Calling All Trail Enthusiasts

Dear Trail Enthusiasts... our trail repairs for 2022 are complete!! The first picture shows the upper portion of Y1 looking toward the Y6 intersection... the next picture is where the trail was eroded to a good 2 feet below grade. Quite a difference, eh? Pictures 3 and 4 are of the area just below the field, and the small open area near the warming hut (Hammond Hilton) We have some large stone piled by the trail kiosk left over from this project which can be used next year, ...just in case anyone was wondering what that pile was all about. It's not always easy to estimate quantities! Our trail crew ended up donating many extra hours of their time to make sure the work was completed, which is incredibly generous of them and hugely appreciated by everyone.

Some may notice that there are things that did NOT get done: repositioning/replacing of too small drainage pipes, and so on. These remain on the "to-do" list, but our funds reached just so far... which in fact was a lot further than I had even hoped they would. As it stands, Y1 is now a much safer entry trail, allowing room to safely pass in opposite directions, plus getting water off the trail early and often, which prevents premature deterioration of the trail bed, and hopefully will make ice less a problem in winter.

Pictures of the Y5 water bar modifications are not included, as the pictures I took don't show how vastly improved those are. One mountain biker wrote the DEC the day they were worked over, stating that the new drainage dips were easy to traverse, even on his cross bike. Other bikers who also ski commented that skiers should also find them easy to ski over. But don't take my word for it, come see for yourself.

thanks everyone! Hope to see you out on the trails this fall!
Ann and Mike

Dear fellow trail enthusiasts,

At long last, all the t's are crossed and the i's dotted, and we are about to get going on 2022's trail work in earnest. We raised a total of $8338.00 this year after platform fees were taken out. Awesome, everyone!!

Our contractor will be starting on or about the 9th of September, beginning with modifying the water bars on Y5 so that they are more gradual and easier to traverse with skis and bikes. He will then move over to Y1 where it intersects with Y6, and work downhill from there, repairing the trail bed and installing gentle swales that will direct water off the trail at regular intervals so that the surface has a better chance of staying put in future rains. He will proceed downhill on this section until our funds run out.

Next year, (all willing and the creeks don't rise,) we will pick up this project where we left off, until we get this entire section of Y1 repaired right down to the entrance to the trail system. 

While work is in progress, please consider taking alternate routes when recreating on Hammond Hill. Work will only be done Fridays through Sundays, as our contractor works for the Tompkins County DOT the rest of the week.

Once again, thank you all for your generous support of Hammond Hill trail system! To those who are getting duplicate messages on this subject, we apologize, we simply don't want to miss out informing everyone who donated this year. 

We hope to see you all out on the trails soon!
Ann and Mike

Dear trail folks,

We are on our final day of 2022's campaign to fix up Yellow 1 trail! 85 trail people and clubs have contributed $7556 towards this effort. Although we won't make our (very ambitious) goal this year, there is still time to assist in the purchase of gravel and machinery time... Every bit helps! If you haven't done so already, please do join us. We will repair as much of the trail as our dollars reach, and then next year continue on until we have the whole project completed.

Giving Day alone brought in $325 despite being a truly "last minute!" affair, so we will continue to utilize this venue in future years.

Additionally, now that Finger Lakes Runners Club and Friends of Hammond Hill have a official 501 (3) (c) working relationship, FoHH can (and will!) apply for grant money once we find grants that we actually qualify for. If anyone knows of one or more of these sorts of grants, please let Mike and Ann know as soon as possible, because grant applications take time to get right, and raising money for trails is just our side gig.

For those who remain concerned about the Yellow 5 hill water ditches, we now have a plan to get those modified to make them less severe after having consulted with the DEC regarding them. Depending on the cost, we might be able to hire our trail guy make the changes with his machinery, OR it could involve volunteers with pickaxes and shovels. We'll know more after consulting with the trail guy after the 4th July, when he's actually able to meet up with us. Additional funds will help with this effort!!

AGAIN! A HUGE Thank you!!! to everyone who loves our trails and has pitched in year after year to make these trails the best they can be!

We just this morning received approval.

Here's the link!Giving is Gorges Friends of Hammond Hill

https://www.givingisgorges.org/organizations/friends-of-hammond-hill

HI all

Last email tonight, I promise! It occurs to me that some of you might not have the link to this year's campaign and for that I apologize I hope this works!!

https://www.givegab.com/campaigns/how-to-create-a-great-first-impression

thanks!

Ann

Apparently to see any pictures, you will have to click on the "View Update" button. Phooey... Or maybe there's a trick to it that I haven't figured out yet!

And boy what a day we've had! 10 generous people stepped up and donated $800 to our 2022 campaign in just the past 24 hours! That's two more truckloads of gravel! Many more yards of trail repaired!! YOU ARE ALL SO AWESOME!!! Thank you!!

Just a quick reminder picture of what a repaired trail looks like. This is Yellow 5, part of last year's repair. Previous to the repair, this bit of trail was a muddy, too wide, root wracked mess. Now look at it from between the perked up ears of my handsome little Morgan horse! (sorry, the pic's a little blurry, we were moving on down the trail at a nice clip!) These are the kind of trails your donations are putting together, and you should  be really proud of that. Kudos, folks!

I will be posting daily now, because the last week can get pretty exciting! Each day I will share something about Hammond Hill that perhaps you just didn't know. It's a pretty neat place to call home that's for sure!

A quick footnote: I am sharing these updates on BOTH this year's and last year's campaigns as I want to make sure we reach as many people as possible. Some of you lovely people will be getting duplicate notices because you have donated BOTH years. (Thank You Thank You Thank You!!) Don't feel you have to read both, just smile and delete the extra and bear with me for awhile. Note that I will report the daily amount raised and the total raised for THIS year's campaign ( don't get confused by last year's amount... I apologize that I am not computer literate enough to simplify things by merging mailing lists. I apologize. I'm 66, give me a break. I can drive a stick shift pickup truck and tractors are easy peesy, but computers give me the jim jams)

Keep up the good work! We'll see you out on the trails soon I hope!

Hi everybody

Wanted to alert everyone that we are at 9 days and counting to the end of 2022's campaign to fix up Yellow 1 entry trail. We had a very ambitious goal of 22,000 this year, and sadly we're not doing so well, currently at 26% of our goal this year. However, all is not lost! We still have 9 days to the end of our fundraising campaign this year, and there is still time for the "I'll get around to it soon" guys to get their Round Tuits in motion. These are our trails, folks, and every bit you can do to help fix trail surfaces is hugely appreciated by thousands of folks who come here to enjoy nature. Please consider donating again this year! 

What if we don't make goal? Well, all is not lost there, either. We will go as far as our collective funds get us! And then, next year, we do it again.This s an ongoing effort.

We also have a couple other ideas to raise funds as well. One is through Giving IS Gorges Day June 21 2022, which we just found out about, and the other is a Wilderness First Aid class with Todd Miner tentatively scheduled for April 29-20 2023 which we will host.

Full story here for this event http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeskiblog/trail-work-day-scheduled-sept-18/ or anytime for future updates for this project and Friends of Hammond Hill www.friendsofhammondhill.org

Dear Trail Enthusiasts

Friends of Hammond Hill has been working in the background to get all the paperwork in order. We have the permits from NYS DEC, a professional contractor with the proper equipment and funding from all of you (thank you again). Construction is scheduled to start Monday August 23rd and will probably take a couple weeks. You may see some dump trucks bringing in gravel prior to that.

Please find the latest updates here www.friendsofhammondhill.org

The general plan is to repair the muddiest sections of Y4, Y5, Y7 and R1 in that priority. There is a pretty good chance we will run out of materials/time/money before we get to R1. But the contractor will do his best.

The contractor will haul in bank run gravel and spread that on top of landscape cloth in most sections. The landscape cloth helps prevent the gravel from disappearing into the mud. There are some sections of HH trails that were repaired this way in 2008 and they are holding up quite well. The contractor will also be adding some “broad based dips” as specified and required by NYS DEC. These are also referred to as “water bars”. Their function is to prevent future damage from flash thunderstorm runoff.

If you are curious about which sections of trail will be under construction, here is a map below. And some stats for the curious: 2165 linear feet of trail 6 feet wide and 6 inches deep will require approximately 400 tons of gravel; that is about 20 of those big dump trucks!

After the construction is complete, we may ask for volunteers to help with shovels and rakes to tidy things up. But we will wait and see.

Meanwhile, during construction, please avoid the trails where the machinery is running. choose alternate routes.

Thanks again for your continuing support!
Mike and Ann

dear many friends of Hammond Hill,

After many, many phone calls and several trips out to show the work areas to prospective contractors, we finally have a contractor interested in our project! Chad Tibbals and his son Chance will be taking on the trail work with an estimated start time of mid August. DEC is sending him a TRP form, and we are drafting a simple contract to make sure all the T's are crossed and I's dotted. With any luck at all, we have had our share of Murphy's Law, and you all will see the results of your generous donations in the near future. We will continue to share progress as there is progress to report!

gratefully,

Ann and Mike

Dear all

This Wednesday evening DEC finalized our trail project design and approved the TRP for our project. Yay! We were all set to get things rolling. Then the sucker punch came at 6 am Thursday from our contractor, who had been fully involved and enthusiastic from the get go: "Sorry, but I can't do your project after all. I am fully booked to snow fall."

It rather took our breath away, and not in a good way. We immediately started our search for a replacement contractor, calling area businesses to ask for suggestions. As you might imagine, it is not exactly a great time of year to be finding a good one willing to take on a trails project.

Therefor we are casting as wide a net as possible: PLEASE! If anyone knows and can recommend a company that can do this work (landscape company, construction, etc) who might be interested and willing to step up to the mark, please let us know so we can line one up!

We are keeping our fingers crossed and thinking positively. Somehow glitches like these have a way of working themselves out in unexpectedly wonderful ways. We're not going to let this stop us now!

best wishes, Ann and Mike

Dear trail enthusiasts,

8 days. That's all it took to raise 99% of our goal of $10,645 to repair Yellow trails 4, 5 and 7. We are less than $100 away, and the day is not yet over.

You might well ask: what if we EXCEED our goal? Well, do we have more trails that need some love? Sure we do! We can do as much as we have everyone's support for. Why not strive to see just how much we CAN do?

Mike and I are incredibly excited, as we hope you all are too. Please pass the word!! Together we are making a difference here in our own backyards.

thank you so very much!
Ann and Mike

Dear fellow trail enthusiast

We wanted to keep you informed as to the status of our campaign. Thanks to an enormous outpouring of support, we stand at 74% of our goal in just one week! Thank you all so much! Trail repairs are that much closer to happening.

Please do reach out to anyone you can think of who might support this campaign, however, as we aren't quite there yet. It would be huge if we could do our entire project as planned.

thank you for all you do!
Ann and Mike

Dear fellow trail enthusiasts,

WOW! What an enormous outpouring of support we have see for our trails! Just 4 days into our fundraising campaign, we are 51% of the way to reaching our goal of $10,645. We are truly humbled by this response and cannot thank you all enough. With just a bit more effort, we're going to make the trail repairs a reality this year. 

Our best advertisement is word of mouth, so please do pass news of our campaign on to others who might be willing to join us.

Thank you all so very much!

Ann and Mike

Dear Friend of Hammond Hill

We wanted to update you on the progress of our fundraising campaign. One the very first day of our campaign, we've raised 14% of our goal. We are incredibly humbled by the overwhelming support shown by our trails community. Thank you so much!

We will continue to update everyone regularly. If you know someone who might be interested in supporting this effort, please let them know.

best, wishes, Ann and Mike