Last weekend in Fort Kent, an event took place that will act as a seed. The first instructions were laid down and covered over with promises of opportunity. Now the Maine Winter Sports Center is expected to blossom into a future haven for Olympians.

When ski director Max Saenger invited 30 County high school skiers to the Maine Winter Sports Center at Fort Kent’s Lonesome Pine ski trails, it was to introduce them to the concept of competing in biathlons. By next fall, the center will have a full-time ski coach and full-time biathlon coach joining Saenger. Then regular training camps will be held.

At Fort Kent and elsewhere in the County, the entire Maine Winters Sports Center project is coming together quickly. It will include two world-class skiing and biathlon venues and several skiing trails in Aroostook towns.

The Libra Foundation’s donation of more than $1 million to enhance existing cross country skiing programs was the foundation, but community work has made it possible.

At Fort Kent, 7.5 kilometers of trail designed by renowned course expert John Morton are cut, and a world-class 27-point shooting range for biathlons is nearly completed with views of much of the course.

“The trails are as good as anything I’ve skied on anywhere in the world, and I’ve skied in World Cup races in Norway, Sweden, Italy,” Saenger said. “These trails are challenging. It’s interesting for spectators. It’s ideal for television.”

It’s also everything Saenger hoped for. Part of his job is to promote the sport, and television would help in that vein.

Saenger envisions Olympic trials in five years, World Cup events in seven years. By next summer, after the lodge is built, it will be completed.

Fort Fairfield high school coach Paul Lamoreau said in the County, where basketball “has been king,” folks will take a wait-and-see attitude toward the promise of world-class events. But to involve the community will create excitement.

“Like a lot of things, they talk about coming along and changing the area. Like with agriculture 20-30 years ago, people said the sugar beet was the next big crop. That never panned out,” Lamoreau said. “For his goal to make Aroostook County into the next hotbed for cross country skiing, he’s going about it the right way.”

Lamoreau said the fact Saenger has gone to help individual schools plan and build their courses, and the fact he is already holding training camps are signs Saenger is serious about creating interest, not just coaching Olympians.

“He’s out there in communities talking in schools. You need to start something at the ground level,” Lamoreau said. “The more people you get interested, the more interest there will be, the better it will be.”

At harvest break, many students came to help clear away brush on the Fort Kent trail. In Stockholm, students in grades K-5 spent a day spreading 20 bales of hay. In Madawaska, high school coaches had people who decorated their lawns with hay bales for Halloween and then donate them for the trail. In Caribou, high school coach Bob Sprague has been at work with Morton cutting the trail there.

Trails are also being designed in Van Buren and New Sweden.

In Fort Fairfield, Morton has designed a course that winds through the woods, making skiing more appealing than the old course that ran across a potato field.

“Certainly, if we have nice trails, more kids will come out,” said Lamoreau, who normally has about 20 turnout from a high school enrollment of about 200. “They’ve put a lot of work in at Fort Kent, there is work done in Caribou, it can’t help but promote skiing.”

Resorts online give skinny on deals

Six Maine ski resorts have web sites that make it easy to find their events and weather conditions. Not all have calendars or price lists, but those that do are handy.

Bigrock in Mars Hill gives the lowdown on lift ticket prices, and it’s reasonable. Skiing on weekends cost as little as $22.

Some of the upcoming calendars events are worth writing down now. At Lost Valley, Feb. 23 is the “Adult free Ski Party Nite.” Sugarloaf’s Blues Festival is Dec. 10-12, and its White World Week is two months away, but the latter promises cheap lift tickets. At Sunday River on Thanksgiving Day, the turkey dinner is on the house.

For other deals on skiing, check the web site, www.skicentral.com.

Sunday River host to New England

Sunday River resort was the only resort open in the East earlier this month, hosting ski racers from New Hampshire and Vermont, where there was a lack of snow.