No fee cross-country skiing: WV

[fatlazyless]

"National Forest Public Access Area" is the White Mountain National Forest's description for two of the Waterville Valley cross country ski trails that depart from the Depot Camp parking lot, up at the north end of the Town of Waterville Valley. If you go to www.waterville.com, then to 'Nordic Center,' and then to 'conditions,' you should see a list of all the WV cross country trails, and notice that two trails: Livermore 3.5-km, and Tripoli 4-km both have small double asterisks which designate them to be National Forest Public Access Areas down in the fine print at the bottom.

What this means is that skiing these two trails is no fee, or free, as opposed to paying the WV Nordic day rate of $19/adult, or $14/youth 6-13, or senior 65+.

Parking a car at the White Mountain National Forest - Depot Camp parking lot requires a parking pass such as the $20/vehicle/year orange windshield sticker, or paying three dollars/day into the steel fee deposit tube located at the corner of the parking lot, and at the entrance to the Livermore Trail, which is a smooth graded dirt road. Parking without a pass leaves you subject to a $75 WMNF parking ticket, as far as I know. Public toilets are situated on the other side of the WMNF "Depot Camp" all-dirt parking lot. The parking lot can hold about 30 cars and that's a guess.

Best Bet: Head up the 3.5-km Livermore Trail to check out the conditions, and upon reaching the small wood bridge which crosses the brook, you will see a sign that says: Groomed Trail System-Trail Pass Required, and you can either purchase a $19 trail pass from a WV trails safety person who may or may not be there, or turn around and take the same trail back downhill for 3.5-km to your car.

Is the Livermore Trail groomed and double tracked? Last year in 2009-2010, the first 3/10 mile were not machine groomed, but were skier-user groomed with standard double tracks on the outside, and room for skating inside. The last 2.3 miles, heading uphill to the bridge, were machine groomed by a big expensive WV Piston Bully snow groomer with double tracks and skating perfection inside, up and down the very scenic Livermore Trail.

Do the no-fee trails get much use? Yes, they can at times get a lot of use by locals on both weekends and weekdays, who come from nearby Thornton, Campton & Plymouth, who know about its' no-fee status. Say hey; it can look like a 1970's cross-country revival trip complete with wood skis, wool knickers, & white-haired skiers! As the saying goes; there might be snow up on the roof, but there's still plenty fire down in the furnace, so just get out there and go for it.....something like old hippies on skis looking for a terrific freebie.....ho-ho-ho!

Quik quiz here: What costs less; paying nineteen dollars, or paying nothing?

This is your White Mountain National Forest: U.S. Forest Service, a division of the U.S. Dept of Agriculture; your federal government, and your tax money at work here, or something political like that, so what's not to like about it?

As of today, Wednesday, December 15, 2010, there is simply not enough natural snow on the very smooth Livermore or Tripoli xc trails to be usable for xc skiing, but this could be changing, hopefully, very soon. There's only maybe one inch or less of natural snow on the ground at this time, just enough to make it look white!