All posts by Tin Man

Education, Hikes, Mountain Biking, Observations, Pine Hill Partnership, Programs, Trail Safety, Trail Updates, Trail Work, Uncategorized

Park Updates

Leave a comment

KSA Built is starting Thursday, October 27th in the park. Rosey will be working as late into late fall that weather permits. Some trails may be closed off as they are being upgraded. Please do not ride, walk, or run if you see a trail closed sign on that trail.

Broken Handlebar North and all of Halfpipe will see major improvements. Other smaller sections of trails will have drainage’s improved so water stops running straight down the trail tread. These improvements are part of the ERSA Grant Rutland Recreation received. Pine Hill Partnership is helping defray the higher cost of diesel some of our trails can see the upgrade they need. If you would like to make a donation directly to our trail fund please do so here https://pinehillpartnership.org/membership/ All contributions go back directly into Pine Hill Park trail system.

VYCC (VT Youth Conservation Corp) will be in the summer of 2023 to do more trail remediation work.

Our trails are being used heavily and need much needed TLC so please bear with this while the work is being performed.

Mountain Biking, Trail Updates, Trail Work, Video, Volunteering

Maximum Capacity

Leave a comment

July 20th Update: Maximum Capacity is complete and still closed. VYCC crew #5 did a great job in building this trail. They came in not knowing what they were getting into fully and came out seasoned trail builders understanding how to build a complete trail from scratch.

We will have a grand opening for this trail. We’re just not sure when. Stay tuned to social media and our webpage for updates.

The crew built 5 huge banked corners, two French drains under two of our banked corners. We built rock ride overs to protect tree roots or help to raise the trail tread in low places. Moved TONS of rocks literally. We taught them finish work how to build rolling grade dips complete with out-slope or in-slope a trail for drainage.

This rock weighed probably 800-1000 lbs. We dug it out and replaced it into a banked corner.

The crew members are from all over the US, college students needing a summer job.

The work was hard, dirty and wet a few days but luckily we did not lose any days to poor weather. Even the mosquitoes didn’t carry us away. The spongy moths were buggers the first week in the caterpillar stage even they slowed down thankfully.

Maximum Capacity is 2486′ long. When combined with Broken Handlebar, Jigsaw, Milk Run, Furlough and Exit Strategy it will be 12,215 (2.3 miles) foot long mostly downhill run.

Pine Hill Partnership applied for a Recreational Trail Program (RTP) grant which we received to pay for this 3 week crew. Thank you to Rutland Rec for their help in writing the grant and the maintenance crew for their support in mowing VYCC camping site and equipment we can borrow when needed.

June 27th Update: VYCC has been here for one week and will be here until July 8th working on Maximum Capacity and hopefully Bone Spur. They are camping at the Community Center feeding all the mosquitoes.

Anyone who likes to make cookies or brownies VYCC would be grateful recipients.

The trail is CLOSED until it is completed and the trail tread has time to set up.

Folks have been hearing about Maximum Capacity for over a year now. The trail is coming to life with Killington Mountain School back in May and currently with YES Plan (Rutland High School students) in early June. The students have done a great job in removing organic material. We will continue to work on this trail with YES Plan and VT Youth Conservation Corp to hopefully have it open by the end of July. The trail is approximately 2500′ long.

If you have flexible hours and would like to help with finish work let us know. This is where we do all the raking to create a sustainable trail tread. Send pinehillpartnership@gmail.com an email for more details. We do have a lot of trail broken open that needs finish work so many hands make light work.

Education, Fat Biking, Hikes, Mountain Biking, Nature Study, Observations, Pine Hill Partnership, Trail Running, Trail Safety, Trail Updates, Trail Work, Uncategorized, Volunteering

Park is OPEN

2 Comments

Saturday, June 4th: Jigsaw is now open.

Sunday, May 21st: Park is open today with Jigsaw being closed and roped off. There are still some tender places in the park so be gentle riding please. Thank you.

6PM UPDATE: Friday, May 20th. Park will remained closed for Saturday. We will reassess later Saturday afternoon to see if trails have dried up to open for Sunday. We still have standing water on a lot of trails. Please stay off the trails it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Volunteers will be checking the trails late Friday (5/20) afternoon to see if they have dried up. We had another .2″ of rain on Thursday evening. We are hoping the trees leafing out and a little bit of wind this afternoon things will dry out for the weekend. Stay tuned. Thank you.

We have had to temporarily close the park due to the amount of rain last Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. We have standing water on a lot of our trails. The water needs to drain out before we reopen for all users.

Thank you for respecting our temporary trail closures.

Water on Strong Angel, Jigsaw and Sore Elbow, Tuesday, May 17th.

Education, Mountain Biking, Pine Hill Partnership, Trail Running, Trail Updates, Trail Work, Volunteering

KMS Students

Leave a comment

Thank you to Killington Mountain School for a solid morning of removing organic material on Maximum Capacity. The students, coaches and administrators broke open about 900 feet of trail in 2 hours. This is 900 feet less than the VT Youth Conservation Corp will have to do in late June. Thank you KMS!

Rutland High School YES Plan is back in early June. We will continue to work on Maximum Capacity.

It is fantastic to have these work groups back in the park.

Pine Hill Partnership, Trail Updates, Trail Work

Help the Park, Enter Our Survey

Leave a comment

Pine Hill Park needs your help!

Pine Hill Park is conducting an Economic Development & Marketing Research Survey to better understand the actions and habits of our visitors and park members. We hope to learn more about the activities and opportunities that attract individuals to visit Pine Hill Park, financial patterns associated with visits, as well as how to better reach our visitors and park members.

This survey will take between 5-10 minutes to complete. Please take your time and answer each question as accurately as possible.

Please limit one response per household.

Thank You!

https://forms.gle/oo96j8xCSoPTPavP6

Fat Biking, Hikes, Mountain Biking, Observations, Pine Hill Partnership, Trail Safety, Trail Updates, Uncategorized

Trails are OPEN to all

Leave a comment

UPDATE: May 3: Steep hill on Droopy Muffin and Lichen Rock are now open. Exit Strategy and Voldemort are still closed.

UPDATE: April 13: Trails are open for pedestrians and bikes. Lichen Rock, steep hill on Droopy and Exit Strategy are closed. Power company is doing work on a the power-line up by the Crusher. Please be aware of large vehicles on the Pond Rd.

UPDATE: April 11th: Trails are open for pedestrians only. We finished the new boardwalk this past weekend. Bikes you’ll have to be patient a little bit longer. Thank you.

Update: April 1st.

Trails are now closed to all users. Trails are in the process of thaw/freeze cycles and are very susceptible to trail damage. All our volunteers would greatly appreciate it if folks could hold off on riding and walking.

The park is closed to pedestrians this year also. We are hoping to open soon for pedestrians but trails need to dry out more.

NEMBA has a really great explanation on why we need to give trails a break in the spring.

https://www.nemba.org/news/just-say-no-mud?fbclid=IwAR3wy353beE_NJK70Cgq3AmkB-hIGg0m0YCLRg_qdNqQQu1be5RAtkexvkM

Please stay tuned.

Education, Hikes, Meetings, Mountain Biking, Observations, PHP in the News, Pine Hill Partnership, Trail Updates, Uncategorized, Volunteering

2022 Annual Meeting

Leave a comment

We will be holding our annual meeting virtually this year. It will be held Tuesday April 5, 6:30-7:30pm. If you would like to attend the Microsoft Teams meeting, please email pinehillpartnership@gmail.com with Annual Dinner in the subject line.

We will give a brief overview of the coming year’s project plans along with a short business meeting.

Would you like to join our board of directors? Do you have some time and energy to give back?? Think about joining our board of directors. Let us know via email at pinehillpartnership@gmail.com.

Education, Fat Biking, Hikes, Mountain Biking, Observations, Pine Hill Partnership, Trail Safety, Trail Updates, Uncategorized

Park in March

Leave a comment

Our weather is all over the place. The warm weather towards the end of February definitely gave us some boiler plate ice that is now covered with a little bit of snow. Plus there is frozen bare ground that is covered in snow. Fat bike folks you will prefer studded tires but be wary as the snow is not sticking to the ice fully. That might change in the near future with warmer temps. We do not have enough snow to groom.

Pedestrians most likely will prefer some sort of ice gripper. Not necessary but depends if you like landing on your butt at unsuspecting times.

Speaking of warmer weather….long range weather report is showing a warm up then getting cooler again. However, as we approach the end of March the trails start the dreaded freeze/thaw cycle. What does that mean for Pine Hill Park???

When we feel it’s appropriate the park will close to all users. Bikes, pedestrians, everyone. The freeze/thaw cycle we are asking all users not to utilize the trails. The trails become muddy, ice is pushing up out of the ground and with foot traffic and bike traffic it destroys the trail tread. We are asking folks to be aware of our conditions. We will have a white board at the front entrance letting folks know if trails are open or closed. If you use social media it will be the easiest place to find if trails are open or closed. We understand folks want to get outside after a long winter but we are kindly asking not to use our trail system once the freeze/thaw cycles start.

Our trails are being used hard by many folks and trail degradation is happening faster than our core volunteers can maintain. Please consider making a donation to Pine Hill Partnership to help pay for a VYCC crew and a professional trail builder to come in and help repair some of our older trails.