July 17, 2010
On a hot summer Saturday, 6 club volunteers showed up to transport bridge materials for 12 bridges on PT109 into various bridge sites along the trail. The volunteers used their own ATV's to pull trailers that were loaded and unloaded by hand. Sometimes these heavily loaded vehicles got stuck and had to be winched out, but the crew persisted and completed the task late on Saturday.
This section of trail is an old narrow gauge railroad bed that runs for 4 miles from York Pond Road to Hager Road (off Spruceville Road).
The club is in the process of repairing damage caused by a 4-wheel drive truck last fall. When this inconsiderate driver ran up the trail, he breached dozens of water bars that caused water to flow down the trail instead of across the trail. The club made temporary repairs last fall, and now an excavator will be going through this section of trail to make permanent repairs. The excavator will fill in the 18" deep ruts and rebuild all of the damaged water bars.
To keep the larger water bars from being breached again by snowmobiles or club grooming equipment, the club has decided to bridge over them to make sure they stay intact. In addition, these water bars have been known to open up during winter warm-ups so these new bridges will make the trail safer during marginal winter conditions.
The club wanted to get this bridge lumber into the bridge sites before the excavator came through so the trail repairs would not get rutted up. Now that the bridge lumber is in place, the bridges can be built in the fall after the trail has had a chance to dry out and firm up.
In addition to the new bridges, the trail is being widened and stumps along the trail are being ground down level with the ground. Landowners on this section of trail were worried about the rail bed being destabilized if stumps were pulled, to the club is renting a stump grinder to deal with the problem.
In addition to the bridges, new gates are being installed on either end of the trail to prevent unauthorized wheeled vehicle traffic. New signage along this entire length of trail will also be installed in the fall.
We are asking all riders who ride in this area to volunteer one Saturday to help out with trail work. Free accommodations for volunteers coming from out of town and you will get to work with some very talented people. Please send email to larry@twolakeslodge.com for details on upcoming work parties.
Delivery truck from White Mountain Lumber stacked with an oversize load of PT bridge lumber prepares to unload in an old logging yard near PT109. Many thanks to club volunteers Eric, John, Roger, Bryan, Dick and Larry for getting this critical job done.