Jesse from Green Mtn College and Nate Netsch repairing the corner on Southern Cross so it rides a little bit better.
Category Archives: Trail Work
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.
Hour Glass Bridge Repair Complete
Thank you to the volunteers on Saturday, October 7th to who helped repair the Hour Glass Bridge. The center section still drops but now is solid resting on rock and 6x6x’s. The rest of the bridge leveled. Next community work day is Saturday, October 21st, 9AM meet at front entrance.
Hour Glass Bridge Repair – Oct 7
We need YOUR help on Saturday, October 7th, meet in Giorgetti parking lot at 9AM. We are going to raise the center section of Hour Glass Bridge up out of the mud and water. We will shuttle material and tools in to powerline on the Pond Rd. From there we need to walk them in. Please consider coming and helping out.
UPDATE:
Repair work is done! Bridge rides great!
https://pinehillpartnership.org/hour-glass-bridge-repair-complete/
A Puzzle is Complete !
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.
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.
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.
Thank you volunteers
We had a good work day Saturday May 13th. Moved some rocks and dirt onto the corner for Underdog. The corner is much bigger than in it’s previous life! Thanks to the volunteers who came today.
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.