Multi-use trail planned
By CHRIS KNIGHT, Enterprise Senior Staff WriterArticle Photos
SARANAC LAKE - Plans are in the works to create a new multi-use recreational trail for mountain biking and snowshoeing at Dewey Mountain Recreation Center.
Jason Smith of Adirondack Lakes and Trails Outfitters, which manages the mountain for the town of Harrietstown, said the figure-eight style loop will use some of the center's existing trails and a new section of trail that would be located higher up the mountain. The new multi-use trail would be about 3 to 4 miles in length.
"It will be a snowshoe trail in the winter and in the summer it will be set up as a mountain bike trail," Smith said. "We have most of the lower part of it done because it's on existing snowshoe and ski trails. Then what we want to do is create a second phase of trail that gets toward the summit and comes back down."
Smith and others have been working with the Barkeater Trails Alliance (BETA), a newly formed mountain biking group in the area, to help develop the new trail. Volunteers were lined up to begin the work last month, but it was put on hold because the town wants to get a survey of the property and run the project by the state Adirondack Park Agency.
"The town wants to make sure there's no issues with private lands, wetlands or the APA," said Smith.
Steve Doxson of Adirondack Lakes and Trails said mountain bikers have been using Dewey Mountain for years, but the sport has grown in popularity lately and people are looking for more opportunities to ride.
"Mountain biking has really taken off in this area with trails that have been built in Wilmington, the new group that's formed and efforts to get DEC to designate certain areas for mountain biking," Doxson said. "Since people are already using Dewey for mountain biking, the thought is 'Let's make some nice trails so they can have a nice experience.'"
"People ride up there all the time, we just haven't been publicizing it because there's a few incomplete sections and we haven't marked it," Smith added. "Hopefully by the end of summer we can have a trail volunteer day and open up some sections."
Smith said the new multi-use trail system would be for beginner to intermediate mountain bikers. He said there are no plans to charge any fees for use of the trail network.
"I think it would be just another recreational opportunity that's open to the public," Smith said. "I don't think we'd be able to offer the kind of trail system where we'd have rentals and charge fees."
The new multi-use trail will also be open to snowshoeing in the winter. It's designed to replace a Dewey snowshoeing trail that crossed onto neighboring property owned by Robert Scheefer that is now being developed.
"We need this so we can use it as a snowshoe trail, because we've lost our trail to the summit," Smith said.
The trail work will be done by volunteers, Doxson said, so the town won't incur any expenses.
"Everybody's volunteering," he said. "There's absolutely no cost at all. It's like anything up here - when you get folks in the community who have a passion about something, they're more than willing to volunteer and make it happen."
Harrietstown Councilman Ron Keough said the town is "absolutely" behind the project.
"The original intent when Dewey Mountain Recreation Center was created in the 1980s was to eventually get the whole mountain to a four-season utilization," he said. "We want to expand the opportunities up there. This has been on the back burner for a long time."
Town Code Enforcement Officer Ed Randig said the town has contracted with Geomatics Land Surveying of Saranac Lake, which will be surveying the smaller, eastern portion of the new trail system with an APA wetlands biologist. Once it's been flagged, the trail's location will be programmed into a GPS-database and work can begin on that part of the trail, he said.
Randig said there are plans for a larger expansion of the Dewey trail network on the western side of the mountain, which likely won't be surveyed and developed until next year.
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FishCric
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07-29-10 5:01 PM
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more please
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poolman137
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07-29-10 4:47 PM
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I'm glad to see a plan like this go into an area that can support it....... Bravo!!!!!
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