Rochester Active Sports Club

We've measured the ski trails for the upcoming season and attached a new map below. We intend to groom all trails for skating with one set of classic tracks.

Bruce Walk, Jeff Robertson and Henry Walker shared the work to improve QH trails by riding the trail of the remaining stumps from previous construction work. They totaled up 12 hours of stump grinding time to improve the already popular trail system. This will make for easier mowing, allow skiing with less snow and reduce bruised toes (as well as explicatives that come with bruised toes). Help will be needed for fall trail clean up and seeding before the ski season. A big thanks goes to Bruce Walk for mowing the trails over the summer.

Work has begun on a new addition to the trail system in the North end of the park. The extra 1km of trail has a good climb and follows the recently finished storm run off project. The addition will bring the total trail length, when completed, up to 7.7Km. The skiable distance will be over 11km.

A new signing project directed by Park and Rec. will designate trails for their use as well as provide a completed map of the trail system.

The gates have been removed from the ski trails and the grass is getting established in most areas. We've mowed 3 times and will continue this routine through the summer every couple weeks in order to keep the weeds down and strengthen the root structure. While there are a few areas that will require overseeding in the fall, the trail is well on its way to having a good grass base for skiing this winter. If you have a chance, now is a good time to go for a 'trail run' for a first-hand look! All the trails are mowed 10'-12' wide.

There will be additional finish work to be done toward the end of the summer when it starts to cool down. Wood chips will be spread on a rocky area of the north loop, there are branches and saplings to be trimmed back, and some small surface stumps to be removed. We'll publicize 'work-days' on the web-site when the time comes.

Bruce Walk

The Quarry Hill Ski Trails are now very nearly finished after a big spring effort to complete phase II and III. Jeff Robertson, Bruce Walk and Henry Walker have donated 100's of hours each to planning, clearing, grading, seeding and finish work on the trails recently. The final product is a wide, level trail with a grass base that will resist erosion. The addition of a new trail along with completion of phase II will add several more kilometers of trail to last years successful start. Thanks to everyone who came out to help. There is still opportunity to do some clean up work if your willing to help out. Contact Henry for more info (walker.henry@mayo.edu).

The section of the QH trail going North of the Nature Center, barring the field trail, was fine grade finished and planted with Prairie Seed on the sides and grass seed on the trail proper this weekend (seeding at close to 240sq ft/lb.). All seed was covered with a thin layer of straw, although the wind did a pretty good job of blowing it around by the end of the day. The Prairie seed was spread using a sawdust filler as per Prairie Moon of Winona's instructions.

We also erected 6 gates along the trail with signs asking patrons to avoid walking on the trail until the grass is established which will be 6 - 8 weeks. The field trail is a perfect alternative path as is the hiking path that parallels the ski trail. We have purchased high quality seed and prepared the seed bed to the best of our ability, now it is up to mother nature. The contractor has been delayed with another project and will get to our project starting April 27th. Phase II and the alternative trail have been marked to a 15 foot width for him to grind all roots and then rough grade. We hope to fine grade and seed immediately after the contractor is finished with the grinding step.

Over the last year, Henry Walker has led the work on the development of a new ski trail at Quarry Hill. RASC has signed an agreement with the City of Rochester to permit us to develop a 5 km trail in the park. The main benefit to the club is the ability to groom and maintain the trail . Given the poor snow years of late, it is essential for the development of the sport of nordic skiing that we have reliable trail conditions. This contract with the city is the first step in this process. You can check below to see the full legal contract that was executed between RASC and the City of Rochester on 6th July 2006.

The plan is to develop the trail system over a 3-year period. Phase 1 was completed in the summer of 2006 and was ready for skiing last winter. There is already an existing narrow trail from the Quarry Hill Nature Center going north (Phase 1 - blue section). Phase 2 and 3 are slated to be completed in 2007 and 2008 respectively.

Henry is always looking for volunteers to help in the trail work. If you can help, please contact him at walker.henry@mayo.edu. In order to work on the trail you will need to sign a release waiver - please check below to view and print out a copy of the waiver.

Update on /Quarry Hill Project and Traverse Ski Charity Auction
(4/23/07)

There have been two major developments over the last 6 months that greatly benefit the trail work at Quarry Hill.

RASC was awarded a large grant from Rochester Area Foundation to help with completion of this project. The RAF awarded $10,350 to RASC to help with completion of phase II and III of the trail. Many thanks to Henry Walker for all his work on this grant application – it really paid off and will go a long way towards the development of the next phase of this trail in 2007. The grant will cover the costs of CAT work, clover /seed for the trail, a retaining wall for phase III, and replacement trees for the ones we whacked to build the trail. Each year the Traverski Ski and Sport club have a Charity Auction. This year the club donated $1000 from the proceeds of their auction toward the Quarry Hill Trail project.

By 2007, the club will have put ~$11,000 in to this project . We have already purchase the snowmobile and grooming equipment , using both donations and club funds. We expect to put an equal amount of money into this project in 2007 to complete the full trail by winter 2007. If you can help, please send contributions (payable to RASC) to Michael O'Connor at 518 24th Street SW, Rochester, MN 55902. Please indicate that the donation is to fund development of the new trail system in Quarry Hill.

Remember: ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE