Friends of Rothrock to develop new trail from Whitehall Road to Musser Gap, state forest
With a new grant, Friends of Rothrock State Forest will achieve its first step toward developing, creating and maintaining 60 miles of recreational trails and trail-related facilities in Rothrock State Forest.
The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources awarded the $365,700 grant as part of $11 million designated for the federally funded Recreational Trails Program, which serviced 37 trail development projects across Pennsylvania this year.
“Investments in our parks and forests through private philanthropy and volunteer time is an important role that visitors can play to ensure the health and viability of our state lands,” said Marci Mowery, president of the Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation, in a press release. “We applaud the Friends of Rothrock for their hard work and we extend our appreciation to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for recognizing the important value this project brings to residents and visitors alike.”
Friends of Rothrock’s grant will focus exclusively on funding the first phase of the Rothrock State Forest Trail Assessment, which uses multiple avenues to assess conditions and sustainability of the trail system through Rothrock State Forest.
Phase one specifically addresses how to connect about 8 miles of greenway from Whitehall Road, across state Route 45 and into Musser Gap. It’s the first of three phases, which will eventually comprise a new, multi-use trail spanning Musser Gap to the ridge formed by Tussey Mountain down to Pine Swamp Road.
Though the grant is for the first 8 miles of trail work, Friends is looking at bringing 60 miles of new trails to Rothrock State Forest, which would bring the total trail mileage to almost 500. Over the next decade, the organization, a local chapter of The Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation, aims to invest $2 million to $5 million to improve recreational accessibility of the forest and create a more sustainable trail network.
“The Friends group is committed to implementing multi-use trails that are built using modern trail-building equipment and techniques,” said Dave Trew, chairman of the Friends of Rothrock State Forest. “These trails should require significantly less maintenance and reduce erosion and runoff impacts on local waterways.”
All the new trails Friends is looking at creating will be multi-use and single-track that can be used by anyone on foot, bike or animal, he said.
The next phase of the project will focus on the Hubler Gap area and expand trail networks toward Whipple Dam State Park, Trew said. After that, the project will focus on developing a trail network around the state park and connecting it to the larger State Forest Trail Network.
The grant project area overlaps with Penn State’s ambitious project to conserve 355 acres of land between Whitehall Road and Rothrock State Forest, called “Musser Gap to Valleylands.” Plans for that project include developing a trail from Penn State’s campus to Musser Gap and Rothrock State Forest, adding secondary “loop” trails and making safety enhancements to the Route 45 crossing for hikers, walkers and cyclists traveling between the two parcels.
“While we are not directly affiliated with the Musser Gap to Valleylands project at Penn State, we were consulted and met with representatives from Penn State on a number of occasions to discuss what collaboration could look like,” Trew said. “We endeavor to be good neighbors to the Penn State property and would love to see it become reciprocal.”
However, he said, Friends does not plan to incorporate any of the potential MG2V plans into its work under the current grant, whose application was submitted before the formal announcement from Penn State in December.
Friends hopes to have the new trails on the ground in the next two years, with the whole project taking shape over a 10-15-year time period. The current Musser Gap trail will remain “the crushed aggregate,” Trew said, and “stay relatively unchanged apart from new intersections with the new trail.”
“The Friends of Rothrock is excited to begin working toward a more connected forest utilizing state-of-the-art, sustainable trail building techniques,” he said. “This grant was made possible by all the hard work of volunteers with the Friends group. With actual miles going on the ground the need for more volunteers is paramount.”
This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 11:48 AM.
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