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April 04, 2008
Next project is to replace bridge in South Ryegate. Hope to complete Spring / Early summer 2008.
November 23, 2007
Taylor and Gary spent five hours trimming, cutting out blow downs and signing from Ricker's Pond in Groton to the Bog
road in Peacham on Corridor Route 232. This sections of trail is all set. The remainder of the loop trail is still
to be done. Scott is working on the Corridor Route 2 end by Peacham pond. Scott has walked or road from Lanesboro
up through New Discovery over Sucker Brook, up towards the new bridge at JCT CA18. The Landowner above Lanesboro has
built a driveway and has burned down the old house. There is signing up to make sure we stay on the trail and not his
driveway. Signs have been all checked / reattached and brush / trees cleared. Scott hopes to continue up the trail
next weekend.
November 14, 2008
Trail signing has begun. Gary and Rob have signed and trimmed the trail from the Yellow Barn at the end of 302
near South Ryegate, south on Route 5 to the Pit stop. This section is in very good condition. Dave and Dean have
made some good progress on the long section between Ricker Mills and the Yellow Barn, were Rob and Gary had started.
November 11, 2007
Big Thank YOU to Dean and Todd for going up to the railroad bed and completing majority of the overhead brush cutting
between the Kettle Pond bridge and Boulder Beach road. It will make a huge difference this winter for the Groomers!!
The signing crews are starting to put up signs, if you want to assist contact Gary or Buzzy.
November 5, 2007
We had beautiful weather on Sunday. Dean, Scott, Willis, Taylor, Gary, Buzzy and Buster (the dog) had a productive
day. They replanked the entire surface of the old railroad tressel bridge near Kettle pond. They had enough time
afterwards to also add more planking to the bridge on Route 302 in West Groton.
| Bridge near Kettle Pond |
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| The Volunteers |
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November 2, 2007
Buzzy went to Poulson Lumber Co. this afternoon and picked up the planking for the bridges we
have to fix.
Everyone that can help please meet at the Upper Valley Grill Sunday 11/4th at 9 AM.
We will be working on re-planking the Kettle Pond Bridge on the railroad bed. Buzzy will be getting the planking moved
to that site so anyone that does not know where Kettle Pond Bridge is just meet Gary at the Grill. Bring your
best hammer to drive spikes with. We do appreciate everyones time and help.
October 28th, 2007
Todd, Dean, Rob, Howie, Taylor and Gary had a productive day clearing the trail of brush and overhead trees on the loop
trail on Route 232.
October 27th, 2007
Everyone that can please meet at the Upper Valley Grill Sunday morning 10/28 at 9 AM.
We will go to the Bog Road on rt. 232 and cut out the lower trail. This is the original trail, before we made the trail
by the beaver pond. The work crew will have to go up Minard Hill onto the Groton/Peacham Road, go by the
turn to Gregg Gandins and take your first left onto the Fields Road next onto the Great Road at the Llama Farm take the sharp
left, at the old School house (now a home) follow the Green Bay Loop Road for a distance. You will go by an old farm
house and barn, on your left, that has been refurbished it is now a beautiful white house and red barn. Take the
2nd left hand dirt road, This is the beginning of the Bog Road. Buzzy will hang one of his old red plaid shirts
at the entrance to the Bog Road. Keep going down the Bog Road till you see our Buckaroos boundary sign. Gary will
have the clubs 6 wheeler. You will need to park your vehicles where the Buckaroos sign is and put your tools in
the 6 wheeler and walk through the double gate down to the "Y" where you will start cutting and clearing the old, original
trail. If this is confusing just meet Gary at 9 AM and follow him up through. Thanks for your help and please pass the word on.
October 21, 2007
There was an excellent turnout of volunteers for Sundays trail work. Nine volunteers worked from 9 - 1
on the railroadbed (C2-302) towards boulderbeach road. We ended at the gravel pit closest to the road crossing.
This weekend, we will be working again on Sunday. Stay tuned for the project to be posted here. Please call Buzzy
Eastman at 802-584-3917 or bnbuzeastman@fairpoint.net to volunteer.
October 15, 2007
At last Friday nights club meeting plans were made for a trail work day, Sunday 21st.
We will meet at the Upper Valley Grill at 9 AM. It will be overhead work, will need volunteers with chain saws, we will
have the club pole saw, will need volunteers to handle brush. If you do not make it to the Grill find us on the railroad
bed between Boulder Beach Road and Kettle Pond.The following Sundays we will have three bridges to repair and overhead cutting
in the Seyon. Please pass this word on and hope you will be able to help.
Thank you very much and call if you have a question 584-3630
May - October 2007
Buckaroos of 302 have 50 miles of trail to maintain year round. Our landowners are very
generous to allow a trail to be on their land. Stop and think for a second would you be that generous? We must
keep a close eye out for anything that would upset a landowner. The Buckaroos of 302 club mails each landowner two tickets
to the Chicken BBQ in February. The landowners that can not attend the dinner will receive a cap that has our club's
name printed on it.
Buckaroos of 302 have divided our trail system into sections and our local members take care
of signage. This chore is very important because snowmobilers coming through our area rely on our trail signs.
Many of the signs have to be put up each fall and take them down asap after the snow is gone. The member that has charge
of a section of trail also checks for downed trees, wash-outs etc. and also picks up any trash. If you would like to
volunteer for a section of trail please call Gary Lamberton, 802-584-3917 or e-mail glamberton@charter.net .
April was our last club meeting. The next meeting will be October 12th that is the first
Friday after Fall Foliage Day. At the April meeting Dean Edson suggested that prehaps some members would be interested
in helping with the overhead work at their convenience. Maybe they might have a morning or afternoon that they
could work. Overhead work is hard work so maybe late summer would be better than mid summer. The overhead
work is never done it is on "growing". The limbs hit the top of the groomer and knocks out lights and sometimes does
other damage. If there is anyone that would have a few hours to help, please call Buzzy at 802-584-3630 or e-mail bnbuzeastman@fairpoint.net
OVERHEAD WORK
1. Kettle Pond to gravel pit to the State spring.
2. Choates Pasture up thru cedars towards Andy's logging.
3. Uttero's softwood below new culvert.
4. Seyon - the flat by big tube over Hatchery Brook.
5. Seyon- both sides of Heath Brook bridge.
December 2, 2006
We are just about ready for snow!! The bridge is complete on the 2004 trail. Route 5 south from CA5 near
yellow barn, south to the end of the clubs boundry has been cleared and signed. A crew is meeting a 9am on Sunday, December
3rd to clear overhead limbs from Dead end road between CA7 and CA5.
In
South Ryegate we have rerouted a section of route 5 out of the Town road. Snowmobile route 5 crosses highway
302 in South Ryegate. We have re-routed a section of route 5 to get the trail out of the Town road. The landowner
Bob Farquharson did the excavating and bulldozer work on this trail. The Buckaroos of 302 are very thankful to Bob for
excavating this new re-route on his land. This re-route will make it much safer for the snowmobiler.
November 18, 2006
Trail maintenance is going well. A second bridge on the 2004 trail, near Betty and Buzzy Eastmans' home needed
re-planking. This will be completed tomorrow. (See picture on Home page)
There are still trimming of trees needed on trails. Contact Buzzy Eastman or Gary Lamberton if you have time to
help out.
November 5, 2006
The bridge is done!! A good working crew showed up to plank the bridge over
Sucker Brook. The men working on the bridge today are as follows: Gary & Taylor Lamberton, K.C. Craige, David Wheatly,
Carl Emerson, Bruce Hale, Doug Murray, Dean Edson, Randy Ames, Howie Wagner and Buzzy Eastman. These guys made quick
work out of planking the bridge. The steal work that was completed the previous Saturday in the pouring rain, were Matt
Puffer, Bill Cassidy, Buzzy Eastman. The Buckaroos of 302 thank everyone that has worked on the trails.
November 3, 2006
Hurray!!! We received permission to use the old 232 trail from 5 corners north. We no longer need to use
the mile stretch of road on N. County rd. Signing and clearing will start today.
Posted November 2, 2006
Buckaroos of 302
December Club News
Caledonia County
Our Club met on
October 20th. There was a good turn out of members. It will be great when more of our members come to the meetings. Our
meetings are informal and friendly with a lot of information. The next meeting
is Dec. 1st at 7 PM in the downstairs room of the Groton Community Bldg.
The VAST TMA renewals are in the mail.
Look for pictures, trail conditions and trail grooming report on our club
web site www.buckaroosof302.com There is also a VAST TMA membership renewal form on the web
page that you can print off and mail into our club membership person, Rita Ames.
We have been reporting
about the new trail, in Groton State Forest that connects Rt. 232 to Rt. 2, we have our “circle” back, look for
new locations of CA 11 and CA 18 on your 2007 map. This past Sat. 10/28 Matt
Puffer, Bill Cassidy and Buzzy Eastman moved all the pieces of the Bailey bridge to the site and they got the bridge frame
work erected across Sucker Brook. A note of interest when Bill picked up the
pallet of 3” hemlock planks, with his crane the scales went to 6200 pounds. That
is heavy. When Bill, Matt and Buzzy moved the Bailey bridge pieces to its site. It was pouring rain and mud. The only
way they got all the pieces to the bridge site is Buzzy was driving Matt’s truck with the bridge side rails on Bill’s
trailer. The hills that Buzzy could not make, Matt pulled him with the hoe on
his excavator. The only good part of the day was quitting time. All the material for the bridge and the frame work for the bridge was in place. Sunday, Nov. 4th a group of guys will go in and plank the bridge. A great job done.
Our club members;
Gary and Taylor Lamberton, Dean Edson, Matt Puffer, Bill Cassidy and tractor, Mike Davidson, Howard Wagner, Robert Reid, Karl
and Caleb Hollstein and Buzzy Eastman, split into two groups and have been cutting limbs and clearing downed trees. So far they have cleared from Jct. CA 1 to Groton Village, Jct. Ca 12 west on Rt 302 to Jct. CA 5 to Jct.
CA 10. They started at Butterfield parking lot and went down to Jct. OE 76 to
Jct. OE 78 past the State gate towards Barre to the height of the land. Starting
clearing at Jct. CA 4, Ricker Pond towards Jct. CA 11. Gary Lamberton picked
up 40 old tires and wheels that some ignorant person had discarded over the bank, off the VAST trail on private property. Thank you Gary, as that is what it takes to show that we respect our landowners.
Our trails have
received TLC and ready for opening day. A big
Thank you to all
our members that gave up their free time to work on VAST trails.
The Sur-Trac groomer
is in for a check up and some welding on the groom. We will be ready to
go when Mother Nature drops that white stuff we all are waiting for.
Posted October 29, 2006
The bailey bridge has been installed across the river on Route 2. It was a wet and rainy day, but a crew of volunteers
stuck it out and completed the installation of all the steel components. We are looking for volunteers to help plank
the bridged on Sunday, November 5th. We will be meeting at Upper Valley Grill at 8am.
Posted October 27, 2006
Trail clearing has been completed from the Butterfield mountain parking lot Jct. OE76 West on 302 towards Barre.
On route 302 from Jct. CA5 East, has also been cleared. A crew went up and worked on the rail road bed and cleared the
overhead branches from Lanesboro Jct. CA12 towards Kettle pond. Signing has begun in the field across from the Upper
Valley Grill which includes the installation of a snow fence. Signing has also begun from Jct. CA4 on 232 North.
On route 232, over 40 tires and wheels were illegally disposed of over the bank of the trail. They have been completely
removed and will be properly disposed of by the Town of Groton. Next report should include an update on the bridge construction
on Route 2.
Posted 10/14/06
Trail Maintenance has begun. Buzzy Eastman has mowed the entire system, bridge construction is in the works
and Dean & Gary started clearing the overhead limbs on the railroad bed. They started on Route 302 in S. Ryegate
and have worked their way towards Groton village. They are with in 1 mile of the Powder Spring Road crossing.
Let us know if you want to volunteer.
Posted September 24, 2006
It is the start of the 2007 trail maintenance season. The new loop trail that will get you from New Discovery thru
peacham to Rickers Pond has started. The first volunteer work weekend will be the weekend of Oct. 21st and 22nd.
Trail Construction
Report
The summer trail maintance and re-route are on
schedule. Since my last report we have re-located the trail between Jcts. CA
18 and CA 11. This new re-route gets the circle back. Look for it on the 2007 VAST map.
The construction for the re-route was done by
Puffer Excavating and Allen Thresher Jr.
Matt Puffer is vice president for the Buckaroos
of 302 and owner of Puffer Excavating. Matt did the excavating on State of Vermont
land from Sucker Brook off snowmobile trail Rt. 2 to the Thresher family land.
Allen Thresher, Jr., owner of Thresher Landscaping,
used his construction equipment to excavate the trail on the Thresher family land. The
land has been in the Thresher Family for over 100 years. You only have to talk
with the Thresher Family a short time to realize they have strong community feelings and wanted the VAST trail system to stay
open as it has been in the past.
This total re-route project was made possible
with the cooperation from the State of Vermont, The Thresher
family, VAST and the Buckaroos of 302. A sincere thank you to all of the parties
involved.
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Below is the work that was completed to get our trail system ready for the 2005/06 riding season. The planning
for this coming winters riding season has begun.
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