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The
Northeast Kingdom Equestrian Trails (N.E.K.E.T.) Committee is the corridor
manager for an equestrian trail system located in the northeast kingdom.
The NEKET system is an ongoing project of the Vermont Horse Council. The
committee formed in 2000 to work with the Vermont Agency of Natural
Resources to plan and develop equestrian trails in this remote area of
Vermont. The trail system opened in 2003.|
Kim Parsons, Chair 802-244-1442 kspars@hotmail.com
Julie Gauthier , Secretary
Martha & Mike Benoit 802-223-3298 |
Ilene Douglas 802-895-4322 idouglas@allvantage.com
Ted Russell
Steve Simpson
|
COMMITTEE MINUTES
January 21, 2007Present: Mike & Martha Benoit (new members), David Delano, Steve & Brenda Simpson, Kim Parsons.
Finances:
As of 1/07 there is $6,804.86 in the NEKET Account. As of 1/06 there was $6,528.73. Total Expenses were: $761.37. (Maps $172, Walt Neobrowski $200, Insurnace $375 and passes $13.) Total Income from passes were $1037.50.
At this point we will not be doing any additional fund raising as we have adequate funds.
The committee recommended that $1,000 be allotted for Trail Maintance at this time and can be increased if necessary. This will enable purchases to be made at the Hardware store for any materials needed. We also decided to send Walt Nebrowski a check for $200 for 2007 Camping dues. (this may be increased at a later date if it is determined that more expenses will be incurred as a result of having a ride there). Kim will notify the VHC Treasurer.
Committee Membership:
We are happy to welcome Mike and Martha Benoit to the committee. They are from Cambridge but have a camp near the NEKET trail system as do most of the other members of the committee now. (Julie & I are the exception). Dave mentioned that the owners of the general store in Concord, Terry & ____ Williams may be interested in joining the committee. They ride and are very close to the trail head. Steve or Dave will talk to them about it. It is important to keep up the membership of this committee. Ted & Josie will still be involved but they have moved and are caring for Teds Mom so have to stay close to home. Josie will make changes to the map for us again this year. Julie had some employees out sick so couldn’t get away but is still with us.
Trails:
Work Bee
We have planned a work bee for May 19th with a rain date of May 26th.Expansion
We discussed some new trail initiatives. Since loosing the LIASDA land we are really hurting for some loop trails. ANR seems to be sympathetic with this and had been working with us in trying to figure out some new loops. We discussed a nice loop from marker 22 and then heading west to the John Irving trail. There is a wet area that is at least ¾ of a mile long but it is possible we could avoid that by going north on an old skid trail owned by Essex Timber. They would have to support this idea. David, Steve and the Benoits will try to check this out by either skiing, snowmobiling and see if this is feasible. If it looks good we will set up a meeting with ANR (David Willard and Jim Wood of Essex Timber).
Another possible trail expansion would include a trail just east of trail marker #10 that would go north and end up approximately one mile east of trail marker 13. This would make a nice small loop of approximately 6 miles. Most of this is private land owned by John Irving and Ed Farmer. Dave will talk to Terry Williams, the owner of the Concord store about the land owners. She may know them.
Maps:
Josie has volunteered to make changes to the map and we will get them to the printers. Kim will do this. We have been leaving the same sponsors on the map even though we haven’t been charging them. I wonder if it would be good to put something else on the map. Any ideas or feedback would be appreciated. We could make the map portion a little larger so it is easier to read. We also could have announcements of important dates like the Tunbridge Ride or the NEKET ride. PLEASE GIVE ME FEED BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE ON THIS BECAUSE I NEED TO GET THE MAP TO JOSIE. THANKS
NEW & EXCITING BUSINESS:
The committee agreed to hold its first annual NEKET ride on September 8, 2007. Dave Delano had mentioned (at a VHC meeting last year) that he noticed not too many people riding up there and thought it would be good to host some rides so that more people might get exposed. Then… Steve, Penny, Carol, Sally and I rode up there this fall and had such a great time staying at the Walter Neobrowski farm that we started thinking of the possibilities. While we don’t want to compete with any existing rides we would like to expose people to the trail system and this might be the perfect way. Since it is so far away we think that it can sometimes be intimidating to drive up there if you don’t really know what you are facing. We decided to limit the ride to 50 people. While there won’t be a charge for the ride there will be a $10 or $15 donation to cover the facility (port a potty extra land fee etc.) We will also need people to register before they arrive so that we know the number we will have. We do need to find out if we will need to advise insurance company of this event. I will contact Terry Rose to ask her.
Steve will contact Walter Neobrowski to make sure his field will be available. Please let me know Steve because I will post this on the web site and send it to the Country Magazine etc.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, Note what you signed up for and get back to me with the results. Once I hear from Steve about Walter’s land being available we can start to advertise the date. At that point we should assign tasks on the NEKET Ride. (Martha kept mentioning that she hadn’t signed up for anything, so this might be the perfect thing Martha!)
Riding in the Kingdom
By Kim ParsonsThe Northeast Kingdom Equestrian Trails (NEKET), are located in the most remote region of Vermont but well worth a visit. The northern section of the trail system is accessed through Island Pond and is approximately a 2.5 to 3 hour drive from Central Vermont. The southern portion of the trail system is accessed through xxx and is about an hour and a half from Central Vermont. Rustic Camping is available in both sections. There is approximately 100 miles of logging roads and trails to ride on.
We were fortunate to have three days to explore the NEKET system in July. The first day we started out at 10 AM. Our goal was to ride a 15 mile loop at a fast pace. We started out by taking a left out of the equestrian overnight camping area and then a right about 100 yards down the road over a small brook that emptied out a small tea colored beaver pond. The pond was studded with dead trees, marsh grass and wild irises. Like so many others that we passed you half expected to see a moose out in the water grazing on the rich marsh grasses. We traveled for about a half hour up a lush trail spotting a lot of moose tracks along the way.
That stretch of trail is one of the only woodland trails on the Northern end of the NEKET system but hopefully that will change someday. That trail emptied us out onto the power lines where we traveled for a few miles enjoying the most spectacular views Vermont has to offer. Traveling the power lines can be full of surprises. We heard a strange sound and looked up to see an osprey soaring the sky’s around us as if warning us off her territory. After looking around a bit we noticed a huge nest on top of one of the power posts about sixty feet in the air.
It had been 24 hours since we had arrived and we hadn’t seen a car yet. Most of the roads are open after Memorial day weekend but there isn’t really through traffic. In three days we saw three cars and talked to some of the drivers and they were just driving around hoping to spot moose. Although we saw many signs of moose, we didn’t run into any on our horses!
We got back to camp and had the afternoon to unwind and play with our horses. The camping area is about 2.5 miles in from Route xx on The South America Pond Road which is a well maintained dirt road. It is approximately 100 yards by 300 yards and can easily accommodate 6- 8 large trailers or a dozen smaller trailers. There is also an overflow camping area less than a tenth of a mile down the road. The camping area is rustic with hitching posts, an outhouse, a manure pit and a plastic water trough that is filled by a natural spring. Sorry but no showers or electricity. The area is not overused and we have never encountered a problem with there not being space. In fact it is sorely underused due to the remote location. We were the only campers so had the place to ourselves until Saturday afternoon when some day riders showed up.
We decided that it was well worth the three hour drive to get there. The Northeast Kingdom Equestrian Trails are in one of the most remote areas of Vermont. The drive can be daunting at first, if you are coming from Central or Southern Vermont but by the time you hit Danville you start to realize that you have arrived in the “Kingdom”.
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