XC skiing season is in full swing

Last week I took the girls to the groomed trails of Twin Brooks in Cumberland for our first cross country ski trip of the season. The $2 trail fee per person is a good deal and the trail conditions are always great when we go there (check out a more detailed trail review we did last year, which includes directions).

The trails here offer a bit of everything for the kids - open field track to skate ski and a wooded area to escape the wind (it was quite windy last Thursday so escaping to the trees was nice). The girls like to see how fast they can skate ski out on the open track and with the grooming machine having just finished his run in the field the day we visited, the track could not have been more ideal.

The wooded trails here offer up a few small hills, just enough to keep the girls happy with the speed of going down the hills and the mild duck walk (the name my girls use for the v-shape ski walk to walk uphill) back up them.

Even while xc skiing, the girls wear their backpacks to carry snacks and water. If they ever decide to xc ski on a team (neither has a particularly competitive spirit for racing right now), they'll probably double their speed when they aren't wearing the packs. I figure it's good training for them ... and simplifies our snack break by carrying our stuff with us and not having to trek back to the car to get it.

 L. always seems to choose heavy snacks like applesauce and yogurt along with her water bottle. But she carries it all and doesn't complain ... and I can't knock her choice of healthy snacks for the trail.

And the added incentive of carrying these packs is the new patches they got for Christmas. I'm still working on getting a Baxter State Park patch but they're enjoying expanding their collection of trail and activity patches.

Below is map of our ski path around the trails of Twin Brooks. We xc skied just shy of 2 miles during this visit, a solid first outing distance for us I thought.

Cross Country Skiing: Twin Brooks at EveryTrail

If your family is new to cross country skiing, L. made a "how to" video on cross country skiing for her 4-H project last year. She offers a few helpful tips - and kid-friendly terminology - for kids interested in learning the sport (and of course includes some ski jumping from last year).