Finished marking the trail

On a ride to day with Tren and a friend of his I finished marking the trail. There was a half inch of snow on the ground and it made the trail really easy to follow.

Below is the stream crossing section that I think is better to cross just one stream than two. Also I like the idea of coming around the hill top and making sweeping hairpin turn and heading straight down to the stream crossing. There is a mess of fallen trees that will have to be cleaned up but it makes for nice trail. I foresee, however, a shortcut being developed, that I shown below with a purple dashed line.

Now that the marking is done, I am waiting to hear back from the DEP on the final approved trail proposal. From what hear, there might be more than one recommendation besides doing something about the connector trail. I hope I get it soon. I think I have to walk the final proposed trail with DEP before any work can be done. I hope to have all this done before March 29th because that is when I am holding Trail Design and Building class for area mountain bikers and Newtown Bridal Lands Association.

Second Trail Marking Session

Rode this section today. Here is the map of my second endeavor to mark the trail. Only I ran out of engineer tape at Point H. Added some more variation to the trail that will make it interesting.


Originally, I had routed the trail through a stonewall at point A and then made a 90 degree turn due south. There were two problems that I couldn't seem to address while riding through there: (1) widening that turn; and (2) climbing up through this little draw. When I walked it, I found another breach in the stone wall a little further north, so assuming that one of the breaches would be used for horses and the new one, which is even more challenging for bikes, I still needed a way to create some sort of ramp up or run way to get the rider ready for this stunt. That is when I found that the terrain stays pretty even by going around the hill top in front of the stone wall.

Point B is the Tunnel of Love, pictured above. The tree that fell is on the border with the state land with the town ROW and we can't have the trail on town land, so the Tunnel of Love acts as a great deterrence for keeping out motorized vehicles, such as ATVs. What this means is that the trunk to the south of the Tunnel will have to be cut.


When we first looked at using the ROW it presented a challenge further up the trail and not shown but there is a stream that has fanned out over the old road and crossing that would be messy. That is why the route goes up behind this confluence and does find some interesting terrain. The first break in the stonewall that I found to run the route through had to cross a huge rock garden. The stream runs through this rockgarden and in fact in fans out like a delta. Thus, where you see the letter C is the new crossing further up.

The intermittentant stream that runs through this part is much narrower and the banks are distinctly defined. So the trail makes a much smoother transition to the other side and sets up for even climb.

First Trail Marking Session

Went out today and starting marking the new trail from the Jeep Road off of Sanford Road to end of the ROW where the trail turns east. Not sure what to do at this point about the stone walls and horses. I will have to send a note to the DEP to see if they can be breached. The one partial breach that I have found works for a mountain bike, it's just an up and over.

Below is the existing trail that was part of the original trail proposal and since it might be hard to see the changes, I have added a blow-up.


I decided to re-route two sections of the trail. The turquoise section is the original routing and the gold represents the change. Extending this loop does two things, it adds more a direct shot when passing through the stone wall that is in this location and keeps the trail off of a swale in which I originally routed the trail up through, which would probably be more effected by erosion. Also, by removing this decline, it takes out the 90 degree turn you have to make you only have 10 feet to line up for the up and over on the stonewall. It's too easy to chicken out. At least with a longer approach, while the psyche factor increases you will have enough speed to hit it cleanly every time.

The other change, while hard to really see is that I am not getting rid of the Tunnel of Love. This is an up and over I built last spring after the Class I Tornado that ripped through Newtown and knocked out this big tree which knocked over another tree, effectively blocking the ROW. I went in by hand and chopped a section out of the trunk that was over the trail so that it would lay flat on the trail. Then I piled stones that were knocked off the stone wall when the trees toppled over to make the up and over. The reason I call it the tunnel of love is because there is another three of about 5 inches in diameter that got pulled over making an arch over of the trunks across the trail.

There is another benefit to this obstacle and that is it will keep out the ATVs. Of course since the trail has to stay on state land, I am going to have to cut an opening through the trunks further towards the base to allow horses and bikes to pass through. Then there will be another stone wall breach, another fallen tree to clear and then the trail makes a nice transition onto the ROW.

On the detail map you will notice a circle with a number one next to it. That is the start of this tremendous rock garden because that is essentially a wetland. Bikes can get through there, but I don't know about horses so we might have to find an alternative through here. On the way back, I happen to notice another breach in the stone wall on the east side of the trail. Unfortunately, I was running short of time and didn't have a chance to further explore it.

Not bad for 2 hours worth of work. Need to start bringing my camera and taking pictures of what areas that will need additional work, like benching and ramping.