Cross-country skiers seek revival of sport

FRENCHVILLE – There’s a feeling of tranquillity about gliding nearly noiselessly across the snow on cross-country skis, alone with your thoughts, except for the sight of an animal or two every once in a while.

The opportunity to experience that kind of feeling, alone with nature or maybe with a friend, has boomed in Aroostook County where the sport had been a part of life for decades. The boom is all thanks to a dream of a few people and the Maine Winter Sports Center.

In Frenchville, however, it has spurned a quandary because the sport which bloomed all by itself in the 1980s is on the way out. A few exercise-minded individuals have kept the Frenchville Cross-country Ski Club alive, but the club is on its last legs.

“We are getting older and some of us are getting tired of doing all the work, and people are no longer skiing,” Antoine Paradis, president of the club since 1986, said Tuesday morning. “There is less interest than there was years ago; the numbers are dropping.

“I remember times when there were 20 cars in the parking lot with many people on our trails,” he said. “Memberships now don’t even pay to keep the parking plowed.”

In the 1980s, the group had up to 120 families who were members of the group. That dwindled to five families paying memberships last year. Paradis knows of only five or six people who ply those trails now.

This year, the club members have not even solicited memberships; instead they are keeping the trails open for those few who use them for free. They still have money in the bank and snowmobile grooming equipment.

Joining Paradis in the effort are Hal Underhill, a retired physician, and Euclide Picard, a retired paperworker.

Paradis still works at the paper mill in Madawaska. Paradis’ wife, Jackie, is still treasurer of the group and has been for much of the 19 years the group has been operating.

The club has about eight miles of trails through forests and fields, with the facilities located off Paradis Road in Frenchville. The club members have stopped grooming one trail for the last two years.

Informed of the situation Tuesday, Max Saenger, executive director of the Maine Winter Sports Center, which has revived cross-country skiing in Aroostook Country, immediately thought some action was needed.

“Maybe we could get a skiing program at the local elementary school to try to keep this going,” Saenger said. “It would certainly be a shame if they closed down.

“Maybe we could give them a hand,” he said asking how to contact Paradis.

“Things are springing back up and the sport is growing, and I would like to keep them in it.”

The Maine Winter Sports Center has revived a sport that was on its way out in northern Maine. The revival has been impressive, to the point that national and international competitions have been held at venues built by the MWSC.

“Old clubs have kept things going here for years on their own,” Saenger said.

“It’s because of people like this that we have been able to fan the coals of the sport,” Saenger continued. “In Caribou we’ve seen the revitalization of the old Northmen Ski Club under the name of the Northern Skiers Club.”

“No one even calls about the trails anymore,” Paradis said. “I think it could still work, but we need younger people to come in and help with this.”

Paradis remembers a time when the club had a number of members from Fort Kent, and some people coming to ski their scenic trails from Caribou and Presque Isle.

Paradis remembers years when they had a gatekeeper at the trails on weekends to collect fees from nonmembers.

“Maybe it’s because these other towns now have their own good trails,” he said. “I don’t know what has happened.”

Paradis remembered the early years when dozens of volunteers helped to cut and clear trails. Even Boy Scouts had outings to help them.

“I think one of the turning points was when the snowmobile club sold their clubhouse,” he said. “It was used by skiers as a rest area, a gathering place with friends, and they even had parties there for skiers.”

The group was started by 10 individuals who put in $100 each for startup expenses. Dana Nelson, now of Ellsworth, was the first president.