skiers
for the first time that day. Turning
onto the center’s groomed trails,
we slid across fresh corduroy and
crossed a meadow, then caught
sight of our snow-covered car
waiting in the far edge of the
parking lot.
I leaned down to unbuckle my
boots, shouldering my pack to the
ground for a final time. When I
took off my coat, steam rose from
my shoulders. At our backs, the
Catamount Trail slipped into af-
ternoon shadow, gathering the
forest close to its flanks as it
continued northward and away.Smith is a writer based in Vermont.
Her website is jenrosesmith.com.
Find her on Twitter and Instagram:
@jenrosesmithvt.If You Go
WHERE TO STAY
Mountain Top Inn & Resort
195 Mountain Top Rd., Chittenden,
Vt.
802-483-2311
mountaintopinn.com
Groomed cross-country trails twine
through this resort’s 700 private
hillside acres with views of the
Chittenden Reservoir. Warm up
after a day of skiing, snowshoeing,
ice skating or sledding at the inn’s
spa, where overnight guests and
day-spa users have access to a
cedar sauna. Dining options
include an on-site restaurant and
the inn’s casual tavern, with a long
list of Vermont beers on tap. Guest
rooms from $200 per night. Skis,
snowshoes and ice skates are
available to rent. Full-day trail
passes for non-overnight guests
cost $25 for adults and $18 for
seniors and juniors.
Blueberry Hill Inn
1245 Goshen-Ripton Rd., Goshen,
Vt.
802-247-67 35
blueberryhillinn.com
Old-fashioned charm abounds at
this inn wrapped in cross-country
and backcountry ski trails that
intersect with Catamount Tr ail’s
Section 15. Guests can gather
around a fireplace in the lounge or
visit the tea and cookies station.
Some guest rooms flank a slender
conservatory lined with plants that
bloom through the winter. Rooms
from $199. Country breakfast
included, dinner by advance
request for $35 per person. Access
to trails for non-guests is by
donation.WHAT TO DO
Catamount Trail Association
802-864-5794
catamounttrail.org
Find trail maps, descriptionsand
suggestions for day-long and
multiday trips for all skill levels on
the CTA’s website. The nonprofit
also organizes a number of mostly
free outings each winter, including
guided single-day and multiday
backcountry ski trips. Check
website for trip dates. Tr ail access
free.
Rikert Nordic Center
106 College Cross Rd., Ripton, Vt.
802-443-27 44
rikertnordic.com
About 34 miles of expertly
groomed ski trails place Rikert
Nordic Center among Vermont’s
premier destinations for cross-
country skiing. Open daily 8:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m. December to
March, depending on snow
conditions. Full-day trail passes
$25 for adults, $20 seniors 62 and
over, $15 children, and free for kids
under 5. Ski, fat bike and
snowshoe rentals available.INFORMATION
vermontvacation.comCLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Skiers cross the dam at the Chittenden Reservoir on Section 13 of the Catamount Trail; freshly baked
chocolate chip cookies at the Blueberry Hill Inn added to the comfort of the author’s stay; some travelers use “skins” on the bottom
of their skis for additional traction; the Blueberry Hill Inn is located in Goshen, Vt., and sits amid miles of cross-country ski trails.did a few decades ago. People who
love to ski through the woods feel
those changes acutely — but dur-
ing Bushey’s Vermont childhood,
snow regularly piled into puffy
mounds. Alongside teenage mem-
bers of his public high school’s
outing club, he honed a love of
adventure and navigation: On
one October day in 1981, he found
himself at home in Vermont after
a cross-country bicycle ride, star-
ing at the snowy mountains.
“I thought, ‘One could ski the
length of Vermont, because the
snow comes early, it stays late and
it piles up deep,’ ” he said. Bushey,
who studied geography and car-
tography at the University of Ver-
mont, began poring over maps,
imagining a path that would link
existing trail networks estab-
lished by the state’s many cross-
country ski centers.
At graduate school in Ottawa,
Bushey determined to create the
long-distance ski trail as his mas-
ter’s thesis. In March 1984, he
asked two friends, Ben Rose and
Paul Jarris, to join him for the
inaugural trip. “The ski trip itself
was the final requirement for
completing my thesis,” Bushey
said.
A week before my own depar-
ture, a storm paused over Ver-
mont’s mountains long enough to
fill the woods with powder. Set-
ting out from the trailhead with
two companions, I wound north-
ward through the tangle of pur-
pose-built ski trails, footpaths, old
logging roads and snowmobile
trails that the Catamount Trail
braids into a single route. The
snow was cold enough to creak
and shiver beneath my skis, and
the yellow birch forest strained
the morning sunshine into sil-
vered lines of shadow.
On any fine weekend morning
like that one, Vermont’s ski re-
sorts are clamorous: Whirring
chairs spin skiers uphill, snow-
making machines hiss at the edge
of the trail and booted visitors
clomp into cafeterias. In contrast,
backcountry skiing offers an ex-
traordinary quiet. Moving
through the forest, I skied to the
sounds of my quickened breath
and heartbeat alone.
At a suggestion from Greg Mai-
no, the communications and
events director of the nonprofit
Catamount Trail Association, we
had climbed away from the main
track for a scenic detour. After
pausing for a brief lunch on a
frozen log, we followed a section
of the Long Trail — a 272-mile
hiking trail running the length of
Vermont — into an especially
lovely, rolling stretch of woods
that the Trust for Public Land
purchased for handover to the
Agriculture Department-man-
aged Green Mountain National
Forest.
On its way across Vermont, the
Catamount Trail crosses a diverse
patchwork of federal, state and
private land. Reroutes are com-
mon. The trail is a living corridor,
twitching up and down slopes,
flicking in and out of drainages.
“In the last few years, we’ve had a
couple of changes where we’ve
had to move the trail 50 yards or
100 yards just to make sure it’s on
a different property line,” Maino
said. He hopes the detour we
followed will soon be official.
With the added miles from our
side trip, it was late afternoon
when we joined the expansive
network of cross-country trails
managed by the Mountain Top
Inn & Resort, where we planned
to spend the night in a snug
guesthouse overlooking the Chit-
tenden Reservoir. The GPS device
said we had traveled 11.2 miles.
Before long, we’d be warming our
feet — and drying our ski boots —
beside a crackling fire.
For intrepid souls attempting a
“through-ski,” accommodations
are not so plush. One day along
the trail in 2015, I met and skied
alongside local outdoorsman Sam
Brakeley, who was then midway
through a 17-day, south-to-north
ski he’d later chronicle in his book
“Skiing with Henry Knox: A Per-
sonal Journey Along Vermont’s
Catamount Trail.” He was alone,
carrying a lightweight backpack-
ing tent and making a cold camp
each night in the snow.
“The nights were the biggest
challenge and the biggest sur-
prise for me,” Brakeley said.
“Nights in winter in Vermont are
long — really long. It gets dark
at 4:30 or 5 and doesn’t get
light until 7:30. That’s a lot of
time with subzero temperatures
VERMONT FROM F1
In Vermont backcountry, Catamount Trail is a distance test
PHOTOS BY JEN ROSE SMITH FOR THE WASHINGTON POST“The nights were thebiggest challengeand the biggestsurprise for me.”
Sam Brakeley,
local outdoorsman