Nicholdale June 2024 - Stuff is Growing: Holy #$?!!&

It's June - there's water, and sun, and it's warm, and everything is freaking growing.  At once. Everywhere.  It's the busy time of the trail year.  

The trails on the Shelton Land Trust's property at Nicholdale and the surrounding trails are no exception.  Luckily, we had some wonderful volunteers to show up on Saturday to brush back the summer vegetation.  on the Means Brook Greenway.

Bodie and Daniel did a great job weedwhacking the trails.  The sections in the open sun were out of control in places.

 

This was a "Before" photo of a one of the trails connecting the Nichols Trail with the Stockmal Trail on the north side of Rt. 110.

Here's the "After" photo.    Much clearer where to go.

Cooper and Jeff were working on the Nicholdale Connector.  The cleared sections of the trail and cut away brush so you can clearly see the trail signs and painted blazes.

 

It's a big improvement when you're trying to find your way.  The Shelton Land Trust mows the trails in the fields with a tractor and mower, but they have a tougher time working in the woods.

John and Jeff lead the group across Rt. 110 where they worked on clearing out Stockmal Trail over towards Means Brook.  The sections at the Iroquois Gas Pipeline, the swamp before the bridge, and the fern walk afterwards needed to be opened up.

 Daniel and Bodie were clearing out the trails around the junction.

Luis cleared out over to the Nicholdale sign along Rt 110, then worked down to The Stone Bridge.  The other's came back from the north side of Rt. 110, and then worked their way on the Nichols Trail and cleared out the Pearmain Path too.

 

The Stone Bridge had been hidden in hay and weeds.  But not now.

Nicholdale has a number of waypoint nature signs explaining various features of the property.  Now access to them is all cleared out.

 

Ellen Cramp was clearing out briars along the trails with the new electric hedgetrimer.  It's a new addition to our trail tools and seems to be quite useful.

It's a busy time of the year keeping up with all the new growth along the trails.  But, we had a fine crew of volunteers today and got a lot of trails in the White Hills cleared.  It was a really productive morning.  We didn't get pictures of everybody, but their work is still much appreciated.  Thanks to Joe Welsh from the Land Trust for helping out, thanks to Annie, Cooper, Daniel, Bodie, John, Jeff, Luis, Terry, Ellen, and Ted.  Hot work, but well done.  And thanks to Jeff for bringing all the water bottles.

If anyone is doing the 2024 Shelton Trails Challenge the trails around Nicholdale are much easier to walk after today.

The Shelton Land Conservation Trust has another work party scheduled next Saturday to remove invasive species.  From what I saw today there are a lot of targets to remove.  Check the Land Trust's website for additional information.