West of Hudson South Crew: Building Better Trails in Harriman-Bear Mountain

February 06, 2019
Chris Ezzo
New York-New Jersey Trail Conference

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West of Hudson South Crew: Building Better Trails in Harriman-Bear Mountain

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The West of Hudson South Crew has completed a successful 2018 season that included a variety of projects on several different trails in Harriman-Bear Mountain state parks.

We finished stone steps on the Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail as part of a trail relocation. We spent time over two seasons on the Cornell Mine Trail installing water bars and rehabbing/restoring preexisting water bars; we also took out a number of blowdowns that were blocking the trail.

The crew also built one water bar and restored another to prevent severe erosion on the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail where it crosses a pipeline. We finished the season on the Arden-Surebridge Trail. There we found the trail taking on a significant amount of water, so we built an approximately 600-foot reroute around one particularly muddy section. I would like to thank all the crew members who were able to make it out this season: Brian Buchbinder, Ed Claflin, John Collins, Charles Frankel, Joyce Gallagher, Claudia Ganz, Dennis Hickey, Mary Hilley, Richard Lynch, John Mack, Gay Mayer, Diane Menna, Hanson Wong, and Steve Zubarik.