Wostawea ski club

Trails

The following are some of the groomed trails in Fredericton or within 2 to 3 hours drive of Fredericton. Please check out, or better yet, contribute to, our Trails blog.

Trail	Trail Maps	Location	Conditions
Crabbe Mountain	HTML	Central Hainesville	Conditions 506-463-8311
Fundy National Park		Alma	506-887-6000 fundy.info@pc.gc.ca
Killarney Park	JPEG	Fredericton	506-460-2881
Kouchibouguac National Park	Kouchibouguac National Park	Saint-Louis-de-Kent	Conditions 506-876-2443 kouch.info@pc.gc.ca
Lindsay Valley	GIF	CFB Gagetown	422-2000 ext:7310 (voice message updated daily)
Maine Nordic Heritage Sport Club	PDF	Fort Fairfield ME	Conditions
Mactaquac Provincial Park	JPEG	Mactaquac park	Mactaquac park 363-4747
Miramichi Cross Country Ski Club	JPEG	Nelson-Miramichi	Conditions 506-622-6991
Odell Park	GIF (black & white) PDF (colour)	Fredericton	506-460-2881
Wostawea Trails	JPEG (small file) JPEG (Large file)	Fredericton	Use only marked trails
Slippery Mitten Trail	Trail (link to PDF) Trail (PDF)	Park your car on Flume Drive just off Central Hainesville Rd Directions	Use only marked trails

Wostawea in the UNB Woodlot

During the past 6 winters (2004 – 2009/10) the Wostawea X-C Ski club has groomed ski trails within the UNB Woodlot.

Cross-Country skiers, from across New Brunswick and eastern Canada, glide along 13 kms of groomed skating and classic trails that consistently provide excellent opportunities for sheltered skiing on gentle terrain.

Wostawea’s agreement with UNB allows the club to groom the roads in the western portion of the UNB Woodlot as ski trails, but this is with the understanding that other activities may occur and these activities may negatively affect skiing. Wostawea understands that the UNB Woodlot is primarily for education/forestry use by students and serves a number of other goals for UNB (financial, etc). We realize that several other recreational groups also have agreements and that Wostawea does not have priority of use. In appreciation for our club being able to use the trails, we assist UNB by doing some trimming/cutting of road edges.

If anyone has any questions regarding the woodlot or notices some “problem” please contact Eric Hadley 474-0422 or ehadley@nb.sympatico.ca rather than UNB. Eric has been working with UNB regarding the club use of the woodlot and is our contact person.

Parking and accessing the Woodlot trails

There is safe parking with access to the UNB Woodlot/Kingswood trails at two locations.

Kent Road- permission was obtained for skiers to park in the Kent Building parking lot. Skiers must carefully cross Bishop Drive to begin skiing on the “Kent Road”.

Kingswood Golf Course– This season skiers can park in the Kingswood parking lot and will be able to access trail loops on the golf course. We have made a connecting trail from the Lollipop loop to Kingswood.

New Maryland Hwy- Parking along the side of the New Maryland Hwy is not recommended by Wostawea.

Wostawea at the Kingswood Golf Course

An additional 5 kms of trails will be available due to our club being invited to groom trails and use some of the facilities at Kingswood. Please note that Skiers must only ski on the groomed trails. Please do not ruin things for our club by skiing anywhere else on the golf course!

Three loop trails have been staked. A map will be put on the website as soon as we can accomplish it.

The Blue trail is very gentle trail about 2 kms that should be suitable for para-nordic skiers. Both ends of this trail access the Kingswood parking lots.
The Red trail, a 1km loop connected to the Blue trail, climbs a fairly steep hill and descends down a gradual slope. Great for practising uphill technique and doing intervals!
The Silver trail, about 4 kms, loops off the Red trail and mainly follows a service road in the treeline around the outside edge of some of the golf course. The Kingswood Connector (500 meters) joins the Kingswood trails to the Lollipop trail in the UNB Woodlot.

Signs: Self-standing information signs will be set up each winter which will include: a map of the trails, club contact details, information on trail etiquette and the Wostawea volunteer grooming effort. Walkers and dog owners are politely requested to not walk upon the groomed surfaces.

Important information for trail users

A useful fact you may not know: snow needs to 'set up' for several hours after grooming, and ideally overnight. If you ski on it before it's set, you'll leave deep ruts that will remain there until the next grooming or longer. It takes volunteers 4-6+ hours depending on the snow to groom the Woodlot, so they do it infrequently; therefore, other skiers will thank you to allow the snow to set before you ski on it! This isn't as much of an issue at Odell, which gets plenty of pedestrian traffic, or Lindsay Valley, where Leonard grooms often.

Because it is entirely volunteer, the trails are normally groomed only after a snowfall. We cannot come out and recondition the surface and repair damage on a regular basis, so please respect the trails!

How soon can I ski after the trails are groomed?

After the trails are first groomed they remain soft until they have "set up." This is particularly important for the skate surface, which takes several hours to set up. If you skate on the trails before the surface has set up, you will sink into the surface - and then the ruts that you leave will set up themselves! This will ruin the surface for everyone else - and for you, the next time you come out. The woodlot is groomed by volunteers and we cannot come out to repair a damaged surface. Please check blog - after we groom we will provide an estimated time when it will be safe to ski. But remember - this is only an estimate. If you get to the woodlot and find that you are sinking in to the surface PLEASE LEAVE AND COME BACK LATER or practice your double-poling in the classic track. It's not that much fun skiing on a soft surface anyway. If you really don't want to come out twice, just give yourself a bit of extra time before you come out.

The classic track sets up faster, because more pressure is applied by the track setter. It is usually ready to ski on soon after it is groomed. But again, if you find yourself sinking in and damaging the surface, please come back later.

I act as the Club "Trail guy", but two enthusiastic skiers from the Forestry Complex, Rex Boldon and Serge Allard, are organizing the grooming of the UNB Woodlot (as well as posting signs, clearing rocks and trees from the trails in the fall and putting up snowfencing in an attempt to keep snow on the Lollipop trail). This includes co-ordinating the efforts of about 10-12 volunteers who wrestle the Alpine snowmobile and grooming equipment for 3 -5 hours after each snowstorm. This provides the skiers in the Fredericton area with marvellous trails for both Classic and ski skating. Normally the efforts of these dedicated volunteers are recognized by a "Groomers Appreciation Fund", provided by several supportive businesses, while the operating costs (gas, oil, etc) were covered by the Wostawea club. Please encourage any skiers who use and enjoy these trails to join Wostawea and thus support the grooming effort. If you are interested in helping with the grooming please contact Rex Bolden 453-7133.

How can you as a skier help?

If you notice a branch, rock or other iteem on a trail, please stop and move it off.
Don't leave garbage on the trails.
Skiing will not damage firm classic tracks or the skating surface. But it usually takes 1-2 hours for the snow to firm-up after grooming. Please be considerate during this set-up time so that those that follow you will have good ski conditions.
It is appreciated if skaters make a special effort to not skate on the Classic track.
Have fun; greet other skiers with a friendly Wostawean smile!

Vehicles driving on Killarney Park Trails

If anyone has had ‘an encounter’ with motorized vehicles at Killarney Lake please call the Fredericton Police. Police have said that the more people who complain the more likely it is that police will patrol. The City has done such a good job with the trails at Killarney, they are very beautiful. It is a shame to have an outing ruined by unpleasant (to say the least) machine drivers.

Trail Etiquette

For skate skiers, the most important part of trail etiquette is don't ski right after grooming when the surface is soft. Also, please make a special effort not to skate over the classic tracks.
The faster skier has right of way. If you are coming up behind a slower skier, call out "Track," or even better "Track, please" to let them know to move to one side to let you pass.
If you are being passed, as a skate skier move to one side and narrow your stride or double pole for a few seconds to give the other skate skier room to pass. As a classic skier you should step out of the track and allow the other classic skier to pass.
Any skier coming down a hill has the right of way, please give them lots of space.