Ski Tow in Royalton

Jay, Bill and I checked out an old active rope tow down the road in Royalton.  The owner of the farm, Wilder went out of his way to give us a tour and share his experiences with us.

The bottom of the tow sits inside of a shed that also doubles as a farmstand in the summer months.

The rope drive wheel is attached to a larger wheel that has a belt (not shown) wrapped around it.  The belt also wraps around a truck tire that provides the drive power.  Since it was crrently being used as a farmstand the truck was not in place.  The float tire seen in the picture is used to keep tension on the belt.

We also hiked up the hill to check out the top return wheel.

We were suprised to find how simple the return setup wheel was.  Basically it was an old car rim from a post that has several cables with come alongs attached to keep it suspended in place.

Looking down the tow from the top - a nice view of the valley.  Wilder used an excavator to re-grade the tow line and a few trails.  Since it's mowed to short grass by the cows in the summer it doesn't take much snow to ski.

The tow was originally built by Wilder's grandfather.  At one point in time back in the 1950-70's it was typical for most towns have a rope tow.  3/4 of all VT towns had at least one ski hill.  Families and communities were much more active in the winter months back then.

The tow was fairly long 1000' to 1200' maybe.  Ours will be about 850' long and a bit steeper.

Here we are headed back down the hill.

It was interesting to note that there were no saftey features.  The only way to shut it off was using the key ignition in the truck.

RASTA and a truck!

A few of our Rochester Area Sports Trail Alliance (RASTA) friends came up to help clear the line for the rope tow.  RASTA is a fairly new organization that I have been involved with.  The alliance is hoping to build and maintain multi-use mtn bike trails on public and private land in our area.  RASTA is also looking to create maintained backcountry glades.  An exciting pilot project with the USFS is already underway.  Feel free to read more about RASTA at www.rastavt.org

Kricket and I had offered our RASTA friends the opportunity to ski our glades this winter (and help thin out the woods too if interested).  I was amazed at how many folks showed up ready to work on the glades.

There were about 11 of us including myself, Jay, Larry, John, Doon, Anni, Kinley, Bill, Hybl, Kricket & Galen.

It's impressive how much can get done with a lot of help.  We managed to get the entire tow line free of brush.

Everyone worked hard, had a great time and seemed to be excited to ski the new glades this winter.

The beater truck Jay and I bought for $300 also arrived today.

I got spraypaint out and made it official.  

We plan to park it at the bottom of the hill where it will power the ski tow.  The truck is a Dodge Dakota Sport from the 90's. The frame is rusted out beyond repair (won't pass road inspection) but the engine still runs well.  Fingers crossed...

More Tow line clearing..

Jay and I have been making steady progress on the rope tow.  We made a trail for Jay's 4 wheeler to climb up to the top of the ridge from the house on the south side.  We needed to find a way to haul the (heavy) bull wheel up to the top and Jay figured his 4-wheeler would be perfect.  The new trail more or less follows what was going to be the proposed tower access road - wait, tower road?  It's a long story.. At this point the tower is not going to happen due to costs associated with getting power up the ridge.  Long story short 2 years ago VELCO was seriously considering the idea of putting up a public safety tower on our ridge.  They spent a lot of time and $ to survey our property and they even engineered proposed site plans.  On the flip side we got a free property survey and a well defined "best" route up to the ridge that the engineer determined based on the hill slope etc.

We cut the trail pretty quickly as we didnt need to cut any big trees etc.  Here is Jay with his 4 wheeler.

We made good progress and had a little extra time to clear brush from the tow line before calling it a day.

Still clearing the rope tow line..

Jay and I have been working hard this summer to get the rope tow line cleared of trees.  We're making good progress.  At times it feels like we're cutting thru a jungle..

Looking down the hill near the top.

A few of the big trees on the tow line will have to be cut later.  We're leaving them for now in case we need to use them to hold the return wheels.

The view has been improving as we open up the canopy.

Near the mid-point.

Near the top.  Lots of nice sugar maples.

During one of the mornings we worked on the tow it was raining on and off.  Here's Jay running his chainsaw.

We were basically in the clouds the whole time.

Jay has started to strip down the old hay tedder.  The plan is to take the tire off and use it as the return bull wheel.