CHAPTER REPORT FOR LEWIS MORRIS 

March 2021 

Greg Murray 

Synposis: 

  • New Trails Director Amy Lutsko began tenure in second half of 2020. Has carte blanche to design  and implement her vision. 
  • Seeks to revamp Lewis Morris, Pyramid Mountain and Tourne and is drafting a strategic plan.  Current focus on Lewis Morris and Pyramid (latter is no bikes).  
  • For Lew Mo, I have spoken with Amy several times at length, and submitted a detailed proposal in  late 2020, attached. 
  • We connected again in Feb to review her initial plan, which calls for a 5-year program to completely  redo the network in Lew Mo, with 80% all-new trails. Fire roads will remain and some short  stretches of original singletrack. 
  • Her plan doesn’t address all of the recommendations I’ve made, but she is very open to them,  including new trails in the North and South extremes of the park, technical/skills trails, sidewinders,  ∙ Work to begin in 2021 with the following: 
    • Reopen/refurbish “Gilligan’s”/ “Boat Trail” as an alternate route for Patriot’s Path
    • Build a new “Orange” trail on east side of Lewis Morris (see map) 
    • Reblaze existing network to make it easier to navigate 
  • I have started volunteer outreach and have secured approx 15 so far. 

Other points of discussion: 

  • There will be no more “mudder” events in the park. 
  • Work will be done by locally sourced volunteers and Americorps, through a combination of weekday  and weekend work 
  • Machine-built trails are a possibility but not currently approved by MCPC. May depend on how  much work can be done in how much time by how many volunteers. 
  • Trail designations will be singletrack (hiker/biker), Multiuse (hiker/biker/horse) and Shared (rail  trail/commuter…e.g. Columbia Trail, Traction Line) 

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