RANGELEY — Access to Nordic ski trails at the Rangeley Lakes Trails Center got a boost with the completion this past weekend of work to repair Tropical Storm Irene damage.
Carol Sullivan, a past president and manager, said Maine contractors M & H Construction of Rangeley and Wyman & Simpson Inc. of Richmond helped restore the Bridge Trail for the coming ski season.
“The work was completed just in time. It’s snowing up here,” Sullivan said Friday afternoon.
She said the center has about 60 kilometers of trails and that bridge, which was two logging truck bodies placed over a stream, provides the main access to the outer part of the trail system. It’s about a mile from the center.
“So without that, we were kind of stuck, and Irene pretty much bashed it up,” she said.
Two other bridges badly damaged by Irene were also replaced.
The Richmond business, which donated heavy equipment and an operator to complete the job, and the Rangeley firm, provided two days of heavy equipment work, Sullivan said.
“Unfortunately, we’re probably 2,500 feet up, I suppose, on Saddleback and everything that runs down Saddleback runs across our trails,” she said.
“When you saw the material that was brought down against that truck bridge was just phenomenal.”
“I can’t imagine the force but it must have looked like an avalanche, because there was a whole lot of dirt and silt and things like that were moved,” she said.
Sullivan said the greater portion of debris came down a trail instead of the adjacent stream channel.
“It was pretty amazing to look at,” she said.
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- Tropical Storm Irene did a number on three Rangeley Lakes Trails Center bridges like this one on Bridge Trail that provides access to the center’s outer Nordic ski trail system. Two Maine contractors provided heavy equipment for a couple of days to repair the damage.
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- Once enough snow falls, Nordic skiers will be free to move about the countryside on Saddleback Mountain from the Rangeley Lakes Trails Center, thanks to two Maine contractors who helped replace three bridges damaged by Tropical Storm Irene. This span is on Bridge Trail.
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