Pine Hill Park is 100 years old on May 9th this year. How cool is that? Henry Carpenter a successful businessman in Rutland bought the property from Annie Pierpoint and donated it Rutland City for $1.00 on May 9th, 1921. His vision was for recreation space. For a complete history of the park click on the ‘history tab’ in the menu bar.
Category Archives: Mountain Biking
Update on trails
UPDATE April 8th: Trails are riding great. With the wind we have been having trees are falling down so reports are appreciated. pinehillpartnership@gmail.com. Trails that are still closed Exit Strategy, steep hill on Droopy, Lichen Rock. Voldemort should be open later today April 8th.
UPDATE April 5th: Opening up trails this afternoon except for our normal winter closures. Hopefully our 15 degree nights are done. Thank you for being patient.
UPDATE April 3rd: Trails are still going through freeze/thaw cycles with the cold weather that is back. We have frost poking up on the trail tread. Please NO BIKES.
UPDATE March 29th: Trails are slowly drying out. With all the rain on Sunday(28th) things got pretty soggy again but it did drive the frost out of the ground. Snow is in the forecast for later in the week so we have to wait until after that event to melt. We will be monitoring trails regularly to see when we can open for bikes. We need a bunch of windy days to dry the park out. PLEASE BE PATIENT!
We are in the middle of freeze/thaw cycles when the trails are super fragile. We would appreciate folks staying off the trails at this time. Hikers if you would stay on the Pond Rd that would be greatly appreciated too. Thank you.
Winter grooming under way
UPDATE 3/12/2021: Please no bikes until the park dries out in April. We are in a very trail tread fragile time of year with freeze/thaw cycles. If winter really shows back up again and everything is frozen solid you will want studded fat tires. Thank you for respecting all our hard volunteer work efforts into making Pine Hill Park such a cool place to play.
UPDATE 3/8/2021: We are done grooming for the year. With warm weather this week and wanting trails to unthaw for spring it is best to leave them alone. It has been a great winter for fat bikes, skis and hiking in the park. Not often we see snow that stays for a long period of time in Rutland.
As we approach spring with freeze/thaw cycles we are asking folks not to use the trails. It does a lot of damage to the trail tread when they are in that fragile state. When trails get rutted up water runs down that rut when it rains or when the frost is coming out of the ground. The water running down the rut then washes away all our hard earned soil we have moved by hand. We appreciate your cooperation. Thank you.
UPDATE 2/25/21: Nate N tried to groom today-Thursday 2/25. Snowdog kept falling off the track he had set earlier in the week. So instead of plugging long he headed back to the barn. Studs and ice cleats are highly recommended. Please do not ride/hike on the trails later Saturday or Sunday when temps get warm and turn everything to mush. Thanks!!!!
UPDATE 2/20/21: Nate N groomed more late this afternoon. Everything is in great shape. Check it out before the 45 degree weather shows up on Wednesday.
UPDATE 2/20/21: Nate N did groom some on Friday 2/19. He is planning on hitting more trails today to make them a little easier to walk and ride. Bikers and hikers if you are sinking in more than an inch please stick to the Pond Rd. When the bike tracks and foot prints freeze solid it’s not a lot of fun to walk or ride on. We can do some grooming but getting frozen tracks out of the trail tread isn’t something Snowdog can do unless we have fresh snow to smooth stuff out. So think about long term for trail use and what you would like it to be-smooth or rutted? Please 4″ or wider tires please. Thank you!
UPDATE 2/19/21: Nate N is planning on grooming later today(Friday 2/19) to try and get some of the foot and snowshoe prints out of the trail tread. The idea is with a little bit of snow and warmer temps he can smooth some of it out. Hearing the report on riding fat bikes in the park is not a lot of fun right now with all the frozen foot prints.
UPDATE 2/13/21: Nate N has been able to groom the last two days with the metal drag sled. Everything packed down really well and should be great walking, running and fat biking until next snow. Please leave a donation in Tinman or join Pine Hill Partnership to help offset the cost of running Snowdog. www.pinehillpartnership.org Thanks.
UPDATE 2/4/21: Nate N has done a bunch of grooming the last two days. It still might be a touch soft but should set up nicely. Hopefully we won’t get too much rain on 2/5. Here is a grooming map on what has been done.
UPDATE 1/19/21: Nate N did some grooming today. It’s still a little soft but we have a good track set. What is groomed: Escalator, Svelte, Sisyphus, Watkins, Shimmer, Overlook, Jigsaw Milk Run, Salamander, part of Droopy, Pond Rd. Plus a width swath on the ballfield.
UPDATE 1/16/21: It’s a soft and slushy weekend. We would appreciate folks to stay off the single track trails so they don’t form slushy ruts that freeze. Thank you.
UPDATE 1/13/2021: Park is riding super currently. We are asking 4″ or wider tires please. Please leave a donation in Tinman that will go toward our cool trail system. Thank you.
UPDATE 12/25/20: Christmas morning it is 55 degrees and raining out. We are very much hoping not to lose all our snow today. Once things freeze back up again and we get some snow Nate will continue to groom.
Nate N has started to groom in the park. We had so much snow last week that it was really hard for Snowdog to get through it. Waiting now for snow to compact and get some moisture in it so it will pack down. The plan is to try and get the trails highlighted in red groomed before the rain shows up on Christmas Eve. We’re hoping to get a solid base down and that it won’t all melt!
Snowshoers and skiers you could help us out by following these highlighted trails. It will make it easier for Snowdog .
Thank you.
Why we leave leaves
Why we do not remove leaves there are several reasons. One we move all hard earned dirt by hand in 5 gallon buckets and leaf blowers blow all that dirt off the trail tread. Second the ground up leaves will actually help hold our dirt on the trails and protects the trail tread. Plus freeze/thaw cycles the leaves help hold our trail tread in place and not get sucked up on boots or tires.
We are not blessed like other local trail systems that have an abundance of dirt. Pine Hill Park is not one of those areas.
We know leaves are slippery especially when wet but with the traffic the park is seeing currently the leaves will get ground up quickly.
Thank you for understanding.
Here is a great video on why we leave leaves.
Milk run is open!
As of late Monday September 7th, our newest trail, Milk Run, is fully open!!
We started building this trail with YES plan from Rutland High School and Youth Works volunteers in 2018. That first year we completed about 1300′ of trail with 400 volunteers and 1600 volunteer hours. In 2019 we completed about 1000 feet of trail with 1225 volunteer hours, 286 volunteers. 2020 the year of corona and no major volunteer groups like YES plan or Youth Works we accomplished quite a bit.
The trail is just under 3900 feet (.74 mile) long. FYI, the longest trail in the park is Stegosaurus at 4100 feet.
The Vermont Youth Conservation Corp (VYCC) came in with 4 crew members for 2 weeks and we completed just under 1500′ of trail. With VYCC removing organic material and our three Pine Hill Partnership volunteers doing finish work behind them it was a perfect combination utilizing the work force. We completed just under 1500′ trail in a little over 500 hours. We did have an extra hand two days that really helped with getting a couple of small banked corners built along with finish work. Having a trained work crew was instrumental on getting this trail done.
VYCC is a paid trail crew. We are still soliciting donations and contributions to help defray the cost.
The trail still will need a touch of refinement next year (hopefully our big volunteer groups are back). We expect to build two banked corners on the new section.
Dropping the rope on Milk Run 
WE’RE DIGGING IN !
Update October 28, 2020: We received a check from IMBA/Shimano for $2300. to help pay for the VYCC crew we had in the park the end of July. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this fund.
We have been selected as one of 10 recipients of the IMBA Dig In Grant program. With the support of Shimano, IMBA is doing a grant to pay for trail building at Pine Hill Park. Read the announcement from IMBA here.
This program will help us raise money needed for the VT Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) to come in at the end of July and help finish off a couple of trails in the park that volunteers have been working on. (map below)
Thanks to COVID-19, large volunteer groups are not happening in 2020. VYCC will be a big help, but we will have to pay for their services.
Our newest trail, Milk Run, was started in 2018 with the help of volunteers. At the end of July we are having VYCC come in and hope to use their time to get all the organic material off so that we can open the trail up to the top of Upper Halfpipe. This is about 1500′ of organic top layer to be removed.
Why remove organic in Pine Hill Park? We have found for long term sustainability, our trails hold up better by removing it early. Early on in our learning process of building trails we would do a ‘rake and ride’. Those trails now have been rebuilt at least once if not twice.
If you’d like to help us with this effort, please consider making a donation here. As always, thank you for your support!
2020 Races are on
Rutland Rec will be holding the Summer Sunset 5K race and Droopy Pedal Mountain bike race.
Summer Sunset series are happening!
- Tuesday: 7/7 (Register by 7/5)
- Tuesday: 8/11(Register by 8/9)
- Registration 6PM | Race 6:30PM
- Ages 0-17 FREE | Ages 18+: $5
Droopy Pedal Races: All skill levels are invited to participate. With 3 mile and 6 mile options, there is something for everyone to enjoy!
- Enrollment minimum of 5 participants must be met by the Friday before @4PM to run this program.
- Tuesday, July 14th register by 7/10 @4PM
- Tuesday, August 18th register by 8/14 @ 4PM
- Ages 0-17 FREE | Ages 18+: $5
Rutland Rec statement: COVID-19 GO PLAY RACE POLICIES UPDATED 6/17/2020
NEW THIS YEAR: With the safety and health of our community in mind, and in the effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, we will be requiring PREREGISTRATION for ALL GO PLAY RACES. Please refer to each individual event to see when preregistration will end. We will be limiting the number of participants to 25 MAXIMUM. All Go Play Races are done at your own risk, we are not requiring participants to wear masks during the race, but each participant is more than welcome to do so if they please. We do ask that ALL PARTICIPANTS wear masks when they are checking in at the registration table to receive their bibs, please take bibs and safety pins home with you after the race.
Trail build out
We are reaching our limits of trails in Pine Hill Park. We currently have 17 miles. With Milk Run, Bone Spur and Maximum Capacity all adding about another mile and a half we will have reached our limit for density of trails inside Pine Hill Park.
This is a rough map of where Milk Run is completed in 2018, 2019. 2020 we hope to break open the rest of Milk Run with a VT Youth Conservation Corp crew in July. They are a paid crew so we are trying to raise money to cover this expense.
Bone Spur will be a pretty bony section off Milk Run.
Maximum Capacity will branch off Milk Run and head towards Intersection 20. This will be a fun trail utilizing trail contours.
If you are able to donate money to help defray the cost of a VYCC crew it would be greatly appreciated. We are applying for multiple grants-we have been turned by a couple and are patiently waiting to hear on other applications. https://pinehillpartnership.org/donate-2/
A new Video Guide to Pine hill park
Its always very gratifying when one of our visitors raves about the character of our hand-built trails — all done with a lot of volunteer time and sweat, we might add! It’s even better when they record and share it for other potential visitors too.
Niko Huber has done a great job creating a video guide to Pine Hill Park and its well worth your time to check it out. While you’re at it maybe hit his subscribe button. It looks like he’s planning to do more videos of other mountain biking venues soon!
Thanks for a great job Niko. We hope to see you back in the park soon !
Community work nights
Community Work Night: Bring a weed wacker
Wednesday, August 12th
5-8pm
Meet at Giorgetti parking lot 5pm. We will be trimming the Carriage Trail back from the top of Library Pass back to Rocky Pond. We will shuttle folks up to Rocky Pond in vehicles from there hike in with weed whackers. We will have a few spare weed whackers for folks to use.
Bring a headlamp, work gloves, water and bug dope.