Category Archives: Mountain Biking

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

Maximum Capacity

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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

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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

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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.

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

Community Work Day

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We will be holding a community work day Saturday, April 30th from 9-12pm. Meet at the front entrance of Pine Hill Park.

We have lots of small projects we would like to tackle, which include helping the Master Gardener’s in the front entrance, to hiking the trails with tools to clean out drainage’s.

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

Trails are OPEN to all

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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

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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

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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.

Fat Biking, Meetings, Mountain Biking, Observations, Photos, Pine Hill Partnership, Programs, Uncategorized

22 Cold rolled

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We lucked out with weather getting cold for Sunday after a warm day on Saturday that saw trails really get soft. I think it’s safe to say everyone had a really great time. Thanks to #MTBVT, #PineHillPartnership,#Fiddleheadbeer

Trying to sand front entrance
Leonard and Claus
Fire pit at the overlook
Lauren
Andy
George
Nick
Jay
Jamie
Nate N groomer extraordinaire
Shane
Overlook pit stop
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Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Darlene
Cindi at Cold Rolled Rutland – February 13, 2022 – Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.
Fat Biking, Mountain Biking, Observations, Programs, Trail Updates, Uncategorized

It’s back

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Cold Roll Rutland is back in 2022! Save the date! Sunday, February 13th. Registration starts at 9AM. Rides start at 10, lunch at 12:30 and samples of Fiddlehead beer will be available to folks over the age of 21. Ticket’s can be purchased here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/copy-of-rutland-cold-2022-registration-239440291357

Press Release for: The 2nd Annual Cold Roll Rutland Fatbike Festival

[Rutland, VT, Jan 06, 2022] — The creative minds behind Überwintern and Winterbike are at it again! Mountain Bike Vermont has partnered with Pine Hill Partnership in Rutland, Vermont to offer a day of fatbike stoke on cold-rolled singletrack this Super Bowl Sunday! Join us Sunday February 13th, 2022, as fatbikers from around New England and New York gather in Rutland to lead a charge with Old Man Winter, replete with group rides, a vendor village, and hearty brews around warm fires.

The event will feature a vendor village, rides for all ages and abilities, and groomed packed powder trails for your fatbiking pleasure. Group rides will begin at 10am at the Giorgetti Athletic Complex at 2 Oak Street Extension (the Pine Hill Trailhead) where we’ll also convene for lunch at 12:30 pm. The remote aid station (aka party central) will be located at the overlook and will feature a bonfire and our favorite mid-ride refreshers. Lunch at Giorgetti will be catered by our friends at Ranch Camp (Stowe, VT).

“We’re beyond excited to bring the Cold Rolled back to Pine Hill – this trail network has some of the best fatbiking in the state, and the community rallies to maintain them all winter.” says event cofounder & Killington Valley local Nate Freund of MTBVT. “We’re stoked to bring the party to Rutland and introduce riders from around the northeast to these amazing trails!”

The $50 ticket price ($35 for the under 21 crowd) includes group rides, lunch (with both carnivorous and veggie options), a signed original Cold Roll Rutland artist print, as well as beverages. So air down those tires, break out the extra layers, and get ready to party MTBVT style.

SCHEDULE:

Vendor setup 8:00 to 9:00 Registration / Expo area opens 9:00 Group Rides

Advanced ride departs 9:45 Intermediate ride departs 10:00

Beginner ride departs 10:15

Remote Aid Station opens 11:00 to 2:00 Lunch 12:00 to 2:00

Event ends 3:00

Advanced Ride – This ride’s duration is up to 3ish hours. The pace is for avid riders that enjoy covering ground at a steady pace. You can expect up to 12ish miles of riding over variable terrain.

Intermediate – These rides are for most folks looking to have a good time, stop at the fire for a bit, and be guided around PHP. this ride will be three hours in duration with opportunities to bail out or put in a few extra miles.

Beginner ride – Beginner rides take folks on the easier terrain and no experience is necessary. This ride will bring participants to the remote aid station and back to base.

Interested in renting a fatbike for the event? Please reach out to your preferred local shop in advance as fatbikes are in short supply this season.

About Mountain Bike Vermont

Mountain Bike Vermont (MTBVT.com) is an online journal, events promoter, apparel company, and rolling party instigator. MTBVT’s dual initiative is documenting and promoting the Green Mountain State’s incomparable cycling community. Visit MTBVT.com for info on our annual event series, shop our online store, and peruse new and archived articles. #MTBVT Have questions? Want to become a vendor? Contact john@mtbvt.com

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

Community Work day

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CANCELLED

CANCELLED due to snow on the ground. We will reschedule when weather permits us to moving lumber.

Sunday, November 28th at 9AM meet at Evergreen Gate. We will be moving lumber in from the Pond Rd to Vista overlook for a new bench. Lumber is all pre-cut and ready to go just need some extra hands to move it in. Thank you. Hope to see you there.