It has been an incredible season of trail work around BETA land. BETA staff, volunteers, and contractors have improved Dewey, Blueberry Hill, Hardy Road, Craig Wood, and are now working on East Branch Community Trails.
Saranac Lake – Dewey Mountain Early this spring, we hosted a volunteer event at Dewey to work on a new connector trail. If you’ve visited Dewey, you know that the trail network there can be difficult to make sense of. Many folks end up on trails that they had not intended, all turned around. This new connector trail was designed, in part, to help make navigating the network easier and more straightforward. BETA staff planned it out, directed volunteers, and polished it a bit after our weekend workday wrapped up. Elizabethtown – Blueberry Hill BETA staff completed 1,000 feet of machine-built trail for a new climbing trail from the firepit trailhead on Bronson up into the Blueberry system. Soon after, volunteers joined us to polish the rough machine work. The trail is expected to be open sometime in 2025. Wilmington – Hardy Road All In has been getting some attention this season – we’ve done a fair bit of tread hardening, root snipping, and rock removal. All sorts of bits and bobs to address some of the soil erosion inevitable on trails as well as some of the troublesome obstacles. Have no fear, there are still plenty of slippery roots and annoying rocks to make the ride a fun challenge. Lake Placid – Craig Wood & Scott’s Cobble Perhaps the system with the most improvements this season, Craig Wood and Scott’s Cobble have been getting a lot of praise lately. We put up new signage to make navigating the network easier and therefore safer – no need to stop at each intersection to reference Trailforks anymore. Backslope Trail Building returned to the system in the spring to give the flow lines they had built last year, Green Jacket and God Jacket, some TLC. With the help of many, many volunteers, we’ve added some much-needed water management features like drainage ditches and tread hardening. The soils themselves at Craig Wood and Scotts Cobble tend to hold water more than any other BETA trail system and the newest water management improvements will help address that. Progress has been made on two trail reroutes: the Scott’s Cobble climbing trail and the Jack Rabbit climbing trail. These reroutes have made riding the climbing trails more enjoyable and accessible – the option of riding into Craig Wood from town is a lot more attractive now! Keene – East Branch Community Trails Work has started on two new trails at East Branch: a hand-built lollipop off of the upper loop that will offer new viewpoints and a machine-built downhill trail. The downhill trail will connect the top loop to Down River – one long downhill thrill that will make it unnecessary to ride down the climbing trail. These trails will not be finished by the time BETA’s Wilmington Mountain Bike Festival rolls around, but if volunteers show up and the rain holds off, they might be rideable before the season is well and truly over. If you want to become a part of the legacy of this incredibly trail system, we're looking for help on the hand-built trail from Tuesday, 08/20 through Friday, 08/23 and Monday 08/26 through Thursday, 08/29 (contact Dusty at [email protected]) as well as on our dedicated volunteer workday, Saturday 08/24. Register to volunteer for the workday at betatrails.org/volunteer Comments are closed.
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