Hardwood Hills redesigns trail system

Wed, Nov  12, 2008 - By Jack Sasseville

Our trail system has been completely re-designed for the 2008-09 season. We now have trail options that total 88 km. (See the trail maps in the winter section). All of the new loops have been named after Winter Olympic sites starting in 1994 in Lillehammer up to and including Sochi, Russia in 2014.

The new trails are:

Torino - 5km easy - there are no steep uphills or downhills or sharp turns on this trail and it is easier than Meadowlands 

Nagano - 8 km easy to medium - a little more rolling with no sharp turns

Sochi - 12 km - medium - stays on the ridges with a few steeper downhills and uphills

Lillehammer - 15 km - medium to hard - goes around the outside of the trail system and includes some steep uphills and downhills and sharp turns

Salt Lake City - 19 km - medium to hard - does the complete trail system except for the trail to the Posts and back. Includes some steep uphills and downhills and sharp turns.  

Vancouver - 10 km- hard - racing trail - there are also 3.3 km, 3.75 km, 5 km, and 7.5 km options on this trail.

Unfortunately we have not been able to negotiate a lease with the owners of the Meadowlands property. They wanted much more than we were able or willing to pay and much more that we were paying for our lease from the County for our existing trails. With the creation of the Torino trail we have a trail that is easier for beginners than Meadowlands. It eliminates the big uphill at the start of Meadowlands and the big downhill at the end as well as the dangerous road crossing.

Andrew has been clearing the new cut-throughs for the past 3 weeks. 

There are 5 new cut-throughs for this winter. These cut-throughs are primarily on the Vancouver Racing trail and allow us to make a very demanding race course that will test every skier. We will also re-open a couple of old cut-throughs and short cuts that have not been use for years. One of them is called Snow Farm and it allows us to have a very easy 5 km Torino trail that cuts off the hills of Little Dipper and Wiggly.

We are just about ready to start replacing and repairing the lights for the lit trail system. We hope to have 1-2 km operational for the winter.

Here are a couple of pictures of the new cut-throughs. The one on the right is at Cookie Tin and goes from the top of S turn over to the Tower Loop. The one on the left is just at Janet's Gateway. Both of these are on the Vancouver Racing Trail. This trail is designed to give us the maximum climb and difficulty in a racing trail for those of you who really want to test yourself. This trail would match any top racing trail in the country.