ADK Chapters Become 1 Beware This Beetle! The Ramapo and North Jersey The Asian long-horned beetle’s chapters of the Adirondack varied appetite poses a major Mountain Club find new vigor threat to our forests. by uniting. READ MORE ON PAGE 9 READ MORE ON PAGE 7 September/October 2009 New York-New Jersey Trail Conference — Maintaining 1,716 Miles of Trails www.nynjtc.org Trail Conference Projects among 32 in New York to Get Funds for Trails wo New York-New Jersey Trail Confer - ing access to an area that is not now avail - “With its close proximity to New York ence projects are among the 32 able to persons with disabilities. The Trail City, Bear Mountain is a very popular des - Ttrail-related projects in New York State Conference is a partner in this project tination for people who want to enjoy time that will receive funding in 2009 as part of the with the Palisades Parks Conservancy, the in nature. These visitors deserve to have a federal Recreational Trails Program. New York grant recipient, and the Palisades Interstate great experience when they explore the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Park Commission. trails there. Our trained volunteers, work - Preservation Commissioner Carol Ash ing alongside professional trail-builders, are announced the grant awards on June 23. creating the trails that make great hikes The Trail Conference was awarded Trail users of all levels possible. The public will get a lot for its $150,000 to complete rebuilding work on investment in this project.” a section of the Appalachian Trail on Bear of experience deserve State Parks administers the federal Mountain. This original section of the matching grant program providing fund - Appalachian Trail, the nation’s first great trails on which ing to state and local governments, National Scenic Trail, at Bear Mountain is not-for-profit organizations, corporations, also the most heavily used and degraded. they can explore parks. and partnerships for the maintenance, ren - As part of a larger project to rebuild this ovation, development, acquisition and historic trail to safely accommodate the construction of trails and trail-related facil - hundreds of thousands of users annually, ities. Funding is provided through the this project will open a three-quarter-mile “These grants will help the Trail Confer - Federal Highway Administration’s Safe, section originating behind the Bear Moun - ence and our partners achieve our goal of Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Trans - Trail Conference tain Inn. making hikes on Bear Mountain excellent portation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users A second grant, of $120,935, will sup - trail experiences for visitors of all levels of (SAFETEA-LU). Member Larry port construction of a half-mile accessible experience,” said Trail Conference Execu - Luxenberg Gets trail along the Bear Mountain summit, giv - tive Director Ed Goodell. Top Honor from Tornado Strikes ATC; Others Earn Appalachian Trail On July 29 a tornado touched down on 25-Year Awards the AT on the New Jersey side of the state line at Unionville, NY. Gene Giordano, Since completing a thru-hike of the NJ AT committee chair, who coordinat - Appalachian Trail in 1980, Larry Luxenberg, ed the clean-up efforts, reports that no a Trail Conference Life Member and resi - one was hurt, though hikers were in the dent of New City, NY, has dedicated much area. NJ AT Corridor Manager Jim The AT near Unionville after a tornado hit. Within days, volunteers had the trail reopened. of his volunteer time to preserving the histo - Wright reports that some hikers were ry, memories, and stories of the trail and the about to enter the area during the storm, By August 3, and despite rain delays, Says Bob Boyle: “I did get a lot of com - community that has built up around it. In but heard cracking noises and decided to volunteers including Trail Conference ments from the hikers who helped, saying, July, his efforts were recognized by the wait. After the storm, hikers were unable members and passing thru-hikers had the ‘This was fun,’ and ‘It feels good to work on Appalachian Trail Conservancy with the to pass through on the trail; some, trail cleared. the trail.’ These are comments I frequently announcement that he has been made an attempting to bypass the blowdowns, lost Workers on the cleanup: Bob Boyle, say to myself while doing trail work.” “Honorary Member” of the ATC. The the trail and ended up at the Outhouse Jim Wright, Matt Degner (“Flatlander,” Ground support was provided by the award was announced by Betsy Thompson, Hostel in Unionville, a stopping place for from North Dakota), “Cartoon,” (name Outhouse Hostel, owned by Richard Lud - an ATC board member, at the group’s bien - AT thru-hikers. and address unknown), Pierre Larochelle wick, who brought the hiker volunteers to nial meeting in Vermont in July. Bob Boyle (“Shamrock”), AT supervi - (“Gnarley,” from Manhattan, NY), the site and provided water, potato salad, The award is given to a select few. Only 51 sor and trail maintainer for the section, Robert Ballagh (“Blue eyes,” from Blacks - and hero sandwiches for all volunteers on other people have been designated as Hon - reports that trail damage was confined to burg, VA), and Dave Foley (“Dah Wah the last big day of clean-up. orary Members by the ATC, among them a 0.2-mile section of the trail between He,” from Maine). A big thanks for a great job by all! AT founder Benton MacKaye. The honor Unionville Road and Quarry Road. recognizes “distinguished contribution to the Most trees fell perpendicular to the trail, Appalachian Trail project through service many pulling up large root balls. that shall have had an inspirational or exem - plary effect because of its special quality, character or innovative aspects rather than simply service of a conventional nature per - Join us rain or shine for our 2nd Annual People for Trails Hike-a-thon at Bear formed in a superior manner.” Mountain State Park on October 3, 2009 starting at 7:30 a.m. Registration is Larry is the author of Walking the limited. Gift bags stuffed with goodies donated by our sponsors will go to the first Appalachian Trail (1994), which includes 100 registrants. Sign up today! Our new online registration and pledge forms make excerpts from 200 interviews he did with it easy for participants and the people supporting you. AT hikers, maintainers, and land-acquisi - tion pioneers. “During that book writing Thanks to our sponsors: process,” Betsy Thompson said in making A certified chain-sawyer clears blowdowns. continued on page 10 VOLUME XXXVI, N UMBER 5 ISSN 0749-1352 Non-Profit US Postage Paid Permit No. 1239 Bellmawr, N.J. REGISTER, LEARN MORE, AND MAKE A PLEDGE ONLINE. GO TO WWW.NYNJTC.ORG Page 2 September/October 2009 From The West Hudson Trail Crew Open Letter To The Hiking Community VOLUME XXXVI, NO.5 SEPTEMBER /O CTOBER 2009 GEORGETTE WEIR EDITOR LOUIS LEONARDIS GRAPHIC DESIGNER Re: Vandalism on the AT in Harriman The TRAIL WALKER (USPS Permit #1239) (ISSN 0749-1352) is published bi-monthly by the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference as a This letter is prompted by recent events in benefit of membership. Subscriptions are Harriman State Park in New York where available to libraries only at $15.00 a year. trail repair efforts (controlling erosion) on Periodical postage paid at Mahwah, N.J., and the AT were repeatedly dismantled. An ini - additional offices. Postmaster: Send address tial report of natural erosion was first changes to the address below. Opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily represent the policy brought to our attention in the fall of 2006 or position of the Conference. Contributions of by Gail Neffinger, the AT trail chair for typed manuscripts, photos, and drawings are Orange and Rockland counties. The sec - welcome. Manuscripts may be edited for style tion of the trail is located on the northeast and length. Send SASE for writers’ guidelines. shoulder of West Mountain. We spent over Submission deadlines for the TRAIL WALKER are January 15 (Mar./Apr. issue), March 15 230 volunteer hours in the spring of 2007 (May/June issue), May 15 (July/Aug. issue), rebuilding the trail, and it was subsequent - July 15 (Sept./Oct. issue), September 15 ly dismantled. We returned on May 30, (Nov./Dec. issue), November 15 (Jan./Feb. 2009, to begin restoring the same section issue). Unsolicited contributions cannot be acknowledged unless accompanied by SASE. once again only to return on June 13 to For information on advertising rates, please write find it vandalized again. This was not a case or call. of a person (s) just kicking some rocks and Copyright 2009 by: brush out of the way. Heavy rock steps New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, Inc. were dislodged, the extensive piles of brush 156 Ramapo Valley Road (Rt. 202) Mahwah, NJ 07430 used to block the old eroded path were 201-512-9348 removed, and the new blazes were scraped e-mail: [email protected] off the trees. editorial e-mail: [email protected] Based on these incidents, our trail crew World Wide Web: www.nynjtc.org believes a misperception exists among some users of the trails as to why crews of volun - teer hikers go out and build water bars, Twice, Trail Conference crews invested heavy labor in relocating a stretch of the AT in Harriman stone or wood steps, switchbacks, check State Park and building steps to control erosion. Twice, their work was undone by vandals. dams etc. There is only one reason— erosion control. Our goal is to minimize the impact of hikers on medium-to-heavily-used trails as Mission Statement much as possible using both corrective and The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference is a preventive methods.