XC Skiing Peabody Mill – Joe English Reservation
| Date: | 1-20-2025 |
| Location: | Amherst, NH |
| Distance: | 1.35 mi |
| Elevation Gain: | 86′ |
| Total Time: | 0 hr 56 min |
| Parking: | 20+ cars |
Since we had some snow fall recently, I decided to take my Fisher S-Bound 98 skis out for a spin at the Peabody Mill Environmental Center.
I had been here recently and knew what trails I wanted to try with the skis. When I got to the lot there were a few other vehicles there. Temps were in the low 20’s and the sky’s, were blue. Perfect day.
I grabbed my gear and headed out to the Harmond Brook Trail. This was fun because there are a few bridges to cross. There was about 5” of fluffy snow on the ground but there were also a lot of rocks I was scraping my skis with.
Caution was taken on any of the downhills because of the potential of “dead stops” by hitting rocks. For the most part the trails were well covered though.
From this trail I went to the Timber Trail. This was a great trail, and no one had been on it yet. The trail goes through an area of large rhododendron plants. There were a few glides on this trail that were fun as well.
After a few ups and downs I arrived at the junction of the Old Brook Road. This was a fun section of this trip. It had just the right amount of downhill. A really fun glide.
The trail starts out going through a tunnel of trees. Then it starts to flatten a bit and continues by a number of side trails. This was easy to glide down. The lower part of the road had seen a lot of foot traffic since when I started.
Toward the bottom I saw a bridge off on one of the side trails. So I shimmied down and skied across. There was a large rock foundation there. It turns out these are a the remains of the old Peabody Mill. I had been here a few times and never knew the mill was here. I thought that was pretty cool.
Before I knew it I was back at the parking lot. It was a quick trip but it was fun. If there was another 5+” of snow this area would be fantastic! I’ll be back again to ski some other trails.
