I hope everyone was able to take advantage of last weekend and put some
miles under their tires.  The leaves were beautiful and the weather was
unheard of!  I wanted to take some time to go over a parcel of land that the
UVMBA has been working on with the Hanover Conservation Commission (HCC) for
the better part of a year.


First some history, this piece of land is located off of Route 10 just east
of the Oak Hill recreation area.  In fact, the two trail networks are
connected.  Overall the Rinker tract is small but has some very unique
terrain and provides a great single tract trail to gain elevation into the
Oak hill system.  The issue is that the majority of the HCC land has a “No
Biking” policy. Within the Rinker Tract there was a trail that was put in
that traversed a steep side slope.  This trail was not put in very well and
has lead to some erosion (primarily from tires falling off the edge due to
the uphill pedal hitting the cut bank).  This erosion coupled with the fact
that the HCC does not permit bikes in this area caused the UVMBA to become
involved.


We have attended a number of meetings and conducted several site visits to
the area to see what could be done.  Our goal was to make sure that we still
had an access point through this area.  The HCCs goal was to remove the
offending side cut trail and enforce the no bikes policy in the heart of the
Rinker Tract.  Our original suggestion was to properly rebuild the offending
trail so that bikers and hikers could enjoy the trail.  This was not
accepted.

We went back to the drawing board to try to accomplish the goals of both
groups and in the long run we reached a great compromise.  We will be
building in a new trail in the NE corner of the Rinker Tract that will pull
bikes out of the heart of the Tract but still provide some great single
tract to climb into the Oak hill system.  This new trail will start just
past the small stream crossing on the way into the tract from Stores pond.  It
will head to the right and start to climb from there.  The new trail will be
about .25 miles.  Here is a link to it http://app.strava.com/hikes/1790493 .
If you would like to see it in relation to the existing system please let me
know and I can send you a PDF.


This is a great success for both the HCC and the UVMBA.  We hope to have the
trail raked in this year and finished by Trail day (First weekend in June).
One of the most important parts of this agreement is that the MTB user group
helps police and respects the “No Bikes” policy at the Rinker tract to the
left of the new trail.  By the HCC allowing us to build this new trail we
now have a great new trail to ride and as such we need to respect the quite
area closer to Route 10.  We need to self police this.  Please call out
folks you see poaching this area for riding.  Please do not ride in from the
Route 10 entrance to the Rinker Tract, go up to the large field off Route 10
and enter from there.  By demonstrating that we can self enforce our group
we will be in a great position to leverage further collaboration with the
HCC.  I like to think big here: single tract network from the Goose Pond
system to the Oak Hill system.

Over the coming weeks we will be decommissioning the offending trail.  This
will be done by filling the bank cut back in and replacing the pine and
duff.  We will be posting new signs at the junctions that explain what the
Rinker Tract is and what we are doing.  We will be sending out an
announcement that explains what/when we are doing all of this.


If you have any concerns or want a map of the area please let me know.


Cheers,

Brian Riordan

UVMBA Pres.