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Trail Work at the Center
10.Nov.2009 This summer has seen a lot of trail work at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center and we’ll continue to work until snow flies. Here are some of the changes and improvements you should notice when you come to ski:
One of our goals has been to “buff out” the core trails so as to be able to offer good skiing on a minimum amount of snow. Buffing out means: removing any rocks that might scratch an unsuspecting ski, mowing wider and more often to create a softer and more level base of vegetation, and smoothing some of the areas that have been problematical in the past. By doing this, we hope to save you, our members, the cost (carbon and $$) of travelling further north or west to find early snow.
We’ve also been doing some widening here and there, with a goal of enabling our new slightly wider PistenBully to groom more of the trail system. Trail widening has the additonal bennefit of opening up the canopy so the early season, moist, sticky snowfalls can more easily easily penetrate to the ground where it is critical for base-building instead of getting hung up in the tree tops. Pinch points have been removed on Duck Pond, Race Loop, and other trails. The “teaching hill” between the upper and lower soccer fields has been smoothed and widened, too, so it will be better able to handle the traffic that tends to accumulate there.
Some failing culverts have been replaced and in other places, we’ve added culverts where the old water bars just weren’t sufficient.
You’ll discover some new and re-routed trails, too! The end of Lemon’s Haunt, where it comes back across the tennis courts to the lower soccer field, has been modified to avoid the problem of people and vehicles having to cross the trail. Now it turns left at the tennis courts and rolls behind the maintenance buildings to reappear on the lower soccer field with a straight shot to the usual “finish line” of our home races.
The most significant new trails are designed to link our new biathlon range into the system. It’s a small range – 4 targets now, with room to at least double that – quite adequate for training and teaching. The range is located in a natural hollow at the north side of Elinor’s Hill, and the new trails are on the hillside between Elinor’s and the first downhill of Race Loop. There’s a set of downhill S-turns on the new trail that are generating a lot of discussion and anticipation…. Some of us will be doing a lot of snowplowing there; others can’t wait to ski them fast! In any case, they’ll be good training for those last few S-turns at the Oak Hill course! Besides offering access to the range, this trail will offer everyone a new route to Elinor’s Field.
Thanks go to the usual crew of Eric, John, Corey, DJ and Keith, who have been working extra hard this summer to keep all these trail initiatives moving forward. The trails have also benefited from the person-power of the Green Racing Project skiers, most often organized by their “trail chief” Ollie. Several Craftsbury Nordic collegiate skiers also put in some good work between training sessions, before heading off to college. Also deserving thanks are the Small Boat Training Center rowers, who helped when they didn’t have imminent races. Link to Judy's photo gallery
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