billski
Active member
Well, the dope-slap of the day goes to :dunce: billski :dunce: for not reading the web site properly. It clearly says it opens at noon on Sunday. So here I am at 10:45 wondering why nobody is around. No signs posted, well, I'll just take walk-around photos and move along.
This is clearly a hill for the community. No advertising, no marketing. In fact, it's damned hard to find, even with a map, a gps and a compass. Well, it must be great if the access road is named "ski slope road". Unfortunately neither google, bing, mapquest, printed AAA map could locate it. And while it says it's in Jay technically, for purposes of navigation, it's really not. It's actually across the river from Livermore Falls, off of, get this, Spruce Mountain Road (duh). Don't expect signs along the way either. I love these sort of explorations. You have to use your brains and some backroads sense to find it.
For starters, this place is the way some of the earliest slopes had their starts. There are a number of rope tows around the place. They make it very clear you need leather gloves. The farmhouse has been transformed into a ski patrol and race team headquarters. The beams to build the lodge came from a nearby barn. From old photos I've seen, it doesn't seem much different than it did in the 50's. If you want the REAL DEAL, you gotta come here. Me too. No fancy parking lot, a pretty basic building, a cheap soda-company sign, and a lot of old junker snow machines around. Looks like a 100% family place, where people drop in for a couple of hours now and then. Probably explains the noon to four operating hours.
The photos say the rest.
Next stop on the Safari, Black Mountain of Maine
This is clearly a hill for the community. No advertising, no marketing. In fact, it's damned hard to find, even with a map, a gps and a compass. Well, it must be great if the access road is named "ski slope road". Unfortunately neither google, bing, mapquest, printed AAA map could locate it. And while it says it's in Jay technically, for purposes of navigation, it's really not. It's actually across the river from Livermore Falls, off of, get this, Spruce Mountain Road (duh). Don't expect signs along the way either. I love these sort of explorations. You have to use your brains and some backroads sense to find it.
For starters, this place is the way some of the earliest slopes had their starts. There are a number of rope tows around the place. They make it very clear you need leather gloves. The farmhouse has been transformed into a ski patrol and race team headquarters. The beams to build the lodge came from a nearby barn. From old photos I've seen, it doesn't seem much different than it did in the 50's. If you want the REAL DEAL, you gotta come here. Me too. No fancy parking lot, a pretty basic building, a cheap soda-company sign, and a lot of old junker snow machines around. Looks like a 100% family place, where people drop in for a couple of hours now and then. Probably explains the noon to four operating hours.
The photos say the rest.
Next stop on the Safari, Black Mountain of Maine
