Category Archives: Trail Running

Trails are Open

Update: 5/2/18: Green Mountain Power did a great job in repairing the corner on Underdog they had to drive over to replace a power pole. A little caution advised as dirt is soft in the banked corner.

Update: 5/1/18: Caution on Underdog today May 1st. Green Mountain Power is installing a new power pole and will be in the park.  Come to the community work day on May 12th to help repair the corner on Underdog they will drive over.

Update: 4/26/18: Trails are open today. Remember our community work day on Saturday 4/28 at 9AM, meet at the front entrance.

Update: 4/24/18: Please no bikes. We are waiting for the rain event to pass by then we will reevaluate the trails. This rut was left by an inconsiderate rider a week ago. The rut will collect water then the dirt will slough down the hill and the banked corner slowly erodes. This in turns means more work for volunteers.

Update: 4/22/18: Please no bikes. Trails are still soft. If we have a few more sunny days like yesterday trails will dry quickly. Please be patient. Thank you.

Update: 4/20/18: It  is going to be a stunning spring weekend and we know everyone wants to ride their bikes. Our trails are still too soft to allow bikes. Please be kind and refrain from riding any type of bike. The volunteers would really appreciate it.  We had snow again last night so trails are not drying out fast. Weather forecast looks promising for a few sunny days that hopefully will dry the trails out. We recognize  some of you ‘think’ the trails are ok to ride or you’ll walk around the soft spots. Well you know those banked corners you love to rail well they are super fragile right now. Thanks again by not riding.

Update: 4/18/18: Trails are still closed to all bikes.  The trails are still extremely fragile. Bike tires create ruts that water follows and creates erosion and means more work for the volunteers. Please be considerate and do not ride. We have some nice weather coming up and hopefully trails will dry out quickly. BE PATIENT! The message is the same through out the state with trails being too soft for bikes. Thank you.

Update: 4/16/18:Trails are still closed to all bikes. We have had freezing rain and sleet that covered the ground again. This needs to melt and we need some sun to dry everything out. We’ve had very high wind today so we expect a lot of blow downs. Please send an email to pinehillpartnership@gmail.com with the location of any trees you see down. The more specific on which trail and closer to which intersection would be greatly beneficial for us. Thanks.

Update: 4/14/18: Trails are still extremely fragile. PLEASE NO BIKES at this time. We are monitoring the trails daily. Thank you for not riding at this time. If you are looking for exercise you could help us out by cleaning out drainage’s.

Update: 4/13/18: PLEASE BE PATIENT! NO BIKES PLEASE. Our weather report for the weekend is not exactly conducive for drying our trails out.

Update: 4/6/18: PLEASE NO BIKES! The ground is not fully un-thawed. We have more snow on the ground now that earlier today. Trails are going to take a while to completely un-thaw and firm up. Please be patient to ride your bike. Go for a hike and clean drainage’s out or pick up all the small sticks that came down in the wind the other night. Volunteers do all the work in the park, please be kind to them by staying off the trails.

Update: 4/2/18:Please NO bikes. We still have some snow, frost on and in the ground. Until that is gone no bikes please. Looking at weather report that could be a couple of weeks. If you want some exercise take a hike and help clean out some drainage’s or pick up all the small sticks that came down in the wind the other night. That would really help especially with the rain in the forecast.  A volunteer over the weekend did some serious cleaning on the drainage in the pic above.

 

Update: 4/1/18: Please NO skinny tires. Fat bikes are ok if it’s well below 28 degrees and NO SUN! Please, please, please be smart on riding your bike. Everyone in the state is in the same boat with freeze/thaw cycles. Trails are extremely fragile!

Update: 3/28/18: Trails are a mixed bag of frozen snow (if below freezing) and open areas that receive sun. We ask all bikes not to ride if temps are above 28, especially if the sun is out. Thanks. Sounds like early April we could have more winter like conditions.

Update: 3/12/18: Trails are primarily snow covered and will have another fresh coating of snow today/tomorrow. Rutland is in the 5-8″ range.

Update: 2/27/18: Trails are extremely tender with the freeze/thaw cycles are are experiencing. Please NO bikes of any kind when sun is out and temps are above 28 degrees.  Hikers please walk though the mud and not around as it widens the trail.  Voldemort is closed till late spring.

Update: 2/23/18: Major melt mid-week left us with mud, dirt, ice, slush, snow. Please NO bikes if temps are above 28 as the trails are starting to unthaw where the sun hits them all day. Please be kind to our trail system.

Update: 2/18: We had TONS of snow in early February. Skiing, snowshoeing was awesome. Now we’ve had a week of warm. About  4″ of snow 2/17- on top of firm but not super icy crust. We have had rain and warm last week so condense snow pack.

Point being conditions are all over the place for the next week to 10 days. Long range weather is saying early March could bring us a stormy pattern. We will see. It’s Vermont, wait a day if you don’t like the weather.

_________________________________________________________________________

Fat biking is ok, studs highly recommended as of January 29, 2018. There is a lot of ice, hard packed snow, frozen dirt.  If you’re hiking micro spikes really recommended and sprayed with silicone of PAM spray to keep the snow from sticking to them.

 

It’s hunting season

Folks hunting season is here. If you are walking, running or biking on the Carriage Trail or Redfield Trails highly visible clothing would be a good idea. These trail systems are on private property and hunting is allowed. No hunting in Pine Hill Park.

Please no leaf removal

Folks here is an excellent video on why we do not remove leaves from our trails.

Reasons why we do not remove leaves from Pine Hill Park trails and why our bridges do not have hard wire mesh on top.

We tried leaf removal for 2 years in a row about 6-7 years ago. By July our trails are all ball bearings. Means people are slipping and sliding around on ball bearings all summer long which isn’t any fun. Leaves help hold our trail tread together. A lot of this has to do with our soil composition compared to other areas. In the spring by leaving the fall leaves on it protects our trail tread from freeze thaw cycles which lets us open up earlier.

The other issue are leaf berms on the downhill side of trails and clogging our drainage’s up. Means water runs down the trail tread which is washing away our good dirt and creating more drainage’s issues. The other downside is leaf blowers blow all the dirt off the trail tread. We work WAY too hard to move dirt on the trail tread to have a leaf blower come along and blow it off again.

Why our bridges do not having hardware mesh on them. The bridges that we have seen in Vermont that have hardware mesh on them are flat there are no curves/bends or twists. Most of the bridges in our local area are made out of pressure treated lumber which is slippery when wet. Our decking on the bridges in Pine Hill Park are composite material which we believe is not as slippery when wet like pressure treated lumber. We do not want people falling on the hardware mesh which would hurt even more than falling on the composite decking.

Yes we know the leaves make it more challenging to walk, run or ride but by leaving the leaves on the trail our system is more sustainable in the long run.

Thank you for your cooperation.

A Puzzle is Complete !

Jigsaw gets its name from all the intricate rock work built by our volunteers.

Our newest trail “Jigsaw” is now open.  Thanks to the hard work of our heroes—dedicated volunteers who put in nearly 1800 hours of work this summer.

The trail is over 1250 feet with another 200 feet of optional trail.  There are 9 rock rideovers and a really cool cliff section. There’s also a ton of rock work that you can’t see that lies under the trail bed for drainage.

One of the Youth Works groups that spent some long, wet days in the woods to get this trail built.
We had a team of 2017 cadets from the 2017 Vermont State Police who did some very heavy lifting.

We can’t thank our volunteers nearly enough for all the sweat and blood they left behind.  Here’s a small tribute. Thank you Keith Wight and Shelley Lutz for focusing all the effort where it was needed and again to Shelley for all the photos and video skills:

Experience Jigsaw for yourself. Signs are now up for easier location. Look for it at intersections 36 & 42.

If you’d like to join the ranks of our Elite Trail Heroes, there’s a chance coming up on Saturday August 26.
Check out the details here.

Help us with Southern Cross

We are planning a community work day for Saturday August 26 to create another connection between the Pine Hill Park trails and Redfield trails.

The plan is to rake and clear out a connector between Dewey Wood Road and Ridge Runner on the Redfield Trails. We are re-establishing an old connector between the two trails.

Not a lot of heavy work is anticipated. Mostly raking and clearing leaves and brush. 8:15AM to noon. Meet in the parking lot. Bring water, mosquito repellent.

Link to event on Facebook

Community Work Day

Saturday, August 26th. 8:15-noon bring water and mosquito repellent. The project is to rake out a connector trail between Dewey Wood Rd and Ridge Runner on the Redfield Trails. Meet at the front entrance of the park.

Needed community volunteers

Weed whacking night on the Carriage Trail, Wednesday, August 9th, leave the Giorgetti Parking lot at 6pm. We will have extra weed whackers for use. Bring a  head lamp to hike out with.

We really could use YOUR help.

Logging operation on Carriage Trail

The Carriage Trail has a logging operation going on near the top of Library Pass. Please use caution when hiking, running or mountain biking.  The trail is open but please watch for very large machinery on the trail. The operation will continue into late fall.

Powerlines in the park

Green Mountain Power will be working on the powerlines in the park this winter. Please DO NOT park at the end of Evergreen Ave starting Tuesday, December 27th till the end of February. GMP will be moving in large machinery and stone and need room to move vehicles.

Mountain bikers be aware on Underdog as GMP will be putting a very large mat down across the trail to move machinery. This will protect the trail.

Thank you for your cooperation.