by Deborah Lewis
We had a blast on Section 14. I went with my neighbor from Bridport/Addison and we were able to spot cars, leaving one at Mountain Top Inn and then driving together to Route 73. We skied the section north to south which is recommended unless you want to do two very long, steep downhills. We were glad that there had been a snowmobile there before us as the new, deep snow would have made it extremely difficult otherwise in the uphills. (As it was,
it was a workout). It's a beautiful section of the trail. While much of it is shared with snowmobiles, we only saw two while we were out on Friday. There is one section on ForestRoad 59 after the clearing where the signage is confusing. The trail markers say to go left/west at one point, but the better/main trail is further south at the Bloodroot Mountain snowmobile junction where you turn left. Note: the Catamount Trail web site map is inaccurate: it's best to use the old 8th edition of the trail book, whose map is accurate. I had skins along and I was glad to have them for the long uphill after the Bloodroot Mountain junction. The view from the top after this steep ascent are beautiful, and the ski down through the woods to connect into the Mountain Top trail system is fun. We were happy to be on the Mountain Top trail system for the last stretch after skiing in lots of (for eastern standards) fairly deep powder. This stretch of the trail has lots of fun ups and down -- I don't think I'd want to do it when the conditions are icy. It took us about 4 1/4 hours and it's 10.5 miles.
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