1.8 Miles|
A loop of just under two miles, Circuit begins hard by the Visitor Center. Outbound is uphill and inbound downhill, an ideal arrangement that calls for climbing when you're fresh and allows you to coast home at the end of your tour. Its "Easiest" rating suggests, fairly, that neither incline is serious business. Traffic generally proceeds counterclockwise, although no dictates are in place. In any event, the trail is wide enough to accommodate oncoming, or overtaking, skiers.
Just past the entrance to Whitestone (which at some point you'll want to ski), Circuit slopes ever so gently downhill for a pleasant run of perhaps a hundred yards, emerging into a spacious woods.
The light at the end of the forest is Sawmill Field, site of a lean-to type shelter with expansive views and a slope for practicing your downhill technique. Circuit Trail turns back here, enters once more the Black Forest, passes the funneling exit of Mushroom, and climbs gently by crossings of Elbow Tucker and Mixed Wood. Left at the fork with Spruce Hill Trail is the easiest way home; otherwise, you face a short, but steep and tricky, descent where Spruce Hill/Anthill spills out into the field above the Visitor Center. |
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Everyone
skis Circuit. For newcomers to
Notchview, it's the obvious choice to get a feel for the skiing.
For regulars, and those heading for more distant reaches, Circuit
links to almost everything else, from Judges Hill Trail on the
west to Bumpus and Minor Trails on the east; Whitestone and Mixed
Wood cross it.
Circuit
forms an elongated oval. Several short trails connect the upper
passage with the lower. Assuming you're in the counterclockwise
mode, they appear in this order: Ant Hill Loop, Bridge, Whitestone,
Quill Tree, Mixed Wood, Elbow Tucker, Mushroom. The arrangement
suggests the opportunity to weave back and forth, exploring the
terrain that Circuit circumscribes.
But
beyond that lies a mini-Black Forest. When Colonel Budd ran the
place--he later bequeathed the estate to the Trustees, who gave
his name to the Visitor Center--he installed here a plantation
of Norway spruce, arranged with military precision in tight rows
and narrow columns. Sunlight rarely penetrates the canopy, and
the snow can be thin or icy and sprinkled with spruce needles.
Red squirrels like it for the seed cones; fisher like it for
the squirrels.