Friday, May 18, 2012

Dirty Thursdays April 26 - May 17


Ringwood/Ramampo Trail (red) Re-route progress: Art and I are happy to announce that all the re-routes and repairs on this project are complete. Three years ago, our first re-route was stared back in Ringwood State Park just beyond the Blue trail bridge crossing. We have worked our way several miles up the hill into Ramapo Mountain State Forest and are now complete where it intersects with the yellow blaze trail.

If you are out on the trail, please check out the recently completed re-route just opened last night. It winds around through rock outcrops and trees and gently traverses some tight terrain and avoids the steep wash out that was there before. Tags have been moved and old trail has been reclaimed. We hope to see blueberry bushes growing in the old trail next year. Thanks to Volunteers over the past few weeks: Mike Zusman, James Wilbur and Henry Gozdz.

On the upcoming Thursdays we will be working our way east and south towards Skyline Dr with some repair work on the Yellow and Cannonball. Please RSVP for location the day before.


Last night when I rode in, I was surprised to see some laurel blooming along the Cannonball trail. Middle of May is quite early. I usually remember the wash of pink surrounding the lakes in Harriman on the first week of June. So if you are out there to enjoy the flowers this year, get out a few weeks early. Later up the trail I spotted some sort of fragrant wild rose. Things are very lush right now, which may seem odd as we were close to a drought a month ago. On our way back, we had to clip face slappers the whole way. This is a great time of year to enjoy the woods. - Ellen