The Winter Adventure Guide

Snowshoe for Your Supper

Photograph by Corey Hendirkson

For an uncommonly sublime night, grab some friends and meet at the Inn at Round Barn Farm, which twice a month hosts a moonlight dinner hike for up to 20. Strap on snowshoes and a headlamp (unless, of course, there’s a full moon, which will pave the trails with shimmering diamonds) and follow your guides through gentle meadows and a quiet pine forest.

After walking for about 40 minutes, you’ll arrive at a cabin—your restaurant for the evening. Warm up at the bonfire or at the wood stove inside. For the next couple of hours you’ll feast on Vermont cheese, bacon-wrapped scallops, beef bourguignon, and, for dessert, s’mores. If you’re smart, you’ve asked one of the guides to bring along a bottle of wine for you. If you’re brilliant, you’ve booked a night (with Jacuzzi) back at the 12-room inn, which takes its name from the adjacent round barn, a century-old Shaker-style creation that is one of the last of its kind in New England.

As an overnighter at the inn, you’ll breakfast on seasonal local foods. Work that off with another round of snowshoeing: The farm has 80 acres of marked trails.

Snowshoe dinner hike, $90 per person; 1661 E. Warren Rd., Waitsfield, VT, 802-496-2276, theroundbarn.com.

3 Great Walks (Close to Home)

Harold Parker State Forest, North Andover | Just 20 miles north of Boston you’ll find 3,000 acres of hardwood forest—and more than 35 miles of logging trails. Sights: glacier-formed rock outcroppings, scenic ponds, and the remains of an 18th-century sawmill. Homes surrounding the forest are said to have been part of the Underground Railroad. 305 Middleton Rd., North Andover, 508-686-3391.

Middlesex Fells Reservation, Medford | This 2,500-acre preserve has a little something for everyone, plus red foxes, deer, and coyotes. Guides from Friends of the Middlesex Fells Reservation lead hikes. And it’s only a couple of Orange Line stops away. 781-662-2340, fells.org.

Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge | You can’t snowshoe here, but the historic cemetery—founded in 1831 and home to such famous Bostonians as Winslow Homer and Isabella Stewart Gardner—is one of the city’s loveliest walking areas all year long. The roads are kept plowed, and in winter it’s easier to spot owls and other wildlife. 580 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge, 617-547-7105, mountauburn.org.