Turkey Trot Work Party - Starting Again

The Trails Committee had our first work party on the Turkey Trot Trail this summer. Actually it was the second, but the first was part of an Oak Valley Trail workparty that got ambitious, and then there were wasps. This section of the Turkey Trot has been closed due to Eversource Transmission Line Construction most of this summer. Now they are starting to wrap up the southern end of their project, and moving into restoration. So the trail may be closed from time to time this August and September, but we were able to get out and do some badly-needed cutting on Saturday. It's amazing what a summer of sun and rain will do for briar growth out in the open. But we had a good crew of 13 volunteers who came out and got to choppin.

Derek used one of the brushcutters clearing out the trails. Nothing like a little quality time with hot, messy machinery.

There was one older blowdown on the Turkey Trot Bypass that needs to be sawed, but the rest of the trail was cleared and cut back.

Hopefully Eversource is able to remove their bridge and leave a good crossing for us to use mowing the trails in the future. We have to appoligize that we did not get more photos of all the folks who came out and worked. Thanks to Annie, Mike, Matt, Declan, Val, Ellen, Niko, Lorenzo, Matteau, Mark, Derek, Luis, and Terry for helping out. Hope that whoever got hit by the wasps near the footbridge was OK. Some of us went through there, quickly, and managed to not get hit. We got a lot done along the Turkey Trot, powerlines, and portions of the RecPath. These were areas that would ordinairly been maintained earlier, but due to Eversource's construction, have been off limits technically to the public. The trails in this area were very busy today however, and we got some nice comments about how the trail work was appreciated. It was really pretty out, and it was fun to be able to work on some of Shelton's trails that have been closed during all the powerline construction this summer.

The Woodland sunflowers were doing great along the portion of the RecPath at Silent Waters. Try to find time to go exploring and enjoy them while they're in bloom this August.