Taking down the rope

With a large wire spool given to us by Ray & Cheryl (thanks guys!) we were able to wrap it up for the season.  Jay rigged the spool so that it spinned nicey in his little ATV trailer.  This was handy as we were able to drive it down the trail to the bottom if the hill.

Here is Ted and Jay getting help from Tappy. 

It's definitely at least a 3 person job to get the rope down.  It was a bit of a struggle at first.  Since the rope had already broke in half we decided to just pull one end down.  Next year we'll have to get extra help as we'll be pulling double rope.  Here is Jay guiding the rope onto the spool.

There is a rope coming down..

Ted & Jay.

I also stopped by the Vermont Technical College (VTC) ski tow to see what they use for their drive wheel.  They not only have a larger drive wheel with a chain gearing setup but a pretty clever way to create grooves for the rope.  We still haven't found a bigger drive wheel yet (from old cable wheels) but this might be a good solution if need be.

Galen has been spending a lot of time walking around on the nordic and mtn bike trails near the house.  Here he is telling Tappy which way to go.

Shifting gears

Once the snow melted off we pretty much got right to it - starting with with a new mtn bike trail.

The trailhead starts at the top of Rochester Gap across the road from the Camp Brook Rd / Hooper Hollow intersection.  It is being built by members of the Rochester Area Sports Trail Alliance (RASTA).  For more info about RASTA visit www.rastavt.org

Once completed the trail will be open to public!  The single track trail is being built to follow the sustainable IMBA standards.  We're trying to design the trail so that it has a lot of flow and small jumps.  Here is the first jump route option (on the left) with the trail on the right.

Jeremy Krohn, an active RASTA member and an employee of Kricket's engineering firm, and I have been flagging out the first section of trail.  It takes a lot of time and thought to get it just right.  It's tricky figurin to get the trail to climb up to the top of the cliff without exceeding an average 10% grade.  We determined that the top of the cliff is a positive control point as there are two view points (looking southeast towards NH and southwest towards killington/pico peaks).  We also ran into a lot of negative control points such as areas that are too ledgy snd would require a lot more work to build a trail through.  Since this is RASTA's first official trail we want to set a good example for other potential land managers to see what we're after.  It's fun to work with Jeremy especially given his knowledge of designing and building IMBA trails.  If interested in helping RASTA build trails for multiple use - we meet every monday night from 5-7pm.  Check out the RASTA site or FB page for more info.

Galen and I have also been spending a lot of time walking around the super short single track loop we built last year (right next to the house).  Galen likes to follow the single track trail and walk across the bridge.