The hiker shuttle, operated by the Essex County Transportation Department and supported by funding from the state’s Environmental Protection Fund, is pictured here. (Provided photo — New York State Department of Environmental Conservation)

KEENE VALLEY — The town of Keene’s hiker shuttle will resume service for the season this Saturday. A separate hiker shuttle operated by Essex County Public Transportation and funded through the state’s Environmental Protection Fund will also resume service next month, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation plans to repurpose one of the shuttles for use as a mobile education station.

The town’s shuttle, which connects hikers from the Airport Road parking lot at the south end of Marcy Field to the Garden trailhead, will be available every weekend starting at 7 a.m. Saturday until Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day weekend in October.

Typically, this service would start in late June or early July, but the town of Keene, much like businesses around the region, struggled to find the staff needed to get the service up and running.

“The late start is entirely due to the difficulty staffing and hiring a qualified driver,” Keene town Supervisor Joe Pete Wilson Jr. said.

Hikers can hitch a roundtrip ride on the shuttle for $10. Those who are able to find parking at the Garden trailhead will be charged $10 for parking, but would be able to ride the shuttle for free, according to Wilson. In late September, when a county-operated leaf peeper shuttle begins service, both the town and county shuttles will be free to ride for everyone.

Frontcountry stewards from the town of Keene will be stationed at the shuttle’s pick-up and drop-off points and will be available to provide hikers with guidance for their trip and to offer alternative hiking routes when trails become overcrowded.

The town is still searching for one or two more frontcountry stewards to help out this season. Those interested in applying can call the Keene Town Hall or email the supervisor through townofkeeneny.com for more information. They will be working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends. The town is looking for people with knowledge of the High Peaks and Leave No Trace practices, and who have an ability to work with people, according to Wilson.

This shuttle service is separate from the hiker shuttle funded by the state’s Environmental Protection Fund and operated by Essex County Public Transportation. The town of Keene has operated its own town-funded hiker shuttle for more than 10 years.

“We are striving for a balance here, welcoming visitors who come to enjoy the region we all love and yet not have our local community get overwhelmed,” Wilson said in a statement.

–

State-funded shuttle

–

The hiker shuttle operated by Essex County in collaboration with the DEC has not been in service so far this year. But the DEC confirmed Tuesday that this service would, in fact, be returning on “select weekends between Labor Day and Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day.”

One of the four shuttles purchased in 2021 when this service was launched will be repurposed for use as an educational resource, according to DEC Spokesman John Salka.

“The station will first be deployed at Marcy Field for the 2023 fall hiking season,” Salka said. “The bus is equipped with a TV allowing for video education opportunities in addition to resources like maps, alternate locations, trail conditions, parking information and safety and preparedness information.”

In 2022, environmental education assistants with the DEC stationed themselves at key frontcountry access points and trailheads between May 27 and Oct. 10, according to Salka.

“The assistants reported more than 5,300 engagements over 178 days from 12 different locations,” he said.

It was initially unclear whether or not the hiker shuttle service would continue at all. In March, the DEC said that it was in the process of executing a two-year extension of its shuttle contract with Essex County. Essex County Highway Superintendent Jim Dougan did not respond to a request for comment by deadline Tuesday.

The shuttle service was created as one piece of a broader plan to ease traffic safety concerns at overcrowded trailhead parking lots — especially along state Route 73 in the town of Keene — after decades of increasing hiker traffic to the High Peaks.

Despite the overcrowded trailhead parking lots, which in the past prompted the DEC to step up its ticketing efforts to curb illegal parking along the roadside, ridership on the hiker shuttle never really took off.

Because of transportation regulations imposed during the coronavirus pandemic, the shuttle only ran for a few weeks in 2021. In its first full season last year — from July 16 to Oct. 10 — the shuttle had a total of 214 riders, DEC spokesperson Lori Severino told the Enterprise earlier this year.

“The highest ridership occurred during select weekends in September and October (2022). A second shuttle route operated the first two weekends in October for those looking for a scenic ride to view the fall colors. The scenic shuttle saw 47 total riders over those two weekends,” according to the DEC.

The shuttle starting service next month begins and ends its route at the parking lot on Airport Road at the south end of Marcy Field in Keene. It travels along the Route 73 corridor and makes stops at the Rooster Comb, Giant Mountain Ridge and Roaring Brook Falls trailheads. A route map is available online at https://tinyurl.com/mv2ubuek.

The full operating schedule will become available closer to the service’s start date, according to the DEC.

–

CLARIFICATION: The town of Keene’s hiker shuttle will become free to ride sometime in late September, when a county-operated leaf peeper shuttle begins service. Both shuttle services at that time will be funded by the state’s Environmental Protection Fund.