Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook, Maine, Will No Longer Offer Cross Country Skiing

Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook opens up their cross-country skiing trails every winter. If you're an outdoors person, this is a great way to get some good exercise and have some fun over their 25 kilometers of groomed trails. I did the math and that works out to 15.5 miles. It's too bad I never learned the metric system in school, but they tried.

Unfortunately, on New Year's Day, Smiling Hill Farm announced on their Facebook page that they had decided to discontinue cross-country skiing. It was news that cross-country skiing fans did not want to hear, but when you look into it, the decision was the right one for them to make.

The Announcement

The post on Smiling Hill Farm's Facebook page was a sad one for anyone who has used their trails and for the Smiling Hill Farm:

Sadly, due to the increasing lack of snow in our area during the Winter months, we have made the decision to discontinue cross country skiing on the Farm.

 

You may be thinking to yourself, "Are we really not getting enough snow?" According to WMTW 8 Meteorologist Ted McInerney the answer is a resounding yes. Check out the annual snowfall numbers from 2020 through 2024. These numbers indicate how much less snow we got compared to the average snowfall amounts.

For five years in a row, there has been a large deficit of snowfall. It's not only the amount of snow, but the temperature swings have been wild and any snowpack hasn't stuck around.

Some sad news, but if there's a silver lining, Smiling Hill Farm will be offering snowshoeing when and if snow conditions allow it.