Potato Creek Trail Association
Meeting Minutes for July 15, 2009
Eleven members attended the July meeting.
We discussed equestrian trails business first. Jeff Keppel is sandblasting the posts for marking the equestrian trail along the Pennsy grade. Darts hope to get out this weekend to put up the posts and to put gravel down so horses can go around the bridges. Also, they will put up the Wolfinger highway sign. (It needs to be 26 feet from the center of the road, on the bank). Sally will order the 4x4x12 for the highway signpost.
Also, Corky Hull is working on getting landowner agreements signed along the Pennsy grade, and has made good progress on this so far.
The horse traffic will need to walk along 46 and cross the road to go from the horse trail to the Wolfinger trails, to avoid tearing up Miller’s yard. The trail has been extended to Sandy Wolfinger’s strip of land, one tenth of a mile north of the black gate. Shy horses can still cross at Miller’s if needed, but most should stay on Sandy’s access. Ross Porter will check with the highway dept. about getting a horse crossing sign put up there.
The camping at the fairgrounds will be ready soon. The Fair committee has to determine the fee for this service. Also, we need to finish up some of the trails details, and then we can advertise that we have the camping available. We’ll need to put the camping application online (the application needs to be developed, too).
Eventually we need to apply for some grants for the bridges along the equestrian trail. We can do this once the master plan is ready (it is in process now).
Les suggested we make connections with Majestic trails; he will talk with them some more.
We need a parking area for the Wolfinger trailhead. It could be located right behind the gate, or up by the intersections up the road. Corky noted that the road to the parking area needs to be two lane to accommodate traffic. Sally will discuss details with Sandy W.
There may be some gravel available through the school district; Ross will work on this prospect. We’d need quite a bit of gravel for a parking area.
Kiosks are still under construction. We’ll need a larger map to put up. Curt W. can print out a larger map if we give him the graphics. Ross can price out what it would cost to get a map under Lucite.
Les will help us plan a fall hike for members along the Stage Coach road, to get us familiar with the route and its history. We’ll need to do it in sections. We do have permission to do this. We’d like to promote developing this as a trail.
Chip Lannen had wanted help in promoting a bike ride (a loop incorporating both towns). Les suggested the we wait until the route is designated as a scenic byway route (this is in process); at that point a bike ride would celebrate and promote the route at the same time. We’d be happy to help with this. Les will discuss this further with Chip.
Curt Wallace made a sample Goosechaser trail marker with a long bolt and brightly colored heavy plastic. It could be mowed or weed wacked over. Jim Wallace will see if he can get some scrap plastic for us to make more of these markers.
Curt made a paper emblem for a walking stick, as a sample of what a brass medallion would look like. We may need to alter the design a little for clarity. Les will work on this. Curt will research manufacturers of medallions. We may want to use the walking stick and medals as a fund raiser. We could to a yearly (dated) medal each year.
The next meeting will be the third Wednesday in August, the 19th, at 6:30 at the senior center.