Way back when, in the 80’s, when I began my career at the College and started skiing regularly at the College-owned Rikert Ski Touring center at Breadloaf, some “newer signs” were being mounted on the trees, indicating new trail names. Apparently, until a few years previously, the trails had descriptive names, such as “Turkey Trot”, “Snow Snake” and “Figure 8”, and these, rather than their newfangled names were still commonly used, but the college trustees chose to rename these trails to honor famous Middlebury figures – some of which were truly connected to the Breadloaf campus, and some whose direct connection to the environs still seems a bit mysterious. Nonetheless, most of the old names are now only vague memories of the old-timers, and the 30+ year old new names are used on the modern trail maps, as well as the signage out on the trails. I thought it would be fun to ski all of the trails named after historical figures, and find out a little bit about each of them.
Battell
Leaving the open field, and entering the woods, the first trail most first-timers ski onto is the Battell Trail. It is only fitting that this well-loved trail is named after Joseph Battell, a scion of Middlebury who built the Breadloaf Campus as a mountain resort, and donated it to Middlebury College to create the Breadloaf Campus. Full disclosure here – my endowed chair at the college is named after a few of his descendants, so I guess I too have benefited financially from his generosity! I could write a whole post on Battell, but there are a lot more names coming.
Cook
After a short climb on the Battell Trail, I took the right turn onto the Cook Trail, a delightful little dipsy-doodle descent, complete with a mini-jump that has been part of the trail for as long as I have skied it. The Cook Trail is named after Reginald Cook, an English Professor at the college, and also director of the Breadloaf School of English, the summer Masters Degree program, in the mid-20th century.
Thomas
The next named trail, “Thomas” was one I had no idea on. Rebekah, a college archivist, did a little sleuthing for me, and suggested that the trail is named after John Thomas, the Middlebury College President from 1908-1921. He is also known for having founded the Breadloaf School in 1920, so it makes sense that he would be honored with a posthumous trail name!
After a short stretch rejoining the Battell trail, I finally got to a trail named after an actual skier! The Bower Trail, named after Middlebury Alum John Bower ’63, arguably the most famous Middlebury College Athlete. In addition to winning the NCAA Championship in cross-country skiing in 1961, he also was on the US Olympic Teams in 1964 (Innsbruck) and 1968 (Grenoble), and returned to coach the Middlebury Ski Team before leaving to direct the nordic program at the US ski team.
Freeman
My wandering path next brought me to the Freeman trail, named after Professor Stephen A Freeman, who passed away in 1999 at the age of 478 (OK maybe I stretched that a little, but he was over 100!). Freeman is known for bringing the Middlebury language programs to international prominence, and establishing the schools abroad. I don’t know of any special connection he may have had to the Breadloaf Campus, or the Rikert Ski area. Does anyone else know?
Gilmore
I next did a short loop on the Gilmore trail, named for the adjacent Breadloaf Dormitory by the same name. I wasn’t able to connect this trail name to any Middlebury College name of prominence, but my college archivist connection Rebekah guesses that it was the name of a local landowner at some point. Looking on geneologysites confirmed that there were indeed Gilmores living in Ripton in the 19th century, but I couldn’t find much more, although I suspect that time spent looking over Ripton land records could confirm or deny this. I will also take a look around some of the local cemeteries this summer with my eyes open for the Gilmore name. I did, however, find a blog post describing past alcohol-fueled literary debaucheries by some of the summer residents of Gilmore House!
Sheehan
The next named trail on my jaunt through the woods, is another one named after an actual skier, the Sheehan Trail, named after “Bobo” Sheehan, Middlebury Class of ’44, whose name is also attached to one of the chair lifts at the Snow Bowl. Sheehan, a born and bred Vermonter (from Newport), also the was the coach of the college ski team from 1947-1967, and was also the father to professional golfer Patty Sheehan. Although I suspect that he was more known for his prowess as an alpine skier, I think he deserves a nordic trail as well.
Frost
The next named trail, Frost, needs no introduction. He lived here, wrote here, and walked here. And yes, probably slept here as well.
Holland
Although I didn’t ski at all on the Holland Trail, I did pass by the sign for it. This was a tough one to figure out, but a friend who is a former Rikert Employee and Google Whiz (Thanks Nate!) came up with a likely candidate, Laurence Holland, a longtime Breadloaf professor and Chairman of the English Department at Johns Hopkins, who apparently met his demise while swimming unsuccessfully (That is a euphemism for “drowned”) in the Ripton Gorge in 1980.
Mandy
The next trail name as a little bit of a mystery as to its name, “Mandy”. I have heard two explanations as to its origin. The more reputable of the sources seems to think that the trail name is associated with a former Breadloaf employee whose last name was “Mann”, while another current employee thought she had heard it was named after someone’s dog. I am going to have to ask some old-timers about this one!
Craig’s Hill
After rejoining the Frost Trail, I took a sharp left turn, and came down from the upper reaches of the old racing trail, and descended the section known as “Craig’s Hill”. Chatting with a former Rikert employee, he seems to think that the Craig name was associated with a landowner in the area, past or present. Most people who ski at Rikert probably don’t give too much thought to land ownership, presuming that all the land is either Middlebury College property, or part of the national forest. Actually, the land is a patchwork of private, college and public property, and I know that expansion of the cross country skiing is limited by the needs of local property owners.
Upson
Still following the path of the old racing trail, I came to the Upson Trail, still commonly known by it’s old name “The Figure 8”. A few years ago, on this blog, I wrote a little bit about Mr. Upson, but self-plagiarizing:
W. H. Upson had been a prolific writer for the Saturday Evening Post, as well as other periodicals during the mid 20th century. Although he lived in quite a few parts of the country, including a stint at the Caterpillar Tractor Company in Illinois,when he eventually settled in the Middlebury area, he frequently attended the Breadloaf Writer’s Conference, and taught creative writing on occasional at Middlebury College.
The house on RT 125 called “Earthworm Manor” is also his former home, and is still used as a Breadloaf School of English residence.
Tormondsen
The last descent down to the Breadloaf Barn, home of the Rikert Center, is down a trail now labelled as the Tormondsen Trail. This trail, the current racing trail, is named after John Tormondsen ’82, a former All-American skier and generous donor to the college – and even younger than me! I have presumed that he donated a lot of money to the college to support the Rikert area’s recent upgrades, as well as making the donations such that the common room of the building where I work, Bicentennial Hall, is also named after him. Thanks!
On a more somber note, the trail maps for this final descent also still also bear the Cubeta name. The now-deceased professor for whom this trail was named long ago, was a powerful English Literature professor, Provost of the College, and head of the Breadloaf School. In the Middlebury College version of #metoo, about 30 years ago, enough men started talking to each other, and realized that they weren’t the only ones being sexually harassed by this professor.
Now, you might guess from the length of this posting, that this was an epic long ski tour. Nothing could be further from the truth – I covered a lot of Middlebury College history in about 4 miles!
Google Earth of the ski tour
Given the recent loss of snowpack, my plans to do some cross country skiing turned into a running day. I wanted to find a run where there was enough snow to feel wintry, but didn’t want to find myself scrambling, rather than running, on icy single track. So, I thought that the run up to the Sugar Hill Reservoir, using groomed snowmobile trails, would make for a fun run, especially since I would be wearing my slip-on Microspikes. I had detailed this run many years ago, in my first year of blogging, albeit in the summer, so I thought it would be fun to rehash the run, with some winter photos.
Arriving in the parking lot, found at the end of the plowed portion of the Brooks Road (the road on your right, just past Breadloaf heading towards the Snow Bowl), I saw a few other cars parked there, showing that the warmer than usual weather had inspired others to get outside! Parking my blue beetle, I started the run up Brooks Rd, where It had been recently groomed for snowmobile travelers by our friends at the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers, aka VAST. As an aside, VAST makes a detailed map of all the snowmobile trails in the state, which is an excellent source of trail running inspiration in the winter or summer. I purchased a copy of this map at Rosie’s Restaurant in Middlebury, although I assume it is available in other places. As I have noted in the past, the combination of groomed snowmobile trails and microspikes makes for excellent winter running. I never felt like I was going to slip, ascending or descending, and the spikes didn’t seem to appreciably slow me down. If was also fun seeing the mix of tracks – deer tracks, bird tracks, dog tracks, people tracks, and some skid marks that looked remarkably like sled tracks on the hard packed snow.
Tracks and Shadows
The run starts off easy enough, pretty flat for the first quarter mile, but the next mile after that is where the bulk of the climb takes place, ascending relentlessly up 400 vertical feet. I also have noted various side trails along the way, and once in a while make a mental note to explore them. A half mile up the hill, I noted an unmarked trail to the left, and decided to explore it during my descent. At about the 2.5 mile mark, the snowmobile trail makes a well marked right turn, with a short ascent, and a steep descent down to the Sugar Hill Reservoir – the body of water that is the highest altitude part of the water project funneling water down to the small hydroelectric plant on the shores of Lake Dunmore. Reaching the shores of the reservoir at a little over 3 miles, I looked completely frozen over, and I briefly considered running on the ice, around the periphery, but common sense prevailed, and I realized that this little adventure needed to wait until I wasn’t running alone. On a typical summer day, there are usually a few fishermen or kayakers playing in or by the water, made easily accessible via a dirt road from the Ripton-Goshen road, but today, I was the only person there enjoying the scenery. The lake looked cold and windswept, but it was such a warm day, that just hanging out for a short while on the shores was rather pleasant.
Shoreline Spillway
This was a straightforward run, so my return simply involved retracing my steps, with the addition of a little bit of exploration on the side trail, near the bottom, on my right while descending. It looked like a well- beaten trail, so I figured it had to lead somewhere, right? Well, it went all of a tenth of a mile, ending at a small stream, leading me to the conclusion that this trail served the needs of fishermen, not runners and hikers. It was a pretty little place, however.
Babbling Brook
Returning to the Brooks Road, I completed the descent for a 6.5 mile run, with about 600 total feet of climb and descent – a very modest run for a laid back weekend day.
Google Earth of Sugar Hill Run
Altitude Rrofile
