Ritzhikes

Where: Duck Pond Trail When: March 8, 2026 With: Solo I was determined to not let this winter end without at least one more XC ski trip. After many years with little/no snow at all, we had an oversupply this season. So much, in fact, that skiing on ungroomed trails was almost impossible. A group of us packed down some trails after one of the first significant storms, and I got out to ski on those. Then another storm came through and all of our hard work was buried. Propelled by an upcoming Trails Club walk, I walked the Duck Pond trail at Hopkinton State park in snowshoes, just to check the conditions. The trail started out as a packed footpath - a bit rough at first, then fine - before turning into a snowmobile track. Wide, smooth, well packed down. That lasted until an intersection where the trail split off from the snowmobile track. The trail after that was unbroken. Somewhat reluctantly, I set off on it, breaking the path with my snowshoes. I lost the route a couple of times, but f...

Where: F. Gilbert Hills State Forest, Foxborough MA When: 19 December 2020 With: Chip & Dave A pandemic relief XC ski trip. A week earlier we'd been enjoying warm temps and dry ground, but now there was good snow on the ground, and Dave suggested trails near his house in the F. Gilbert Hills state forest. I'd been interested in visiting it for some time anyway. We met at the parking area, reviewed our varius aches & pains, then set off. Other folks were on the trails but it wasn't especially crowded. We donned our masks when we met others, but often went without the masks. Dave led the way, since he walked the trails often, and he led us off into a quieter portion of the property, near a pond. At one point we debated taking a side trail but it seemed too steep for our skills and we passed on it. Another downhill later on was unavoidable, but we all managed to negotiate it one way or the other. Eventually we all ran out of energy and turned our skis back toward the p...

Where: Hopkinton Town Forest When: 9 March, 2014 With: Chip & Dave Some good snow, so I invited Chip & Dave to join me for some XC skiing on the trails outside my neighborhood. We headed in by The Cave, then followed the trail running parallel to 495. We made a stop at a couple of old, abandoned cars, then continued up into the Cameron Woods property. A fairly steep downhill was a bit more than we thought we could handle on a trail, so we cut across the slope into the woods before making our way back to a trail. From there, we went up behind Sylvan Way, then into Phipps' land. A side trail took us through a hemlock grove and back to the main trail, where we began heading back toward home. Chip & Dave groaned when they saw another hill looming ahead, but were relieved when I turned onto another side trail just before the ascent. That trail took us back to the start. More pictures

Where: Desolation via Cedar Brook When: March 4-5, 1989 With: Chip & Dave At long last, Chip and I convinced Dave to join us on another winter camping trip. Both Dave and I had bought -20 degree sleeping bags, so he must have felt safe. To get an early start, we staged a sleepover at Chip's place on Friday night (Wendy was gone). Seth joined us for the night, leaving open the possibility he might join us on the hike. In an amazing coincidence, Invasion of the Body Snatchers - the film that inspired the famous Pod Song, anthem of the Stupid Society ("Hey ma, the pods won't get me now. Hey ma, the pods won't get me now. My brain is fried, so I'm good inside. Hey ma, the pods won't get me now.") - was on TV in a colorized version. We organized a rapid action operation to buy food for the camping trip and pizza for dinner and hit the road. Chip and I dropped off Seth and Dave at the pizza place/restaurant and then continued on to the supermarket. W...

Where: Desolation via Carrigain Notch When: Winter, 1987/88 With: Chip We'd come in from the West , we'd come in from the North , so it was time to try a new approach to Desolation shelter. The first time we'd gone in, we shared the shelter with a group of college kids from Dartmouth who skied in through Carrigain Notch. If they could do it, so could we. The plan was to drive up north, go over the Kancamagus highway, cross over to route 302 on Bear Notch road, and then drive up Sawyer River road to the trail. Well, when we pulled on to Bear Notch road, we were met with a gate and a sign saying it was unmaintained in the winter. In other words, unplowed and impassable. We continued down the Kanc to pick up route 16, which would take us through Conway and onto 302. Here we hit our second problem. North Conway, heart of ski country, was one long traffic jam that Saturday. We crawled through town, swearing all the way. Finally we hit open road and made some good time do...

Where: Wachusett Reservoir, Clinton MA When: 1 April, 1987 With: Dave & Lia An XC ski trip. I vaguely recall that this was not our original destination, but it's where we wound up. I'm not sure if we skied along the reservoir itself or in an adjacent property, but I think I remember seeing a small aircraft flying low along the ice (manned or model...not sure). That would indicate we were along the reservoir. The photos only show woods and snow though...no reservoir. More pictures

Where: Desolation Shelter via Zealand Notch When: 2/20/87 With: Chip Buoyed by the success of our last winter hike , we decided to have another go at it. Our plan...drive up to the Zealand Trail trailhead, 3.6 miles in from route 302, then ski through Zealand Notch, pick up the Shoal Pond trail, and follow that down to Stillwater and Desolation. The next day, ski back up and head over to the Ethan Pond shelter for the next night. As always, things didn't quite go the way we planned. To start, the road to the trailhead is closed in the winter. What should've been a 5-10 minute drive wound up being several hours of hard, uphill skiing. By the time we finally reached the trailhead, we were ready to stop right there, but we kept on. As expected, the route from the trailhead in was pretty easy going, and soon we were at the Zealand Falls hut. Or rather, we were at the base of a steep climb up to the hut. We ditched the skis and climbed up. We were greeted by the caretaker an...

Where: Wachusett Mountain When: 1 February, 1987 With: Chip I have no idea how/why we decided to go here. We must have had a map or some indication of trails in the area. We drove out from Boston, probably along Route 2, and found our way to the backside of Wachusett Mountain, along Westminster Road. We may have parked at the Stage Coach Road trailhead (obvious parking area), or where the Harrington and Dickens trails meet at the road. The latter location is less obvious, especially in the winter, but our photos show us visiting spots along those two trails. Details are very sketchy, but our first route took us uphill and eventually to the wind turbine farm. I remember being on an open slope under the turbines, and it being very windy. From there, we made our way back to and across Westminster Road, and presumably followed the Dickens Trail, because we wound up at a telecommunications facility next to that trail. We scaled the fence and climbed the tower as high as we dared. I remember...

Where: Desolation Shelter via Wilderness Trail When: 1986/87 Winter With: Chip I'm not sure how it all came about, but there we were, Chip and I, standing in the snow at the beginning of the Wilderness Trail with backpacks and skis. Somehow, we decided to take another shot at winter camping, now that three years had passed since our last attempt . Funny, we couldn't convince Dave to join us this time. We decided to head in on the jeep road on the east of the river, rather than on the Wilderness Trail itself on the west. It began to snow and we stood on a bluff on the river, marveling at the sight of the falling snow and the mountains and proclaimed, "Those bums!" Our friends were missing a great hike. We crossed the river at Franconia Brook, taking longer than expected but making it, and then headed in further, recrossing the river on the suspension bridge at Cedar Brook. It was the first ski of the season and the lack of conditioning started to show as the tr...

Where: Long Trail, Melville Nauheim shelter When: Winter, 1983/4 With: Chip, Dave The infamous Winter Hell Hike. The first hike for any of us in years, but Chip had a Long Trail book and the idea of ski camping sounded good. So we grabbed a couple of jars of my homemade chili, piled into the Bombermobile ('59 Chrysler New Yorker) and headed to Vermont. A long ride, but finally we spotted the signs for the parking area. Chip was so thrilled, he drove the car off the road and down the embankment into the snow. Whoosh! Dave and I walked down to a local house and had the lady there call for a tow truck, who came, took most of our money, and hauled the car out of the ditch. We parked at a lot up the road and were finally on our way. [ Notes: Presumbly, the parking lot we were aiming for was unplowed, or we would have parked there after getting towed out of the ditch. There is a parking area across the street from the parking lot, but that may have been unplowed as well. I recall w...