The Valentine's Day snowstorm had all the hallmarks of a good old-fashioned blizzard, so it was appropriate to meet some good old-fashioned people on the cross-country ski trails in the Bethel area.

I was staying in Bethel -- snug as a bug in a rug at the Sunday River Inn -- for a few days to confer with several leaders of Maine's nordic ski industry.

The best place to start was at Wednesday's monthly networking breakfast of the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce at the Bethel Inn.

After breakfast I wandered down to the touring center and ran into about 15 people with Always An Adventure, a Concord, NH-based outing club that specializes in organizing group excursions for retired people. They were coming in from a morning of skiing on the trails before settling into one of the inn's cozy meeting rooms for coffee, socializing and bridge.

Skiers with the Always An Adventure outing club return from the trails at the Bethel Nordic Center at the height of the Valentine's Day snowstorm
ALL PHOTOS SCOTT ANDREWS

I chatted with Barbara Hanchett, a spry lady in her mid-60s who had retired from the Concord YMCA a few years earlier. For 20 years Barbara had led trips like this for the "Y." When she retired she started Always An Adventure, which currently counts about 160 members who range in age from mid-50s to mid-70s.

The Top of the Hill gang poses on Wednesday after returning from a morning on the trails at Sunday River Cross Country Ski Center

Returning to the Sunday River Inn, I met another group of extremely active and energetic seniors returning from an excursion on the cross-country trails (some were snowshoeing). This bunch was the Top of the Hill Gang, mostly from New England.

Leader Rocco Pennacchio explained that the club numbers about 400 and will celebrate its 20th anniversary in April. They ski all over the world, both cross-country and downhill.

Far too many older people simply vegetate after retiring. It's so refreshing to meet people like the Always An Adventure bunch and the Top of the Hill Gang, who represent the gold standard of life in the "golden years."

Both these groups were out having a great time on the cross-country ski trails at the height of the Valentine's Day storm. I venture to speculate that the vast majority of their fellows back in their hometowns were huddled by their televisions sets watching a bunch of talking heads tell them that they SHOULD NOT SHOULD NOT SHOULD NOT venture outdoors on such a day. (One SHOULD NOT watch that much television!)

Hardly a gold-encrusted antique himself, Sunday River cross-country founder/impresario Steve Wight is segueing into semi-retirement. Steve shared some thoughts on the development of nordic skiing in Maine.

Steve Wight, owner of the Sunday River Inn and the developer of its touring center, poses by his Pisten Bully groomer at the height of Wednesday's snowstorm

Sunday River Inn developed its touring center in 1972, making it one of Maine's first. He also co-founded two business organizations that represent touring centers. Cross Country Ski Areas Association is an international group that is based in western New Hampshire, while the Maine Nordic Ski Council worked for 25 years before being absorbed into the Ski Maine Association.

All three of the Bethel-area cross-country centers worry that the proliferation of government-subsidized nordic trails in southern Maine is siphoning off day-trip business and threatening their continued operation.

The two others I spoke with are David Carter and Mike Cooper. David has been involved in the Bethel cross-country scene since 1962. He and wife Anne run Carter's Cross Country, which stretches from the banks of the Androscoggin River to the summit of Farwell Mountain. Find the center on the Intervale Road.

Operating as an independent concessionaire/contractor, Mike Cooper runs the cross-country operation at the Bethel Inn and also grooms the competition trails at nearby Gould Academy. Over the past several years, he's revitalized the Inn's nordic offerings.

Meantime up at Sunday River Resort (the mountain) communications director Alex Kaufman bubbled about Wednesday's storm.

“It’s our largest 24-hour snowfall since the early 1990s, which is when daily snowfall records were first reliably kept at the resort," he reported. "There might have been a bigger one prior to then, but this is the largest 24-hour event even our 20 and 30 year employees can remember."

It bodes well for the big President's Day Weekend and Maine/Massachusetts school vacation week.

And speaking of old-fashioned... You know you're an old-school skier if you can remember back to the days when George Washington's Birthday was celebrated on February 22 -- back in the era of hickory boards and pine tar.

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