Thank you Rosey, Chris and Bryan for spending 3 hours on a damp Sunday morning in Pine Hill Park. Complete with mosquitoes having breakfast on them.
Rosey’s Rock Roller
Category Archives: Trail Updates
Volunteer Days
Our volunteer work days will be with RHS YES plan starting June 8th. We start at 9AM and go till about 1:30.
Monday, June 11th, 9-1:30
Wednesday, June 13th-9-1:30
Thursday, June 14th-9-1:30
Friday, June 15th-9-1:30
Monday, June 18th-9-2:30
Tuesday, June 19th-9:30-2:30
Every following Monday and Tuesday except for the week of July 4th will be 9:30-2:30.
Please email us at pinehillpartnership@gmail.com for more information.
Our project is working on a new trail that is a continuation of Jigsaw that was completed last year.
We can always use extra hands.
New skills course going in at the front entrance. Thanks to Bryan and Hunter!
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Our work day May 12th was a success in getting Exit Strategy repaired and the front entrance seeded. Exit Strategy will open May 16th in the afternoon along with Voldemort, Lichen Rock and Droopy Pedal.
Come join in on our second community work day this Saturday, May 12th from 9am to noon. We have lots of small projects to attend too. Cleaning up Exit Strategy is one.
Our first community work day saw a lot of volunteers who did a fantastic job on the front entrance. We were also able to clean out some drainage’s on the trails. The Radio Flyer wagon was a huge success with the kids moving bark mulch.
Girls on the Run
CP and Hunter
Anna
Austin and Alyanna
Hunter
Washing stone bench
All done pic
Autumn
Alyanna
Austin with Hunter’s wagon
Hunter and his dad
All done
Removing the leaves
Peggy with the high powered leaf blower
Andy getting to work
We have a skills track going in up on the knoll behind the kiosk. Hunter was there helping his dad lay the track out. This will be a great addition to the park we can’t wait to see the finished product because it sounds awesome!
Hunter helping
82′ pump track laid out
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.
Still snow on trails
Rocky Pond with ice
Frost
Frost popping up
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.
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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.
Community Work Days
Update: Our May 12th work day starts at 9AM meet at the front entrance of the park. Projects will be clean up Exit Strategy and repair tire ruts plus clean up drainage’s on trails. We have tools and gloves for everyone bring water, bug dope and sunscreen.
2018 Community Work Days:
Saturday, April 28th at 9AM. Meet at the front entrance.
Saturday, May 12th at 9AM. Meet at the front entrance.
Will be working on the front gardens and cleaning drainage’s out.
YES plan starts June 6th and runs through June 19th. We are not sure exactly what days we will have volunteer groups.
Youth Works starts June 18th and 19th at 9:30AM at the front entrance. We work every Monday and Tuesday till the end of July. No group the week of July 4th.
Anyone is welcome to come join the fun.
Fat bike trail conditions
Fat biking in the park, Redfield Trails and Carriage trail are all in great shape for fat tires. Trails are firm but not icy.
Rocky Pond with Blue Ridge in the background
Serpentine Bridge
A few trails will be closing soon
As we are in the midst of the freeze thaw cycles. We have a few trails that we will be closing off for winter. This will happen the week of November 20th. These trails stay closed until spring is well under way.
Droopy Muffin (steep hill) between Intersections 30 and 30A will close, Lichen Rock and Exit Strategy. We do this to protect the trail tread from ruts when it’s soft and folks are riding. There is always a good possibility that Voldemort will close in late winter once the surface water starts running.
Please respect our trail closures. Our volunteer groups work really hard to have a great trail system so please don’t make work for them by rutting trails up.
Thanks! Remember rubberside down.
Big trees down
We are still in the process of cutting some of the larger trees down on the Redfield Trails. This one was cut up this past weekend and it was a snarly mess. Hopefully by the weekend (Nov 18/19th) we’ll have the last of the Redfield trails cleared of trees. Hunting is allowed on the Redfield trails so please wear bright colors.
Southern Cross getting a touch up
Jesse from Green Mtn College and Nate Netsch repairing the corner on Southern Cross so it rides a little bit better.
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.