This Olympic ski center is hidden on farmland.

XC Skiing with Olympians in Rural Vermont | Best Après Pizza & Beer. When you think about where Olympic hopefuls go to train, you probably think of huge training facilities in a fairly large town or even a city. But where you don't think of is the very rural town of Craftsbury, Vermont, unless of course you've been there yourself. This little town tucked way up in the Northeast Kingdom region of the Green Mountain State, is almost as if it was plucked straight from a fairytale or postcard. Its quaint and unsuspecting with pastoral rolling farmland that blends seamlessly with hardy boreal forests. With just over 1000 year round residents its quite serene to be here. Its even more serene to glide along on our @fischer spider 62 otx skis, on the 105 Kilometers of trails that are impeccably maintained by the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. What makes it unique to anything else in the country is that most of the terrain is owned by many private landowners such as the local farms and other generous families. Its quite a memorable experience to be kicking and gliding through pristine wilderness and then emerge into gorgeous farmland passing cows, horses, and picturesque red barns that are actually still in use. But even when pulling into the parking lot you get a sense that this place is different, there is an incredibly beautiful lodge and Olympic training facility, with dorms, that tastefully blends into the rural setting with its raw sawed log cabin looking aesthetic, but not the cookie cutter looking pre-fab log cabin that some ski resorts use to lure the tourists in, but real rough hewn wood that was milled specifically to fit right into the rural setting. This is a REAL place. Then as you go into the ticket area to purchase your 10 dollar day pass, yeah its affordable too, you see a slew of Olympic level athletes training for all disciplines of Nordic including the Biathlon. So Cool! The staff is incredibly welcoming, genuine and fun to chat with. you sense how much pride they have in their facility and what they've created. You can even stay in the dorm facilities, that includes some awesome farm to table food and ski in ski out opportunities. Down the road just a ways is Parker Pie Pizza that sits inside the back half of Parker General Store in the small town of West Glover. They serve some of the absolute best handmade, fresh local ingredient pizzas in the northeast and have a great selection of Vermont brews on tap. Nikki likes the occasional craft beer, I don't drink alcohol but they had me very covered with a kickass maple lemonade that went perfect with the Malibu Barbie Pizza, their take on a Hawaiian, that is tough to beat. Vermont is one of those states that has more hidden gems, in the most unsuspecting areas, than anywhere I've ever travelled. If you want to experience two of our hands down favorites in the same day, that complement each other perfectly, then don't sleep on this day trip in the Northeast Kingdom region. Now pass me another slice, skiing here works up a hunger. #xcskiing #crosscountryskiing #2024olympics #olympians #vermont #nordic #ski #livetoski #winterwonderland #winterseason #olympicgames #snow #winterolympics #apresski #crosscountryskis #apresski ‪@craftsburyoutdoorcenter-yo7457‬ ‪@fischersports‬ ‪@candygrind‬