Berkshire Sports - Trail Guides - Curly's Record Run

Update: For 2013, Curly's Record Run will be the Massachusetts and Connecticut State Championship Race. All are welcome to participate in this event (where ever you live). The race for 2013 is part of the USSSA series of races held throughout the country. It is also a National Qualifier for 2012 Dion USSSA National Championships being held on March 15-17, 2012 in Bend, Oregon. More information can be found here: http://www.snowshoeracing.com/

Curly's Record Run is a snowshoe race that is held in the Pittsfield State Forest in January every year. The course is a grueling mix of double track and single track trails climbing almost 700' in about 1 mile, then descending about 800' down an 1920's ski race trail called the Shadow Trail. The route is very popular with snowshoers, especially just before the race.

Directions - Upper Parking Lot

Refer to the Winter Use Map.

The route:

Miles	Directions
0.0	Leave the field across the bridge from the upper parking lot and bear left up the "up" road.
0.17	Take a sharp left and go along the trail that runs behind the ski jump.
0.56	Go straight across the "down" road.
0.63	Go across a bridge over Parker Brook and then take a right and start going up hill steeply.
0.69	Bear left onto the Hawthorne Trail, ascending steeply to a point where the trail bears left and flattens out a little bit.
0.95	Take a sharp right and start up the real Hawthorne Trail. At one point during you ascent, you will come to another intersection like this and will need to take another sharp right. If you go straight at either location you will come to the old Hawthorne trail which used to run directly up the mountain next to a brook.
1.52	Reach the top of the Hawthorne Trail and take a left onto the Pine Mountain Trail
1.61	Take your next left on a trail that leads over to the Shadown and Ghost Trails.
1.76	Bear left on to the Shadow Trail and start descending steeply. The Shadow Trail is the actual ski trail that people used to race on in the days of leather boots and leather bindings. There were no gates in those days, you just had to keep yourself on the trail. Curly Voll set the course record of 1 minute 10 seconds.
2.22	At the bottom of the Shadow Trail, continue straight down through a 4 way intersection into a pine tree section of woods.
2.27	Take a sharp left and go across a brook and then bear right down a slight hill.
2.31	Take a sharp left and go across a section of the old high school cross country ski course back to the Parker Brook Trail.
2.63	Take a right this time down the Parker Brook Trail.
2.72	Where the brook bears away from the trail, take a left and follow the brook out to the "down" road.
2.74	Take a left on the "down" road and go back across this brook.
2.78	Just after the brook, take a right and follow a wide snowmobile trail for a very short distance.
2.82	Where the snowmobile trail splits and goes left up a hill or right to a field, go straight into the woods. Here we bushwack for a short distance onto an un-named trail that takes you over to the dirt road that cuts between the up and down roads.
3.00	Go straight across the dirt road at the gate and continue bushwacking along a twisty trail that parallels the dirt road, but a ways in the woods.
3.20	Come out of the bushwack section and take a right on a trail that almost goes back out to the up road.
3.42	Take a left on a trail through a nice section of pine trees.
3.56	Take a right when you come out to a field. This brings you to just about where you started. Go back through that field in the same direction you ran at the start, but this time...
3.66	Take a right and go down towards the CCC Building.
3.71	Finish across from the CCC building.