Cross-Country Skiing
Like snowshoeing, cross-country skiing (abbreviated X-C), also known as ski touring, goes back a very long time. During the past decade or so it’s experienced a rebirth of popularity. X-C skiing remains one of the most enjoyable ways to explore the wilderness in winter. It provides a phenomenally good workout when practiced aerobically, although it can be done in a more leisurely, less strenuous way as well.
For X-C skiing you need a reasonably broad path or trail, preferably one which is free of sharp turns or unusually steep pitches. In snow country you’ll find some trails designated and marked for X-C skiing. Easy hiking trails are also very suitable, as are bridle paths, bike paths, and unplowed roads. A few inches of snow will be adequate on a trail which isn’t too bumpy, whereas rocky trails require a lot of snow to be skiable.
While downhill skiing receives much more publicity and attention than X-C skiing, undoubtedly because the former is a high-profit industry, X-C skiing has many advantages. It usually costs nothing when practiced on public lands, it’s safer, you don’t have to stand in lift lines, much more solitude is available, and it furnishes a real wilderness experience.
Cross-country ski centers have sprung up in recent years, and these are good places to learn the sport (you’ll pay a moderate entry or trail fee). Adventuresome skiers soon head for the wilderness, however, where relatively few people are to lie found in winter. You can enjoy the silence and ski with a backdrop of spectacular scenery.
Combining X-C skiing with camping means an opportunity for a winter adventure of the first order. You’ll need to wear a full-size internal frame pack while skiing in to your campsite, undoubtedly weighed down with winter gear and clothing. This kind of trip should only be attempted by someone who is both a skilled skier and an experienced camper.
Portland Map Photo Gallery
1635 Roger Williams runs afoul of the authorities in Massachusetts Bay Portland Map Colony by preaching a radical separatist message and questioning the right of an English king to deed what Portland Map is essentially native land to the Puritans. He is banished, but, following a warning from John Winthrop, Williams escapes and eventually establishes the colony of Rhode Island. Founded on the principle of religious toleration, Rhode Island soon becomes a haven for exiles from Massachusetts Bay. Government in Rhode Island will be totally separate from religion, except to restore order should religious quarrels arise. Not surprisingly, Sephardic Jews will find Rhode Island’s tolerant religious climate to their liking and begin to migrate there in the seventeenth century.
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