Downhill Trail Construction, The Driving Range

Richmond Mountain Trails has the incredible opportunity to hire Dana Cabrera to build a new descent at The Driving Range. If you were impressed with Mother's Day and AC/DC, excited when Chamberlain opened up, and, most of all, love the new Scullys, you'll want to be a part of this fundraising effort. Four anonymous members have posted a matching grant of $6K. We need your donations to unlock these funds. If we can raise $6K via member donation, our matching donors will bring that total to $12K and we will be well on our way towards hiring Dana to complete a new downhill this fall. Please consider donating and funding this amazing project and supporting a home grown trail builder.

In the town of Bolton, on Rt 2, sits a large parcel of land that was once the home of a popular driving range. Today it is host to a solar field, the sugarbush of RunAmok maple syrup, and the newest Richmond Mountain Trails (RMT) Network, The Driving Range. With a gracious ten-year landowner agreement and 256 acres of forest, RMT broke ground on this project in May 2022.

We have been blown away by our support for this project. While membership funding has been critical for this network, we have received grant support from the Vermont Mountain Bike Association (VMBA) and Suncommon. Our first trail night turned out 30 volunteers, and we have consistently had 20-25 dedicated members come out each week. Over 1,000 volunteer hours have been completed, nourished by our Richmond business community with donations from Stone Corral, Big Spruce, and Papa McKees. Suncommon and Kingsbury Construction have donated the use of their excavators to assist in building climbing trails.

The Driving Range is a brand new network with tremendous room for growth. It’s a project that will support multiple recreational groups in our community and improve connectivity. Most importantly, our goal with the Driving Range is to create a trail network for everyBODY. While it will have challenging climbs, flowy descents, technical features, and lots of Blue and Black trail options, the trails are designed to be adaptive mountain bike (aMTB) accessible. While the mountain bike community has always felt like a place for everyone, we can’t call it inclusive until we create truly inclusive trails. We see the aMTB movement spreading across other chapters and networks and are thrilled to be a part of it. With the support of an adaptive athlete and director of the Kelly Brush Foundation, Greg Durso, and Rob Galloway, adaptive cycling coach, we are working to create purpose-built adaptive ready trails.

This project is in full swing with lots of work ahead. We need your help physically and financially. Please give your time at our weekly trail nights and if you can, give to our Downhill GoFundMe.