PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A group of black bears has made their winter home under a ski trail at the Nordic Heritage Center, surprising a university ski race and closing off a portion of the trail until spring.
Maine’s collegiate Nordic ski championship, the Chummy Broomhall Cup, experienced a roughly 30-minute delay Saturday, Jan. 27, when a hole opened up on a section of the Presque Isle loop trail, according to Mark Shea, venue manager of the Nordic Heritage Center.
Organizers noticed the den — thought to host a sleeping mother bear and two yearling cubs — after the men’s race, and thus changed the route for the women’s race, according to the Nordic Heritage Center.
Located about one mile from the center’s lodge, the den was apparently exposed after windblown snow was pushed back from the trail during grooming ahead of the race.
“The groomer shaved down a couple feet of snow to a few inches,” Shea said. “The body heat from the bear family helped melt that snow and opened the hole up.”
After discovering the den, venue leaders consulted with biologists from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and decided to recover the den with plywood and snow.
The Nordic Heritage Center has closed off that section of the Presque Isle loop trail until spring, taking out a little less than one mile of trail, Shea said, adding the center urges skiers and other trail users to stay clear of the section of trail hosting the den. It’s marked off and contains posters warning people to stay away and what to do if they encounter a bear.
It’s not clear if the bears were awakened during the ordeal, but they’re definitely there.
“When I was there Monday, you could see the bear breathing,” Shea said.
This is apparently the first time anyone has found a bear’s den underneath a ski trail at the Nordic Heritage Center, although numerous wildlife species frequent the site year-round.
“That’s one of the things that we’re proud of and work hard towards: that we take care of the land and wildlife,” Shea said.
