River Valley Cycling

Supporting Cycling In and Around Fredericton

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Hinterlands Who’s Who – the Trail Gnome

April 27, 2025 By Chris Norfolk

Nature lovers – today we will learn to identify the reclusive Northern Forest Trail Gnome (Sylva nodignoridi). The activities of this species are beneficial to many other forest creatures and learning to identify the signs of these gnomes lets you understand where they are, even if you don’t spot one while out in their habitat.

While it is difficult to directly observe this species, you can positively identify them by their preference to wear rugged, less fashionable clothing. They often appear dirty. Gnomes give off a distinctive odor which has been described as a combination of tree sap and loamy dirt.

Northern Forest Trail Gnomes are known for their high-energy output and active metabolism; needing to consume large quantities of food and sometimes beer in order to maintain their activity levels. Both male and female gnomes are active throughout the year. Most activity occurs during daylight hours, however a rare nocturnal variety preferring the cover of darkness do exist in some habitats. Gnomes display behaviour which can be thought as opposite from beavers. They prefer dry areas, and will work feverishly to drain puddling water. Rather than gathering fallen trees, sticks, and debris, Northern Forest Gnomes will clear their habitat of such litter. They move in a weaving pattern throughout the forest and are suspicious of strait lines. They go to great lengths to avoid going strait up or down a steep slope.

Gnomes do leave some telltale signs of their existence which you can learn to spot. While some myths and legends exist, be certain that these gnomes are real – and they leave evidence behind.

Foraging – Evidence suggests they may eat the lower branches of trees. Gnomes can reach up surprisingly high. Fresh cut stubs can indicate activity in the area.

Scat – It’s often possible to find ‘piles’ of gnome droppings, particularly after windy storms. These droppings resemble sawdust in appearance.

Caches – Gnomes will often distribute caches of equipment throughout the forest much like a squirrel hiding seeds. Often a gnome is behind seemingly random buckets, shovels, and rakes placed carefully in the woods.

Trails – Heavy presence of Northern Forest Gnomes in an area will often result in well worn trails along their normal movement corridors. These trails are then used by other forest species such as mountain bikers (Velos offroadei) and trail runners (Cursus twoleftfeeti).

The Northern Forest Gnome is a species of concern for conservation. Their numbers have fallen in recent years. Fortunately organizations like River Valley Cycling are supporting gnomes by doing what is possible to protect their habitat and provide them with essentials for their activity (tools, insurance, and landowner agreements). What can you do to help?

  • If you encounter a gnome in their natural habitat treat them with respect. Slow down and say hi.
  • Offer to assist a trail gnome for a day, educating yourself through total immersion.
  • Support a local non-profit that supports Northern Forest Gnomes in your area.

Join us this spring and summer as RVC organizes weekly “Maintenance Mondays” trail sessions. We’ll be touring all of the trail networks in the area. It’s your chance to learn from trail gnomes and take direct action to help them!

  • MVP- April 28th
  • Penniac- May 5th
  • Woolastook- May 12th

Filed Under: Announcements, News, Responsibility Tagged With: trail crew

RVC Trail Crew – Summer Start-Up

June 27, 2023 By Chris Norfolk

Say hello to Ivan and Dexter – our 2023 RVC summer student trail crew!

Back in June we started our search for the right people and we’re very lucky to have signed up Ivan and Dexter. Both of these young riders showed a lot of motivation to tune up trails and make our singletrack the best it can be. We got to know Ivan and Dexter a little bit and found out they were both emerging racers with some previous building experience. Yesterday was their first day. We spent some time talking about our safety policy and going over the types of projects we want to accomplish in the next 8 weeks. These guys are going to learn a lot working under the supervision of Bev Bunker – who is volunteering his time and energy to making this crew a success!

We think you’ll notice these guys making an impact. They’ll be getting started at MVP this week with the brush saw knocking back vegetation, getting progress made on a big signage project, and working on some drainage improvements. After that we’re collecting project ideas for Penniac, Islandview, Odell Park, and they may also spend a little time in Woolastook. You might see them out on the trails if you ride during the day. If you see a ‘trail work ahead‘ sign on the trail please slow down and be sure to say hi. If you see a ‘trail temporarily closed‘ sign please head the other way.

Now we need to make a few big thank-you’s!

First of all we need to acknowledge the Canada Youth Employment Strategy that provided RVC with a grant that allowed us to make this happen! Programs like this that support students through grass-roots community organizations like ours are amazing.

We also want to send a huge shout out to Paul and the team at Explore Velo. Last year we had a great discussion and Paul indicated to us that he wanted to support trail maintenance around Fredericton. Explore Velo covered the cost of all of the trail crew’s tools and safety equipment (like first aid kits, eye protection, fire suppression packs, etc) that we needed. Thank you Explore Velo!

We will rely on volunteer trail builders and maintainers for as long as the club exists. Ivan and Dexter are going to really accelerate things over this summer but we’re still going to have trail days and we want members to come forward with projects they want to take on!

So, lets say welcome to Ivan and Dexter and wish them a safe and productive summer.

Filed Under: Announcements, News Tagged With: trail crew

RVC is Hiring a Summer Youth Trail Crew

April 28, 2023 By Chris Norfolk

Do you want to get paid over your summer holidays to improve our singletrack trail network? Send us your resume!

Earlier this week we received some exciting news. Our application to the Canada Summer Jobs program was successful, and we’ve been awarded a grant that will let us hire two students for the summer. So, we’re looking for 2 young students (high school, college, or university) who love trails, have a solid work ethic, and want to help RVC make riding better in the Fredericton area. The job will cover 8 weeks from late June to mid August and we are offering pay that’s better than minimum wage. Fredericton locals have gone on to make careers out of trail building so this may be your start!

There’s nothing more satisfying that riding a trail you buffed out by hand.

We are really excited to have a youth trail crew this year in addition to the hundreds of volunteer hours that get poured into our local trails. We want to get them to focus on maintenance and upkeep across the entire riding network. We will have new build projects going on this year (especially at Woolastook) but we want to not lose sight of the upkeep for some of the awesome trails we already have. We heard lots of support for this idea in our membership survey last year.

If you see someone this summer wearing this out on a trail – stop and say thanks!!!

By the way… did you see our amazing new RVC Trail Crew Logo? We love it. Huge thanks to Christina T. for the design. You might see some long-time trail builders and maintainers showing this off on a trail dig sometime this summer.

So – please share this (it’s our version of a job ad) and if you think you are the right person – please send us your resume!

Fine print – While we’d love to open this opportunity up to anyone our funding agreement limits us to people between the ages of 15 and 30 who can legally work in Canada (international students are not eligible unfortunately).

Filed Under: Announcements, News Tagged With: trail crew

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