Travelogue

Boys with snowboardsBefore I get skiers with RVs all excited, let me say that sadly Brodie Mountain closed their resort around 2004, ending what I believe was the only opportunity to camp slope-side in the East. At one time, Brodie had a thriving seasonal campground, but by the time we discovered it in 2000, it was already on the decline. Too bad. What a great way to have an inexpensive winter vacation home.
Last winter we had spent a few nights at Brodie on our way home from Acadia and had vowed to come back each year. The mountain was just the right size for the kids to feel comfortable going off on their own and there were plenty good runs for me and Herb as well. The wooden chairlifts might have been a bit rickety and old-fashioned, but I preferred to think of them as classic. The best part of all was the convenience. We parked the motorhome in an electrical site right alongside the J.F.K. trail where we could literally ski right from our motorhome.

We arrived at Brodie late in the day and managed to get safely tucked into our campsite alongside the mountain just before the start of a pretty significant winter storm. It was so nice to just sit back in the RV and watch the snow come down and the skiers go by, right outside the back window. The boys were a bit tempted to do some night snowboarding, but it had been a busy couple of days, including bobsledding at the Olympic Sports Complex that very morning, so we convinced them to wait until tomorrow.

Early the next morning we were awoken by a knocking on our RV door, which startled us. Who could possibly be knocking on our door? Maybe we parked in someone’s spot? Instead of facing an angry camper, we opened the door and looked into the smiling faces of two of our friends from back home. One of them owns a motorhome, and we had told him about Brodie Mountain a few months back. These two guys and 4 of their kids (the wives had wisely stayed at home) had driven through the storm last night and arrived very late. They recognized our motorhome and parked next to it. I give them a lot of credit—no women and 4 kids!

We skied and snowboarded all that day and the next. What a difference from the rainy conditions we had here last winter. This year it was a veritable winter wonderland with powdery conditions you don’t often see in the East. We had a great two days!

Description

Ski resort in the Berkshires of Massachusetts that has sadly closed. At one time this ski resort had RV slopeslide camping--a rare find on the East Coast.