Trails at Ashland-area tree farm
beckon cross country skiers
A strong ski culture is growing in the Ashland area, thanks in part to the generosity of landowners and a mother who got hooked on skiing later in life.
More than two dozen people turned out for a picnic and ski in fresh snow last Saturday at the Chase Farm Ski Trails, a four-mile trail network on a Christmas tree farm owned by octogenarians Ed and Marilyn Chase and maintained by the Ashland Area Cross Country Ski Club.
Located in Garfield Plantation, just across the border from Ashland, the Chase trails are used by the Ashland school district ski teams and the general community, although “they don’t get used enough,” said Linda Milligan, Ashland ski coach and club volunteer.
People “can come any time they want, they can ski, they can snowshoe, they can bring their dogs,” Milligan said.
The Chase Farm Ski Trails opened up about a decade ago after Milligan and other skiers worked with the Chases, who had previously opened their property used for horseback riding in the summer, and as Maine was in the midst of a resurgence of Nordic skiing.
Milligan ran cross country when she was growing up in Vermont, but she “hated” skiing the few times she went. She ended up trying again, though, around 2003, when her young sons were introduced to skiing in elementary school through the Maine Winter Sports Center — and this time it stuck.
“Before I skied, I didn’t like winter,” she said. “Now I like winter just as much as every other season.”
Milligan and other parents in the Ashland area have made a “conscious effort” to get kids skiing, she said, as her youngest son Malcolm, a high school senior, and other students zipped around the trails.
“We have to get them going early so they’ll be more comfortable on skis, and I want them on the ski team,” Milligan said, noting that middle school skiers Willow Hall and Tristan Pelletier each placed first in recent Aroostook County races in Caribou.
The Chase Farm trails, located at 297 Garfield Road, offer a range of options for skiers. Most of the trails are flat or with modest ascents and descents and follow paths that existed for harvesting the Christmas trees and tours through varied stands of evergreens. Ed Chase also built a few steeper trails, including Jackson Gulch, “because we told him how much we like hills,” said Heather Bessey, a longtime skier who lives in Ashland.
