Since 2007 we built many bridges crossing small streams. Maintained all trails including fallen tree removal, drainage improvements and cutting back bush. We also marked several trail loops and posted a map at the trail head.

2011 project highlights:

September 2011: Boy Scouts helped drain and fill muddy spots on Red and Blue trails. And 440 Ridge has been marked with White markers. They also built a short bridge over the mud hole on Highline.

August 2011: New bridge built on the new trail (440 Ridge) - it may not seem to be need this time of year but next spring we'll be glad its there.

July 2011: Drainage and Fill added to the Red trail where the spring flows all year long.

June 11th 2011: We put 21 trail name signs.

June 5th 2011: The new trail (code name 440) is open! - map showing where it is.

March-May 2011: we've been busy working on a new trail.

Here are the highlights of projects we've did in 2010:

April 18th 2010: We laid a large amount of corduroy (the small logs laid in the mud) to provide easier passage through some of the muddy sections of the yellow trail. These corduroy sections encourage trail users to stay on the trial instead traveling around the puddle which only makes the puddle bigger.

April 25th 2010: a small group of Americorps youths helped at Great Bear. One group reintroduced some native flowers (Oswego Tea and Cone Flowers) at a few different spots. The other youths helped with the construction of a short bridge on the Swamp Woods Trail. Americorps has been generous enough to fund the cost of materials for the bridge and some of the plantings.

May 22nd 2010: Friends removed a large tree fall from the Red trail. Several trees had fallen in to each other make quite a large mess.

June 5th 2010: On Saturday the scouts from Fulton along with some Friends pulled the invasive plant, Garlic Mustard, from the southern Trolley, southern Yellow and Green trails. There is still plenty to be found next year. Five 50 gal. trash bags were filled with the plants.

July 23rd 2010: Just an update as to what has been happening at Great Bear. Several plank bridges have been installed on the Purple, Lower Turtle Trail part of the tow path. Plans to work on several more spots on the tow path are planned. They may be a combination of corduroy, crusher fill and planks, depending on location and severity. With the heat and deer flies, it has been not been the best time to do any trail brush clearing. Several recent fallen trees haven been cleared off the trails.
Wheel Wash needs a good clearing of the brambles, but may have to wait until it gets a bit cooler.
Some vandalism was done with the ripping off of trail markers on the Red trail, Blue and a section of Yellow near Blue. Most of the Blue markers were found and put back up but Red and Yellow need to have new markers.
A scout working for his Eagle badge, is laying out a 5K course on the trails for a combo of skiing and running. Some revamping needs to be done to get the layout off the plowed roads. In the future you may see some new markers up which are rectangular with an arrow tip, white with a red stripe. these will be the markers for the 5K loop.
If you happen to look in the white pump house, you will see that some of the graffiti is being removed.

July 30th 2010: The missing trail markers on Yellow have been replaced.

August 7th 2010: We did some erosion repair and control on the Red, Yellow and Green trails. This work was done on hills south of the "trolly tracks" road.

August 21st 2010: New trail section was added to Yellow just south of the "trolly tracks" road near the gravel pit. This section bypasses the steep the gravel hill on Yellow that goes up the road. The trail has flowing turns with grade reversals and one switchback to get up the hill with minmum chance of erosion.

September 11th 2010: Cut back the brush on the Wheel Wash trail.

October 2nd & 3rd 2010: Built new bridge (longest one yet) and new trails connecting swamp woods and Ifster Trail. This replaces a swampy hard to maintail seasonal trail with anew 4-season sustainable trail and bridge. This new trail will be marked soon.

October 30th 2010: Bench cut sections of the Dear Run and the new Yellow switchback.

November 20th 2010: A local cub scout group built and installed a registration box at the main gate.

If you'd like to help please contact Dick at 343-4565 or email

Please remember not to leave valuables (at least not visible) in your vehicle.