The Winter Survival Guide
20. Go cross-country skiing on the right side of the law.
Photograph by erik buraas/getty images
Fear of liability claims has put an end to public cross-country skiing on most golf courses, with anxious managers posting “Keep Out” signs and patrolling the grounds in search of fleeced-up interlopers. Fortunately, there are two top-notch local spots offering skate and classic skiing (as well as snowshoeing).
Weston Ski Track: You’ll find 15 kilometers of groomed trails on Martin Golf Course, and thanks to snow-making machines you can ski at night around a two-kilometer track in even the driest winter. Rentals and lessons are available, plus there’s a snack bar for refueling.
$15/day, $8/day for ages 6–12, 200 Park Rd., Weston, 781-891-6575, skiboston.com.
Great Brook Ski Touring Center: Lacking snow-making ability, the more scenic option is also the less reliable. With 10 miles of trails that glide through woods and pastures, past a working dairy farm and around several ponds, it’s an absolute wonderland; a wood stove–heated renovated cow barn serves as the lodge. Great Brook offers rentals, too, and on Tuesday and Thursday nights, a lantern-lit mile-long trail extends the skiable day.
$12/day ($10 weekdays), $7/day for ages 7–12, 1018 Lowell St., Carlisle, 978-369-7486, greatbrookski.com.
21. Build the perfect fire.
Back when I was a wee little sprout, my father used to build fires in our den. We’d sit around drinking cocoa, reading stories, and breathing in that classic New England aroma. Idyllic, really. Then one night the flames got too big, shattered the glass fireplace screen, and leapt out into the room. Luckily, the old man was pretty handy with the extinguisher, but the alarm still went off, the fire trucks still rolled up, and my sisters and I still had to wait outside in the cold like good schoolchildren (Fire drill! Fire drill!). We never built a fire again.
This sort of story saddens Bob Simonelli of Boston Fireplace, who believes everyone with a fireplace deserves to be confident in their hearth-warming technique. His tips on building an utterly debacle-proof fire:
1. After making sure the fireplace damper is open, take soft kindling wood and arrange it like a teepee, tips touching at the top. (You’ll want to use less-heavy logs, which catch fire more readily, to get things going.)
2. Put newspaper or similar flammable material in the base of the teepee and set ’er ablaze. Never use accelerants on an indoor fire.
3. Gradually add heavier logs—ideally, wood that’s been seasoned for at least a year.
4. Use wrought-iron or steel tongs to keep the wood off the hearth floor, since fires burn better with air circulating underneath.
5. Make sure the flame height never exceeds half the distance
to the damper.
6. Beware synthetic logs: They won’t produce real heat, or that fireplace smell everyone loves so much.
—Jason Schwartz
illustration by jameson simpson
22. Or, let someone else’s fireplace do the warming.
These Hub bars and restaurants all have hearth to spare.
– Abe & Louie’s
– Beacon Street Tavern
– Bristol Lounge
– Clery’s
– Cuffs
– The Fireplace (go figure!)
– Grill 23
– Grendel’s Den
– Olé
– Oleana
– Ristorante Euno
– RumBa
– Smith & Wollensky
– UpStairs on the Square
– Warren Tavern