Some people -- not endurance riders, of course -- would think spending hours with your friends in the woods going up hill and down dale in the heat or rain, and occasionally beating insects off, would be awful. But we have found marking trails in the state forest to be fun here in Western New York!

It all started when a group of us in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties, who belong to the New York State Horse Council, decided to form our own chapter. After that was done, one of the members, Barnee Weber, said, ÒYou know I have always wanted to make trails in that beautiful state forest know as Pine Hill/South Valley below Randolph, New York.Ó

We talked to the senior forester, Victor Anderson, and he was in agreement as long as our chapter entered into an Adopt-A-Resource agreement with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

Barnee had already attended a daylong trail school in Pennsylvania as well as one of Mike Riter's shorter classes that had been held in this area some time ago. Well, I thought that making trails sounded like something I'd like to do but I had no experience or formal instruction in making trails. Just about then, AERC's Trail Master program was scheduled to be held in Skymont, Tennessee, and I was fortunate enough to be accepted.

I learned that most of the trails I had ridden on in the past were not environmentally sound and sustainable and there was definitely a better way to make trails.

So, we began to get acquainted with 5,375 acres of state land, one acre at a time. Although local people ride sections of this land, there were no known marked trails on it. It is comprised of several parcels of wooded land that all join in at least one place so it is contiguous and stretches from five miles below Randolph to the Pennsylvania state line.

It is hilly, with a few rolling hills at the northern end and lots of big hills everywhere else. Our theory is that all the land that was too hilly to farm ended up as state land. This was definitely the place to put Mike Riter's design principles to the test.

The DEC senior forester, Victor, was very helpful by providing us with topographic maps of the areas and loading the state boundaries in our GPS. We started exploring the northernmost parcel, using the maps and GPS and checking out the old logging skid roads that he had explored and were marked on the topo map.

The first thing we discovered was that although the snow was gone at home in March, there was still about a foot of it in those woods. As the weather improved we explored the area, a section at a time, marking trails with pink surveyors' tape tied on clothespins. When we had a trail flagged to our satisfaction, Victor would hike it with his GPS and, when he was satisfied, approve it. Then we would contact those members and friends who had volunteered to help and have Òwork daysÓ to cut the trail.

We didn't know it at the time but these first trails, bounded by dirt roads and a powerline on flat or rolling land using mostly the old skid roads, were the easy ones. When the first eight-mile section was done, Victor loaded the trails into the state's computer program and produced a map that we could copy.

Soon the word about the great trails got around and we distributed maps to riders whenever and wherever possible. At this point in time, trailers had to park on the shoulders of the dirt roads.

Next we started on the long narrow section that went straight downhill. We used a lot of turns to get down that hill. We did take the trail past several flat piles of rocks that were used in an old log skidding operation and past the site of the old sawmill at the bottom by the creek. This was another of Mike Riter's ideas: to take the trails past interesting landmarks.

The next section was more trying. It was all woods tangled with downed trees and no landmarks that we could find. We decided to make two separate trails that went up the hill and then back down to the next forest road. There were some old skid roads on the front side of the hill, in fact lots of skid roads, that were joined together at the bottom and then spread out like a fan.

I didn't have my own GPS so I spent some confusing days by myself and with a friend who liked to explore going up and down these skid roads. The problem was they all looked alike and although we never got really lost we got misplaced for a while at times. So I got a GPS with the external antennae as Mike Riter suggested. It gave me a good signal even under the heavy leaf cover, and our exploring skills improved.

The trails now have names and they appear both on trail signs and the map. Letters have been added at major intersections as well as DEC signs along the entire trail. This spring is our fourth year and we have 18 miles of trails and will continue to work our way through the state land towards the Pennsylvania border. One of our goals is to reach the friendly restaurants and ice cream shop by next year.

Our Catt/Chaut chapter was fortunate enough to receive a one-time grant from the NYS Horse Council and used it to put in parking and a primitive camping area called Pineapple Junction. We hope as time goes on we will be able to add more parking areas in other locations in the trail system as well as entice Cattaraugus County to build a large centrally located camping area on the nice, flat land they lease from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

I really enjoy all the aspects of trail making including being outdoors in the woods and the excellent cardiovascular workout I get hiking up and down the hills. I consider myself very fortunate that AERC sent me to the Trail Master course.