MILLINOCKET, Maine — Greg Friel had never seen the rolling hills of Hillcrest Golf Club until he took his son to a golf clinic there in June 2013, but the course’s winding cart paths and open greenery gave the Schenck High School physical education teacher an idea.
“I thought, ‘This would make a great place to ski,’” Friel recalled Saturday.
Friel and fellow volunteer Paul Corrigan are the creators of about five miles of cross-country skiing trails that stretch from a nature trail at Stearns High School to the golf course. The trails are free to the public.
Having opened a few weeks ago, the course has drawn dozens of skiers despite having relatively little publicity. Corrigan said it fulfills his and Friel’s goal of broadening the town’s appeal with residents while drawing more tourists looking for fun activities.
“It is a very hilly nine-hole golf course. The terrain is always changing, so you’re climbing a lot, but the hills aren’t too steep, and there are some really nice downhills,” said Corrigan, a writer and retired Baxter State Park ranger who has cross-country skied in competitions for many years.
“It’s a wonderful place to work out, like a race course,” he added.
Corrigan and Friel marked the course shortly after winter began after getting permission from Hillcrest’s board of directors and a grooming sled from Northern Timber Cruisers of Millinocket, an all-terrain vehicle, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing club. Frank Clukey, Millinocket recreation director, also helped the volunteers secure insurance to indemnify the club against liability created by the skiing.
Hillcrest officials allowed the use of the course as long as the volunteers kept the trails on the cart paths as much as possible and did whatever else they could to limit damage to the facility. Snowmobiling on the golf course remains prohibited, Corrigan said.
Sean Clark, an experienced downhill but neophyte cross-country skier, said the trails ride pretty well
“I had no trouble getting around there,” said Clark, co-owner of the nearby Ice Fish Inn. “I have it tagged as intermediate. There are a few hills, but they aren’t terrifically steep or long.”
The trails are marked and wide enough to allow both skating- and classic-style cross-country skiing, Friel said. Being on a golf course, the trails offer more open terrain and deeper snow than most trails, and far fewer annoying obstacles, such as tree branches and waterways.
Corrigan said he hoped that the new trail would complement the many older trails in the region and that its proximity to downtown Millinocket restaurants would draw people from around the state.
“We didn’t think it would turn out as well as it did. You design something and you don’t have a sense until you ski it,” Corrigan said. “It seems to me that it has a very nice rhythm.”
The volunteer effort, Corrigan said, falls in line with an economic development report by a Virginia consultant who recommended last month that volunteers work to beautify and better-utilize the town’s natural resources to help it grow.
“I read the report and it said that things, recreation efforts, like this were needed,” he said. “I think this is a little piece of the puzzle.”