Trails Committee Wants To Help Hikers Cross Streams

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The township’s Trails Advisory Committee wants to make it easier for hikers to cross some of the streams that bisect several trails.

But to do so, they’ll have to get the OK from Township manager Robert Vornlocker, and make sure there aren’t and state Department of Environmental Protection permits involved.

The idea was broached at the Committee’s February 8 meeting by Committee member Chuck Martin.

“We have stream crossing issues on a number of our trails,” Martin said.

He said that rocks that had been placed in certain areas to act as footholds fro hikers weren’t working, with some of them moving out of position.

Martin’s answer was to place specially made steppingstones in the affected areas.

“The step stone issue came up because we’ve had trouble finding big flat rocks we can put in the wide shallow areas of the stream the that stay in place and are flat enough and stable enough that you can step on the, and walk across the stream,” he said.

Martin identified crossings at Bunker Hill Road, on the 10-Mile Run stream, another on the Yellow Trail at 10-Mile Run, and another on a tributary of the Purple Trail on Butler Road.

“It’s a narrow tributary, but it’s deep,” he said.

“I have thought for some time that maybe we can try making step stones that are shaped in such a way that they aren’t catching debris from streams, and would probably stay in place during the Spring floods that we’ve been having,” he said. “And even if they’re displaced, it would just be a matter of picking them up and putting them back.”

Martin’s design involves two pre-fabricated stepping stones, topped by a concrete stone and attached by a piece of rebar set 6-10 inches in the stream bed.

The units would have rounded edges to prevent them from trapping debris floating in the streams.

Martin said the material to make the stepping stones could be purchased inexpensively from big-box home supply stores.

“I figure I could make three of these for around $120,” he said. “I’m quite willing to go out and buy $120 worth of materials and try it.”

Mayor Phil Kramer suggested that Martin check with Vornlocker to make sure the work could be done.

Tara Kenyon, the township’s Open Space Consultant, said she would meet with Vornlocker and discuss it with him.

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