Spring 2013 New York-New Jersey Trail Conference — Connecting People with Nature Since 1920 First Section of Kaaterskill Rail Trail to Open June 1
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Spring Tool Tips Hydration for Hikers for Maintainers Is water enough? How much? How to clean, sharpen, and When should you drink? make your tools last for years. READ MORE ON PAGE 9 READ MORE ON PAGE 5 Spring 2013 New York-New Jersey Trail Conference — Connecting People with Nature since 1920 www.nynjtc.org First Section of Kaaterskill Rail Trail to Open June 1 Join us on Phase 2 of the project, currently in the planning stages, will provide a direct link to National Trails Day the existing Escarpment Trail and the North/South Lake State Campground, with he first phase of the Kaaterskill Rail a trail and bridge at the Laurel House site. Trail project will end with the open - The Trail Conference conducted several Ting of a 1.5-mile trail section on trail maintenance and trail building work - Saturday, June 1, 2013—National Trails shops and work trips on the trail in 2012. Day. Please watch our calendar of events on We expect to adopt the Kaaterskill Rail the web for details on the opening and plan Trail for regular maintenance following its to join us. opening; our maintainers already care for Creating a rail-trail link from the Village most of the trails on the surrounding For - of Haines Falls in Greene County to the est Preserve lands. The new trail is shown E K very popular North and South Lake Camp - N on map #141 of the new Catskill Trails A R F ground has long been a dream for many in map set (see page 11). B O K the Catskills community. Given the rich A J history of the railroad and grand hotel era of Kaaterskill Rail Trail volunteers still smiling after a day of hard work last season. The Kaaterskill Rail Trail Committee com - this region, the project offers great potential prises the Trail Conference, Town of Hunter, to interpret the natural, historic, and cultur - lows the abandoned Ulster & Delaware Falls. A large portion of the trail is along the Greene County Soil and Water Conservation al resources that have been and continue to Railroad between the Mountain Top His - edge of Kaaterskill Clove, offering multiple District, Mountain Top Historical Society, be hallmarks of the tourist economy in the torical Society property in Haines Falls and views of Kaaterskill Falls. The trail will be and the New York State Dept. of Environ - northern Catskills for generations. New York Forest Preserve land at the end of open to public use for non-motorized, mental Conservation. This first completed piece of the trail fol - Laurel House Road, just above Kaaterskill multi-use activities. In Wake of Superstorm Sandy: TRAILS 2013 19 Newly Certified Chainsaw Volunteers practice sessions were in the field on trails show their ability to survey a site, under - See what we’re offering this year. at High Point State Park. Instructors Jack stand compression and tension in a Workshops for all skill levels. “Possibly the best training Shuart and Peter Jensen were thorough and downed tree, and safely make their cut. At nynjtc.org/view/workshops clear in their presentations on equipment, the end of the day we had a wrap-up ses - class I’ve ever taken. techniques, and safety. sion back at the classroom. After a Special note: If you are interested in The cutting technique The weather was frigid. Both days start - one-on-one review with their instructor, learning technical rock-work skills at ed with temperatures below 15 degrees, but everyone was on their way. We now have Bear Mountain, you MUST attend an demos were excellent.” that didn’t stop our sawyers. Once they had 19 new or better trained sawyers to help orientation on Saturday, May 4. If you — Bill Phillips their coffee or tea and bagels, they were out on trails throughout our region. are interested in working with the Jolly ready to learn. Our first day was spent pri - Rover Technical Rock Work Crew, you marily in the classroom listening to the — Jonathan Martin, MUST attend their orientation, Satur - details about saw maintenance, the art of NJ Program Coordinator day, March 30. On January 26 and 27 we hosted a chain - the saw cut, and how to safely survey a saw certification course approved by the work area. After that we went outside to Go Out with Our Volunteer Trail Crews United States Forest Service for our volun - fuel up our saws and learn the nuances of In all regions, from group trail mainte - teers. Our need for this class was made how to start them in below-freezing condi - nance trips to technical rock work. much more apparent than ever after the tions. In the afternoon we surveyed the Find a crew or outing that is right for damages our trails incurred from Super - next day’s work site, discussing some of the you. storm Sandy. The good people at the things we had covered in the classroom. nynjtc.org/view/trail-crew-outings Dodge Foundation agreed and awarded us On day two, we turned to hands-on a grant focused on certifying new sawyers. learning. Our morning started with a quick Other Trail Events Thanks to a donation of helmets, gloves, overview of the previous day’s lessons, and See what else is happening trail-wise. and chaps from Northeast STIHL, we were then we were in the field practicing tech - nynjtc.org/calendar able to outfit the students with proper safe - niques on hazardous trees. We broke up ty gear. The New Jersey School of into groups and took care of some intense Conservation offered to host the class, and blow down piles. Everyone had a chance to Thank-you Stihl; Our Chain Sawyers Thank You We thank Northeast STIHL for their donation of 10 new pairs of chaps, 15 sawyer helmets, and a box of gloves for our sawyers. The donation is valued at $2,110.51, and the equipment was put to use at the January workshop. VOLUME XL, N UMBER 2 ISSN 0749-1352 Trail U student Samantha Hensen Introduction to Trail Maintenance makes a practice cut. workshops will be offered in all regions. Page 2 Spring 2013 Feedback VOLUME XL, NO.2 SPRING 2013 Corrections GEORGETTE WEIR EDITOR In our page 1 story on the new Popolopen LOUIS LEONARDIS GRAPHIC DESIGNER Bridge in the Winter 2012 Trail Walker, TRAIL WALKER (USPS Permit #970-100) Doug Comeau is incorrectly listed as (ISSN 0749-1352) is published quarterly by the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference as a Dove Comeau. benefit of membership. Subscriptions are Re: “Traction Aids for Winter Hiking,” available to libraries only at $15.00 a year. page 11 of that same issue: Edmund Periodical postage paid at Mahwah, N.J., and additional offices. Postmaster: Send address Hillary climbed Mount Everest in 1953, changes to the address below. Opinions expressed not 1959. by authors do not necessarily represent the policy or position of the Conference. Contributions of Re Sandy Cleanup typed manuscripts, photos, and drawings are Via email welcome. Manuscripts may be edited for style and length. Send SASE for writers’ guidelines. We, the co-chairs for Central North Jersey Submission deadlines for the TRAIL WALKER Region, must sing the praises of our are January 15 (Spring issue), May 15 (Summer incredible sawyers and swampers*. The issue), August 15 (Fall issue), November 15 devastation from super storm Sandy was (Winter issue). Unsolicited contributions cannot Long Path crew members Thom Patton, Jakob Franke, Dave Booth, and Fred Shaw pause while be acknowledged unless accompanied by SASE. mind boggling and there is still much on Sandy clean-up duty. For information on advertising rates, please write work to do. or call. Without the tremendous help of these Editor’s Notes: Copyright 2013 by: Re Sandy Cleanup New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, Inc. folks, many of our trails would still be 1. Readers should add letter writers Bob 156 Ramapo Valley Road (Rt. 202) closed to hikers. They heeded the call for Jonas to the above sawyer list and Estelle Editor’s Note: Mahwah, NJ 07430 help and in our region have given over 600 Anderson to the swamper list. Owing to the varied ways our volun - 201-512-9348 hours of labor to clear nearly 400 trees 2. *What’s a swamper? In trail lingo, a teers track their work, it is not email: [email protected] from our trails. They have worked in these swamper is a person who is helping a editorial email: [email protected] possible for us to accurately name World Wide Web: www.nynjtc.org New Jersey regions: Wawayanda State sawyer (who should never be working on a Park, Farny State Park, Southern Wyanok - trail alone). A swamper may help carry gear and acknowledge the many out - ies, Pequannock Watershed, Pyramid during a work trip, pull away branches, be standing sawyers, swampers, and Mountain, High Mountain Preserve, first-aid knowledgeable, and be on the Mountainside Park, and sections of High - lookout for safety hazards to the sawyer. others who have given extraordinary lands Trail. service in clearing trails after Sandy. On the Tenafly Nature Center But all who enjoy trails should be website, February 20 aware that in the few months since After Hurricane Sandy, 100% of our trails were designated as “closed.” On February Hurricane Sandy, volunteers—espe - Mission Statement 20, 2013, thanks to the tireless efforts of cially in northern and western New The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference is a the NY-NJ Trail Conference crew that Jersey and southern New York west federation of member clubs and individuals S helps TNC staff to monitor and maintain A dedicated to providing recreational hiking N of the Hudson River—have given O our trails, 100% of our trails are “open.” J opportunities in the region, and representing the T R We’re grateful for their work clearing over interests and concerns of the hiking community.