By Dawn De Busk
Gray residents Joseph Baiocchi and Christa Metivier and her mixed-breed collie, Wizard, arrived at the Libby Hill trailhead an hour before sunset on Sunday. Sporting a hunter-orange vest, Wizard carried a yellow tennis ball in his mouth and seemed anxious to start the late afternoon hike.
Meanwhile, the sun played hide-and-seek behind fast-moving clouds and gusts of wind shouted “Brrrr” into the already chilled November air.
Baiocchi said they try to get out on the Libby Hill trail at last once a week – more often if the weather is nice.
“We like to change it around,” he said. “It’s a vast system and it’s well-marked.”
At Libby Hill, there are trails with names like Turkey Trot, Moose Meander, Deer Run and Holmquist Hallow, which range in length from .4 mile to 3 miles; and each trail has a different color marker to help hikers navigate the trail system.
Metivier said she enjoys their weekly escape into the woods. It’s a chance for Wizard to expend some of his full-throttle canine energy, and a chance for her to get in touch with nature.
“You don’t even feel like you’re in Gray or like you’re in town. It’s so peaceful,” she said.
According to Libby Hill trails advocate Steve McPike, the 200-acre trail system has been set aside to preserve open space and counter the development going on in Gray, especially along Route 26.
Early Sunday afternoon, McPike took half a dozen people on a guided tour of the area – and they got a little history lesson to boot. He does guided hikes several times a year.
“This land is almost geographically centered in Gray,” he said. |
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“I’ve seen moms with strollers that have bicycles wheels on them. They say they’re glad they can take their strollers on the trail. One Sunday, there were four horse trailers in the parking lot.”
“Dog walking is increasingly popular,” he said, adding Pine Land trails recently banned dogs on the trails. “We ask people to leash them, or have them under voice command, especially in the winter. Dogs like to chase cross-country skiers.”
Moose Meander and Turkey Trot are among the trails that are more than 6-feet wide. Volunteers have removed rocks and roots, allowing groomed ski trails to be passable with only an inch of snow, McPike said.
“We’ll be able to ski earlier in the winter and later in the spring,” he said.
Mother Nature helped raise the funds to purchase the trail grooming machine. In 2003, after the trail system had been painstakingly developed, a microburst destroyed a quarter-mile swath of Libby Hills and sent two-dozen 100-year-old pine trees crashing to the ground. Workers cut the timber, and the money from those sales went toward buying a machine to groom ski trails, McPike said.
He explained the difficulty ratings on the trails are for cross-country skiing, and don’t apply to hiking. For example, the Harold Libbey Trail and the Outback are not groomed during the winter, and are designed for snowshoe excursions, McPike said.
For hikers, the Harold Libbey Trail isn’t so difficult but provides a more traditional nature walk with narrower trails and a peak at a beaver lodge. McPike said the water-loving mammals recently moved out of their lodge.
Gray residents Jon and Nancy |
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Windham resident Carene Ramsay and her beagle, Jewel, take abreak from walking along Chaffin Pond. Dawn De Busk photo |
Young, who use Libby Hill year round for hour-long trips at least twice a week, remember when it was a snow machine trail.
“It’s much nicer now,” said Nancy, who had just finished a rapid-walk.
The couple use poles for an extra cardiovascular workout and to relieve pressure on their knees when going downhill. They sometimes hike around Crystal Lake or Pine Land trails, too.
Jon said they saw Sunday’s group take off from the trailhead, but they prefer “the self-guided tour.”
McPike said in November, fewer people get outdoors because it tends to be the rainy month between brilliant fall foliage in October and the significant snowfall that rings in winter recreation.
This summer, when he held guided tours, the biggest demographic was women in their 40s or older, who were interested in getting outdoors but a little hesitant about going out on trails alone, he said. Although the trail system is well used, some people worry about getting injured and no |
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one coming to their aid. To alleviate that fear, he hopes to start a weekly walking group next summer.
Most of the daytime tours turn into a social event, where people start out not knowing one another, and soon there is plenty of conversation. When nighttime tours are held – such as the most popular one in February 2008 during a full moon lunar eclipse, McPike said people tend to refrain from talking.
“Everyone is wearing headlamps, and they don’t talk. Maybe because they can’t read the other people’s body language,” he said. “It gets real quiet.”
Libby Hill will hold a Winter Solstice night group hike on Dec. 21, according to McPike.
“I don’t know what it is, but people seem to like going out on the trails when it’s dark.”
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