across the northeast
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Ride-Roll-Run Relay team winners Becky Kalagher, Ken Demeo, and Jessica Carlone.
Bay State trail riders association Celebrates Earth Day Throughout April Submitted by becky kalagher
Bay State trail riderS aSSociation (BStra) officially hit the ground running in april. to start, we had a number of trail work days, some organized by us and others by friends’ groups where BStra members volunteered. Part of our mission statement is maintaining trails and to that end we did so at the West Hill dam in Uxbridge, Ma, on army corps of engineers property. a total of 36 hours was put in by 12 volunteers, which included BStra members Sue Perry, tammy dykstra, Sue and ray Quirk, Jill and Gloria duhaime and Karen Parlin, as well as tri-Valley Front runners club members Frank nealon, anthony tieuli, Joe Hamm, Paul Shanahan, and chip adams. our next event was earth day with two events going on. Both involved work on the Southern new england trunkline trail in two towns, douglas and Bellingham, Ma. the douglas section that was targeted was between Franklin Street and depot Street. that area was the hardest hit by the Halloween snowstorm last year. 194 equine
Journal
| July 2012
Between earth day and a couple of evening work sessions, a total of 21.5 hours were put in, cutting and brushing back and clearing out downed trees. our volunteers for those work parties were cheryl Fitzpatrick, Joe and Julie taddei, Karen Parlin, Becky Kalagher, Phil and Jane rutledge and dick lindstrom. the Bellingham work party had 48 people including daisy troop 783 and Boy Scout Pack 100. the primary objective of this work day was picking up all the illegally dumped trash. they worked from center Street to rt. 126 and just about filled a 30-yard dumpster donated by the town of Bellingham. a big thanks goes to Whole Foods Market of north Bellingham for donating water and snacks for the volunteers. on Park Serve day, which was held on april 28, the Friends of Myles Standish State Forest had a work day. over 30 equestrians came to help out. Signage was done at Bentley loop near Gate 30, and the trails coming into
and out of the equestrian campground were cleared and the roots and stumps removed. each campsite was trimmed back and cleared, stumps were taken out, and each site was made more accessible for trailers. and last but not least was Park Serve day at Upton State Forest. this was organized by the Friends of the Upton State Forest. nine BStra members volunteered, including agnita Knott, Jen, Gary and conner Shults and Karen, Patrick and adam ober. BStra members put in 22 hours and the time spent by everyone totaled 117 hours. We are very proud that BStra gives back to the trails that we all ride on. thanks go to the people that volunteer because they make a difference. our first ride of the season was our “it’s Finally Spring ride” held at the department of conservation and recreation’s (dcr) douglas State Forest, and hosted by Jane and Phil rutledge and included 72 riders. Phil did have some interesting history for us—it was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the titanic and it was particularly fitting that the ride included parts of the Grand trunk. charles Melville Hays, the man in charge of building the Southern new england railway, went down with the titanic. the Grand trunk railway company had completed much of the
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photoS: courteSy of becky kalagher
Ride-Roll-Run Triple Crown winner Ron Walker.