Now you’ll find a packed gravel pathway from Rt 100 to the Fiddler’s Walk trail entrance! Hosted by the businesses of Irasville Common, this gravel path provides an off-road option to walk, run, or roll to the dirt trail that connects down to Fiddler’s Green. This is a safer option than taking Rt 100 past the intersection with Rt 17. We’re working on plans to extend the path all the way to the Lareau Swimhole with a totally off-road path. We have to wait until the Rt 100 bridge over the Mill Brook is rebuilt in about seven years or so, but it’s likely that we’ll make other headway in between within a year or two. It’s all about making safe, fun pedestrian and biking paths to get you around downtown, to local swim holes, and to the extensive trail networks into our surrounding hills (largely built and managed by our pals of the Mad River Riders).
To make this path we removed a 3ft wide layer of sod using a sod cutter. We rolled that up in 4ft sections and posted “free sod!” on Front Porch Forum; by 5pm a handful of community members picked it all up saving us a ton of work! A win-win. We then did a little more leveling, then added a layer of landscaping fabric to help prevent grass and weeds from growing up. We then added crushed slate using a tractor. The slate was raked into place down the entire trench. We then used a plate compactor to set the crushed slate into place and smooth it out. Rain in the following days plus use by walkers, runners, and bikers have since set the crushed slate solidly in place.
When we were visiting the site last year, we noticed considerable erosion occurring on the hillside behind the trailhead kiosk. The erosion was going right into a wetland at the bottom of the hill—important habitat next to the Mad River for frogs, salamanders, turtles, and more! So we decided to incorporate a stormwater prevention feature alongside the new path section. Working with Friends of the Mad River, we designed and built a new rain garden that has been capturing parking lot rain water runoff and absorbing it into the ground. The rain garden was built by digging out a bowl and adding course stone. On top of that was compost and local soil mixed together, and then about 40 native perennials were planted. Mulch went on top of that to complete the project.
The new path and rain garden were funded by a grant from the Mad River Valley Recreation District—thank you, friends! Thanks again to the Irasville Common businesses, and our volunteers who helped with the build :-)
