Pine Hill Partnership held a community work day in Pine Hill Park, Saturday, May 14th.
Thank you National Guard for Army Reserves and Fair Haven Girls on the Run along with all the other volunteers who helped move 18 yards of bark mulch and finished the repair work on Exit Strategy that is now open.
Here are a few photos of some incredible volunteers at work.
Again, thank you !
April 18th update: Trails are open to bikes. Voldemort, Carriage Trails and lower loop on the Redfield trails are still closed. PLEASE RESPECT TRAIL CLOSURES. The rut in this pic was from the past weekend. We just repaired all those drainage’s last week and someone just had to ride through them.
April 14th update: Trails are open to all bikes. Trails that are closed-Underdog, Voldemort, Carriage Trail and Redfield trails. Please respect those trail closures. Thank you for your patience.
April 7th update: Trails are closed to all bikes. We are monitoring the trails daily and they are soft from 3″ of snow last Monday and an 1″ of rain today. Please be patient.
We are closing the trails for a few days with the cold night temps moving in the frost has come in with those temps. Hopefully by the end of the week we will be able to open the trails to mountain bikes.
April 2nd update: Most trails are open today and tomorrow April 2nd and 3rd. Trails will close Sunday at 5pm due to cold weather moving back in. The freeze thaw cycles raise havoc with the trail tread with frost issues. Underdog, part of Droopy, Lichen Rock, Exit Strategy, Voldemort are closed in Pine Hill Park. The Carriage Trail and Redfield trails are closed and will remain closed until we get some significant drying weather.
April 1st update: We are going to open the trails for Saturday and Sunday, April 2nd and 3rd. They will close Sunday late afternoon. The weather is going to get really cold with some snow and we’re trying to protect the trails the best we can. Underdog will be closed to bikes this weekend. Please set Pine Hill Park as a favorite on TrailHUB for up to date information on the trails.
March 31st update: The freeze/thaw cycles are wreaking havoc on the trails. Please DO NOT ride any type of bike in the park.
Our weather gods do not appear to be cooperating next week to be able to open trails up either.
Here is a very good explanation on why not to ride during freeze/thaw cycles.
Reasons why trails are closed right now
First community work day is Saturday, April 30th at 9AM.
Saturday, March 25th at 10AM there will be a volunteer work day to clean drainage’s and repair ruts left from the bikes last weekend. Meet at front entrance.
Unfortunately we have had to close our trails due to the freeze/thaw cycles we are experiencing. Please be patient while trails dry out and firm back up. No bikes-this includes fat bikes.
We opened most of the trail system Thursday, March 17th. Redfield, Carriage Trail and Voldemort are closed to all users(pedestrian, bikes, fat bikes, etc) due to very soft conditions. We would greatly appreciate all your cooperation on staying off these trails.
We have had some vandalism in the park. Pulling ‘you are here’ signs down, cutting small sapling trees along the edge of the trails, plus pulling down trail blazes. If you see vandalism occurring please report the activity to the Rutland Police Dept at 802 773 1820. If the destruction has already occurred please report it to Rutland Recreation at 773-1822. If you see someone trying to start a fire please call 911 and report it to the police and fire dept. Spring is a nasty time for wildfires. Pine Hill Park is a Rutland City Park, means no fires, no smoking, no camping and pets on a leash.
We had great Annual meeting on Monday, March 28th. A group of 30+ members heard first hand about some of our plans for 2016, but more importantly a discussion session led to lots of great ideas. Hopefully we can move forward with some of the great suggestions and enthusiasm that was present in the room!
This ye
ar, the board tried a different approach with the meeting. Keith Wight gave a quick presentation of last year’s accomplishments:
Volunteer Days and Hours:
2015 Volunteer Days 57 days
2015 Volunteer Hours 2390 hours
Groups providing volunteer hours: Community Work Days, Fair Haven Girls on the Run, Youth Mountain Bike Group; RHS Cross Country Team; RHS YES Plan-6 Days; Youth Works-13 days; PHP individuals
The meeting then moved on to an open discussion of 2016 plans.
Upcoming programs in 2016:
2016 Goals:
The current PHP board has been working on redefining the goals for the organization and President Andy Shinn shared some of their thoughts. The board reached out to those present and to the overall membership for help in steering the group forward. In addition to the usual annual tasks like trail maintenance, the board is hoping to recruit folks to help with some new projects.
The partnership has developed a new logo and designs for coasters, t-shirts and plans to produce tyvek maps for next year. Much of the discussion centered around how we could increase awareness and enthusiasm for the work we do, and how we could translate that enthusiasm into more paid memberships and volunteers to help the board accomplish our goals.
Discussion Topics and Ideas:
After the discussion the final piece of business was to elect next year’s board of directors. Our board of directors for 2016 are: Joel Blumenthal, Andy Shinn, Keith Wight, Shelley Lutz, Claus Bartenstein, and Dave Jenne.
If you would like to help the board with any of our upcoming projects, or have some new ideas of your own, let us know about them! Email us at pinehillpark@gmail.com
If you shop online and use Amazon please consider using www.smile.amazon.com. Amazon will make quarterly contributions to Pine Hill Partnership if you enter us as the non-profit.
Big thanks for your support this year in our continued efforts to make these area trails so special.
Sincerely,
Keith Wight, Andrew Shinn, Joel Blumenthal, Dave Jenne, Claus Bartenstein, and Shelley Lutz
Board of Directors
Dear Pine Hill Partnership Members,
We had great 2016 year on the trails. Please join us at our annual meeting to enjoy light dinner fare, a short recap of 2016 and an introduction for 2017.
The meeting will start at 6pm, Monday, April 10th, at the Godnick Center at 1 Deer St. Rutland, VT.
We will have some excellent food including vegetarian fare to be consumed before the presentation. The meeting will begin with a short, required, business meeting. There will be a quick review of the 2016 accomplishments in the park and surrounding trails. Afterwards, we plan to have an extended question and answer period and hope you will contribute ideas and suggestions that can be incorporated into the future Pine Hill Park trail projects, the Pine Hill Partnership organization itself, and surrounding trail networks.
As our organization grows, we are looking for a more diversified group to serve on a couple of committees. In particular, we have a fundraising project for 2017 and would like to make a concerted effort to increase our paid membership rolls. We are hoping some folks can join us on this project.
We are also looking for additional board members. The board generally meets six to eight times a year and we are looking for people with a range of interests. Some people might have a passion for trail work while others might have a focus on growing Pine Hill Partnership membership or on strategic planning. If you are interested in being a board member, please send us a letter or email, of no more than 200 words by March 20th, 2017. Please include your qualifications and reasons why you would like to become actively involved in the Partnership and the park so that we may share it with the membership before the annual meeting.
If you shop online and use Amazon please consider using www.smile.amazon.com. Amazon will make quarterly contributions to Pine Hill Partnership if you enter us as the non-profit.
Hope to see you there and big thanks for your support this year in our continued efforts to make these area trails so special.
Sincerely,
Keith Wight, Andrew Shinn, Joel Blumenthal, Dave Jenne, Claus Bartenstein and Shelley Lutz
Board of Directors
Thank you to Mac Steel and Jed Danyow for fantastic artistic iron ranger.
Click on image to enlarge.
The survey has been closed. Thank you for checking in.
We have RHS XC team coming in Saturday, Sept 13th at 9AM-12 to do trail work on Escalator. Come join the fun.
We are holding a weed whacking party on Wednesday, August 12th. Meet at Giorgetti Park at 5:30 to move gear up the Pond Rd. The plan is to trim the grass on the Carriage Trail. We really could use YOUR help with this project. 
RUTLAND: STRIDES & RIDES | By KIMBERLY GRIFFIN
Have you ever wondered how parks and other outdoor “natural” recreational venues are created? Often, as I walk among the trees and over the rocks on our region’s trails, I try to imagine the shovels and rakes, chainsaws and axes that many a hand must have wielded in order to create a path for my boots to traverse. And if I am really in a state of imagination, I try to trace the work even further back in time to the meetings and the sketches and the friendly — and sometimes not so friendly — arguments over land ownership and rights-of-way and fundraising and promotion that surely must have occurred long before a shovel ever touched the earth.
For many long-time Rutland City residents, the transformation of the area that is now Pine Hill Park is the one illustration of such work. Surely the same can be said for the Pittsford trails, the D & H trail, Northwood Park, and the many other recreational networks in our community.
As part of the work RAPAC is doing with the Rutland Regional Planning Commission under the Vermont Department of Health’s Healthy Community Design Grant, I was recently part of a meeting just like I imagined. Folks from the Pine Hill Partnership board, regional commissioners from Mendon and Hubbardton, and local citizens all came together on June 15 to pour over a map of the region; assessing existing trail networks, deciphering what plots of land are public or private, and coming up with dream trail connections to join towns or peaks, or just continue a trail past its current termination.
I was in awe of the knowledge each of these individuals carried about the woods and the back roads and the mountains in our region. As a group, there was seemingly no rock, no old bridge, no bend in the river that wasn’t familiar. And so, as we began to look dreamily at the potential for expanding and connecting the regional trail system, it felt as though the sky was the limit.
One such dream that is quickly becoming a reality, is the proposed Jim Jeffords State Forest. Linking Coolidge State Forest and Aitken State Forest in Mendon and Shrewsbury; the 100,000+ acre land conservation project will not only provide our region with over ten miles of hiking, mountain biking, skiing and snowmobile trails, it will also offer conserved habitat for Vermont wildlife such as moose, deer, turkey, bear, trout, songbirds and more, providing a resource to hunters, anglers and birdwatchers as well.
Acquisition of this land is currently being managed by the Trust for Public Land, along with a group of volunteers. A significant portion of private land has already been donated, and some funding to support more land procurement has been secured through private donation and public grants. The project team is currently working on a campaign to raise the remaining funds for the forest. For more information on the Jeffords State Forest, contact Kate Wanner at the Trust for Public Land: kate.wanner@tpl.org.
While the Jeffords State Forest is one example of the beginnings of a new park/maintained intentional recreation space, it isn’t the only. June 15th’s meeting yielded quite a few new dreams; listing Class 4 roadways as potential mountain biking paths, revisiting old rail beds, and even highlighting Otter Creek as a water trail for canoeing and kayaking were all just bits of thought to be sorted, mapped and explored in the (hopefully near) future.
We are so fortunate to live in a state where opportunities for outdoor, exploratory recreation are virtually everywhere. I look forward to the continuance and further development of such opportunity for myself and generations to come.
Kimberly Griffin is the Director of the Rutland Area Physical Activity Coalition (RAPAC) whose mission is to promote and increase bicycle and pedestrian activity in Rutland County.
E-MAIL: kimberly.rapac@gmail.com
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Come and say ‘Hi’ or stop by and lend a hand for a few minutes on Monday’s or Tuesday’s in the park. We are working on the reroute off Sore Elbow. Youth Works will be here until August 3rd & 4th. 
