Trail grooming takes neighbors on a journey
By Dawn De Busk
Staff Writer
Rob Knowles and Roger Lowell are as excited as two children on Christmas Eve as they talk about the snow that this week’s nor’easter will bring.
The two Bridgton men groom the nordic ski trails that intersect woodlands and fields off Highland Ridge in North Bridgton.
The trails, which are located on privately owned land, are free to the public. Usually, the trail system is visited by approximately 50 carloads of people in the course of one weekend.
Alas, this isn’t a usual winter. That’s because there hasn’t been much snow.
So it was no surprise that last Saturday, the two volunteer trail-groomers started the conversation with the snowstorm that was being predicted. They talked about how much the trails will benefit from a nice foundation of snow.
“Just being able to get out in the woods and doing some grooming. This will be the first time this season that we have groomed a lot of the trails,” Lowell said. “We’re excited, especially Rob. He’s just chomping at the bit.”
Knowles agreed that he was looking forward to grooming again.
“I haven’t been able to drag in the woods this winter,” Knowles said, adding that he hopes for at least a half-foot of snow to make a good base.
Knowles used to ski and snowshoe but physically he cannot do it anymore because of wear and tear on his ankles.
“The only thing that motivates me is you go along at 7 miles an hour, and you see deer every once in a while, and you run into people who are enjoying themselves. Mostly, you just look back and you go, “That’s a damn nice-looking track,’ ” Knowles said. “It is something that I enjoy doing.”
“In the woods, the part I do, I have three drags. And Roger has at least two or three kinds of drags. They are about 42 inches wide. So, we do two passes so you end up with a maybe 6-foot-wide trails,” Knowles said, adding this allows both skiers and snowshoers to share the trails.
Since the mid-1970’s, Knowles and Lowell have been grooming wintertime trails in two separateareas on Highland Ridge. About 20 years ago, the two men realized they had a common goal. As the years have gone on, the trails have gotten wider and more miles have been added.
Both men have been involved in a whole lot of skiing during their lifetime.
In fact, Lowell was hired by the high school in Bridgton to start up a downhill ski team. A year later, he established a nordic ski team. Eventually, he would go on to become the principal of Lake Region High School, a job he maintained for 16 years until his retirement in 2010.
Lowell talked about the reasons he loves skiing.
“Getting outside and exploring. Trails are fun but I like to go off up some mountain, do a swamp or someplace new. The other big thing is seeing people having a good time using the trails,” Lowell said.
He said it is lot of fun to get other people hooked on this winter-time activity that he enjoys so much.
Warming hut heals a family
By Dawn De Busk
Staff Writer
After his wife Chris died, Roger Lowell and his adult children built the warming hut that she had always talked about.
The warming hut has been lovingly named The Dollhouse. Dolly was one of the nicknames of longtime Bridgton resident Christina “Chris” Lowell, who passed away Oct. 26, 2019. What now stands in her honor is a lovely wintertime warming hut made from the cedar lumber from the trees on the property where she raised her family. It is located off Chadbourne Hill Road, and is part of the Highland Ridge Nordic Trails. All four of her grown children participated in the construction project which perhaps turned into a way of healing.
For her husband Roger Lowell, it was a matter of staying busy and creating something to endure time.
“I think sometimes it is important to be really busy, being able to go out into the woods and build trails. Working on a project like that is therapeutic because it was something that she wanted. It gave me extra inspiration,” Lowell said. “You can either sit around and be sad or you can take that energy and use it in a different way. I guess that is what I was doing,” he said.
His eldest son Andrew, who lives in Sweden, does construction as his occupation. He used his skills to help design and construct the warming hut. “When I was getting ready to do something I would ask him and he would point me in the right direction,” Lowell said. “He did some of the hard, physical work that I couldn’t do alone — mainly the roof, the rafters, the metal roofing,” he said.
Roger’s other children, his youngest son Ethan, who lives in Falmouth, and his daughters Erica and Sarah took part in the construction project. Also, his twin brother Peter Lowell was tremendous help. The family would have discussions about making choices that would have pleased Chris.
“All of the art for the building was done in what she would have wanted,” he said. The materials were often donated by people who wanted to be part of the project. “This is a lot of reclaimed stuff like the barn boards are from an old barn down the road that got torn down. My father made that window up there. The front door is from an old family friend. They took it out of their house. The windows are from a camp down on Ingall’s Brook Road. This [pew] is from the North Bridgton church. Someone gave us the stove for the building, and the base for the stove,” Lowell said. “It is kind of nice because people had stuff they wanted to contribute to it. It becomes a community effort,” he said. The warming hut’s groundbreaking was in June and it was finished in September.
“I started the footings, just on cookies, this spring. I started the foundation and framework and everything in June,” Lowell said.
Twenty-five (25) people helped with the building in some capacity. Meanwhile, it piqued the curiosity of passers-by. “People would drive by and say, ‘What is going on there,’ and stop and ask questions,” Lowell said.
“You try to do it when the conditions are good. You don’t want to take someone out for their first skiing experience while it’s icy. You want the conditions to be good,” he said.
“The other day four people tried skiing for first time. The two little boys kept bugging the parents about coming back again. That is as good as it gets,” he said.
Lowell loans out skis for free. This allows people to test out the sport before they invest in new skis.
Considering that he has about 100 pairs of skis — chances are good someone will find a ski boot that fits.
“I keep a good supply on hand so that I can outfit anybody. The intent is to have it here. So that people can find something that fits If they really like it, they can buy their own,” he said.
All people have to do is e-mail him at roglowell@gmail.comThe important information people should provide is their shoe size and what day they want to ski.
He has been collecting skis for 50 years, since his children were little. Whenever his children outgrow a pair, he would buy new ones They would grow out of a pair, and he would keep the old ones. Oddly enough, he acquired many almost new sets of skis at the local dump and he suspects people purchased them new and then never really got into skiing.
The website, Maine by Foot, which lists eight trail systems in Bridgton, has helped to spread the popularity of Highland Ridge Nordic Trails. So, has word of mouth.
Along with the number of users, the number of trails have grown, too. Making new trails is something Lowell enjoys in the off season.
“It is fun to go into areas that don’t have any trails and walk around and find some pretty places and find a trail. Cutting it is hard work, but it is fun,” he said.
The men guessed that there are 16 miles of trails. About five miles of new trails were completed during the past summer. The previous year, three miles of trails were added.
Knowles said he expects a rebound in the number of people who use the trails — once it snows.
“It is going to take a while to get it back to where we were. But it’s going to happen because it’s free and people like that,” he said.
