
Bike Group Helping Build Trails Network
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Their collaboration will initially focus efforts in Pittsfield State Forest. The goal is to create a system of stacked loop trails for cyclists, runners and hikers of various abilities that are well organized, blazed and mapped in order to promote the forest to the general public and to support active, healthy lifestyle activities.
This spring, 10 Berkshire riders attended a Trail Building School sponsored by NEMBA and the International Mountain Bicycling Association to learn sustainable trail construction techniques.
The local chapter ordered an assortment of trail building tools for its projects. The first planned trail improvement involves a 2-plus mile re-route of the Turner Trail. Currently, the Turner is a fall line scar of a trail — a trench, in fact — rising more than 1,000 feet to a radio tower summit near the camping area on top of Berry Mountain. Berkshire NEMBA's goal is to create a sustainable replacement for this trail, which winds and weaves its way up from the base of the mountain and connects to the camping area. With the help of NEMBA trail designers Mike Tabaczynski and Philip Keyes, the local group's new leadership spent a day aligning the trail with clinometers in hand to create a new path that will be both sustainable and fun to ride.
The first trail day was held on June 21 with 42 volunteers lending a hand; about half of the new Turner Trail was completed on that day.
The second trail day is scheduled this Saturday, Aug. 2, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Riders, hikers and runners are encouraged to get their hands dirty and help Berkshire NEMBA complete the trail. Those interested should meet at the Lulu Cascade parking area in the Pittsfield State Forest at 8:30. The plan is to work from 9 to noon.
Berkshire NEMBA will provide lunch to all volunteers, with a ride to follow at around 1. This is an event in the Trek Bicycles/NEMBA Trail Care Series and all NEMBA members who volunteer will be entered into a drawing to win one of two high-end Trek dual-suspension mountain bikes.
For more information or to join the chapter, visit www.BerkshireNEMBA.org or contact Brad Herder, the chapter president, at BerkshireNEMBA@gmail.com.

