Applied Physics: Wiacek Woods Work Party

Saturday we met to help continue work near the new Paugussett Trail bog walk at Wiacek Woods.  Bill Dyer got a work out with his twin crow bar trekking poles hiking into the work zone.  He'll probably want more at the next work party.  It was good to walk through all the improved sections of the Trail that we had worked on earlier in the year.  With all the fallen leaves you could hardly tell that there had been major trail construction there earlier.

 Teresa showed off the new bog walk sections to the volunteers.

Teresa Gallagher showed off the new bog walk to the volunteers.

Ellen, Bill & Tom trimmed out the Birch Tunnel section out to Meadow Street.  There were a lot of broken branches poking in at eye level.  It's now really inviting instead of a scary Halloween ride.

Matt and Aidan did a good job with moving rocks over for stepping stones.  

Rocks lines up to become stepping stones

Aidan and Matt also carried earth to cover eroded sections of the trail with a lot of roots that were sticking up.  This made the footing a lot nicer.

We had a lot of lessons in applied physics.  

• rolling a big rock is easier than lifting one,
• lift with your legs, not with your back,
• rock nets and teamwork make it a lot easier to move heavy rocks,
• a crow bar with a fulcrum to lever up rocks can be your friend,
• hand tracks also are good back saving devices for moving heavy rocks,
• keep your fingers and toes out from under rocks while being picked up with a bar in case the bar slips,
• wear leather work boots rather than sneakers, if possible, while doing rock work

Tom cleared out sight lines along the Meadow St. pull-off opposite Mayflower Lane.  The Paugussett Trail exits the Birch Tunnel at Meadow St. and becomes a short road walk to the cul-de-sac at the end of the road after that.

UI had people up in a bucket working on the new lines

Thanks to Tom, Matt, Aidan, Bill, Ellen, Teresa, and Terry for working on this section today.  This section of the Paugussett Trail has see a lot of improvements this year.

New Paugussett Bog Walk at Wiacek Meadows

Securing the last board

The Paugussett Trail has a new 85-foot bog walk to address the lower section of the seasonal wet area near Meadow Street (see previous post).  Mark Vollaro and Terry Gallagher purchased the 2x8" and 5x5" boards at Home Depot and rented a truck to drop the materials at the Meadow Street trailhead. Terry returned to cut the 8-foot 5x5's into thirds to be used as "sleepers." A couple days later, Mark and Ray used the Trails Gator to cart the boards closer to the work site. Getting the building materials was at least half of the job right there.  Over the next few days, I (Teresa) finished the job by laying out the boards, leveling them up, and securing them with screws. 

Two stacks of Home Depot lumber at the Meadow St. trailhead

Even though the Wiacek Meadows Open Space is at the top of a  broad hill,  there is a solid layer of hardpan a few inches down that resists both water and tree roots. During the wet season, that thin layer of topsoil is often waterlogged because the water cannot penetrate the hardpan, but during the summer it can become bone dry since it's at the top of a hill. During peak hiking season, the trail is normally dry and you would never know the trail gets wets. For this reason, the existing tread was preserved for summer hiking and the new bog walk was set off to the side for use when the rains come. 

The Pin Oak Grove

The bog walk curves through a grove of large Pin Oaks, a tree that tolerates poorly drained sites, which this certainly is. Pin Oaks are used in landscaping because they do well on human-impacted sites, but are less commonly noticed in their natural settings. They can be identified by the lowest branches pointing towards the ground, and their sharp pointy leaves that are cut more deeply than other oaks. These Pin Oaks are particularly large for this area. Some of the tops were damaged from the August 3 microburst. 

The Lumber Run for Bog Walk Construction

A lot of pressure treated lumber was needed for the bog walk at the Wiacek Woods.  More than the roof rack of our cars could carry, so we experimented with renting a truck at Home Depot in Derby on a Sunday morning.

Mark arranged the truck rental with Dwight in the Rental Department.

Mark and Shawn loading lumber (Shawn and Greg in the Lumber Department were great helping us load up lumber - couldn't ask for nicer people).  We had a lot of 5"x5"x8' and 2x8x8' pressure treated timbers to get.

We got one of the $19/hr. trucks, Mark loaded it up, while I signed my life away with a lease agreement.  It was actually pretty easy, but Home Depot's Legal Department apparently doesn't want people taking off for parts unknown with any of their trucks.

We had our one safety incident of the trip when Mark jumped into the cab and banged the Funny Bone in his left elbow on the truck center console.  Me, being the helpful guy that I am, took a picture of him.

The truck was the right size for 10 bog bridges.  Too many more and we might've needed some tie-down straps.

Driving safely and carefully over to Shelton we dropped off our load at Meadow Street.  Teresa Gallagher met us there and after unloading assisted us with backing out onto Meadow St.  We put a little gas back in the Truck and returned it to Home Depot with nary a scratch on it.  And within the 1.5 hr. timeline to pay just $19 to rent the truck!

Later I went back up to Meadow St. with a chainsaw to cut the 5x5 sleepers into smaller 2'-8" sections.  These would go on the ground and the twin 2x8's screwed onto them after a lot of ground layout and preparation.  But our Lumber Run was Done!  Successfully, I might add.

Some items to note:

• Get there early if you need a truck - good planning by Mark.
  
• Home Depot staff were very helpful
• Bring help to load and offload the lumber (it was WAY easier with 2 people that one person loading the roof rack on the car)
• The HD truck worked OK.  It's an automatic transmission, with big rear view mirrors.  Take your time and drive easy.
• Thanks to Dwight, Shawn, Greg, and Kelly at Home Depot for all their help.

Yep, It gets dark out here at night.

The Trails Committee decided to host a moonlight hike, and it discovered that it does get dark out at night.  We met at Lane St to walk the RecPath and see the Hunter's Moon, and possibly even a comet.  But it was dark.

But we had a few headlamps and flashlights are were able to proceed without too much confusion.

It was a warm Thursday night so around two dozen people showed up.  No kids unfortunately, but it was a school night.  So off we headed out to the Land Trust Meadow.

We got some intrepid volunteers to go out into the meadow to try to see the comet, but we were looking in the wrong location in the sky.

There were some nice views of the full moon rising above the trees.  We headed out along the RecPath up to Wesley Drive and out toward the powerlines.

Where we got some good views of the moon and the stars near Great Ledge and Nells Loop Trail.  It was a beautiful night.

There was a nice view of The Big Dipper on our return thru the Land Trust Meadow.  Everyone made it back to Lane St. (we think), and had a good time.  Another nocturnal hiking adventure in the books.

Paugussett Trail Improvements at Wiacek Meadows Continue

 

A "to-do" status list in map form

Now that the growing season is over, it's time to get back to the Paugussett Trail improvements at Wiacek Meadows. By the way, that is the current working name for the open space property located to the north of the High School, between Constitution Blvd North and Meadow Street. Wiacek is pronounced "WHY-seck." Or possibly WHY-a-seck. The above map shows the overall plan and our progress. As you can see, most of the tasks have been completed. Part D was just completed last week in an afternoon. That involved shifting 160 feet of trail off an eroded gully. 

October 2024 reroute (160 feet)

Part E has just begun. This is the ~350-foot section that floods during the wet season, sometimes for months at at time. There is no possible reroute -- it's all wet in every direction. It's not a skunk cabbage mucky type of wet, which would be worse. Rather, it's a hard pan hilltop with roots everywhere type of wet. In the summer it all dries out and is fine to walk on except for roots and rocks. 

April 2024 conditions

Although this section of the Paugussett doesn't get a lot of use, it must have at least a few regular users because last spring someone put down long branches on the trail, parallel to the direction of travel, which is a big no-no. Stepping on a log or branch parallel to the trail is just asking to slipping into the mud. And the mud wasn't that deep, so people with hiking boots could have just walked right through it except these branches were in their way.  Not helpful!

April 2024 conditions
Section with rocks

Over the years, some sporadic efforts were made to put down rocks in places, with varying levels of quality control. Some sections of rocks aren't too bad, but some are very uneven and pretty tedious to walk on.  

Summer conditions:
Lots of roots and rocks!

During the summer, the trail dries out, but all the rocks and roots have been a serious annoyance. The first task will be to create a summer treadway, with many of the rocks and roots removed or covered over.  Most people hike during the dry months. That part has been started: 

A summer treadway cleared
on the left of the rocks

After a summer tread has been cleared out, the winter/wet season tread will slowly be improved. Some parts of the trail will get new 8-foot bog walks consisting of a pair of 2"x8" boards resting on top of 5x5 sleepers.  Other parts of the trail will likely have some rock work done. The goal is for these improvements to be off to one side so that people can choose to walk on the dirt when things are drier. 

None of this will be quick or easy. If anyone would like to help out, please let us know

RecPath Repairs at Lane Street

The boardwalk through the floodplain at Lane St. needed repairs.  It had been put off for a while due to all the storm damage restoration and clearing.  Having finally gotten a breather from Mother Nature, we tackled Lane St on a beautiful Fall Saturday morning.

Betsy, Aidan and Gia were our cutting and clearing team.  The briars and brush was growing into the RecPath and was cut back from Lane St. to the woods at the end of the Land Trust meadow.

This was one of the "Before" shots of the boardwalk.  One of the boards was really missing, and a number had holes or were on the way out.  These decking boards needed to be replaced.  

A surprising amount of planning goes into even a simple work party like this one.  One of the preliminary steps was estimating the materials and tools necessary, and getting them to the job site.

Going to Home Depot in Derby for supplies on Friday Night before a work party - good times.  The decking boards at Lane St. were 5/4 x 6" x 6' which isn't sold, but 12 footers are.  Home Depot normally doesn't cut pressure treated lumber.  So we brought a saw with us and did a little cutting in the parking lot to modify the boards to fit into the car.  Oddly, nobody at the store came over to ask me what I was doing at 9:15 at night cutting boards in their parking lot.  I guess it's not the weirdest thing they've seen.  We also got screws and a tool for pulling nails.

The next step was to drive the boards over to Lane Street, put on a headlamp, and carry them in part - way for tomorrow's work party.  It was a pretty night, and I could see my breath.  Fall is here.

Saturday morning was the usual crazy  running around getting tools at the Barn.  We really have to do a better job pre-planning and packing up all the tools in bags the week before so we don't forget things, which happened.  Then drive to the trailhead and deliver the tools to Lane St. where I met Bill Dyer: who, for awhile, looked like the rest of the work party, but then people came rolling in and we got started.

Devin and Mike are replacing the deck boards.  There was a lot for heavy work removing the old deck boards and some of the screws (square drive & torx head) were stripped and had to be pried out or cut off.

The RecPath was pretty busy; there were a lot of runners and bikers.  After some near incidents, we strung flagging across the Path.  People could still pass after we gave them permission, but they had to walk and not just push by.  We wanted everyone to be safe and not get hurt; including us.  

Using the flagging to actually close the trail around the work area worked well.  We removed the flagging at the end of the job.

Some of the boards came out in one piece and others had to be cut out.  A variety of crowbars helped too.  Betsy brought her garden cart with her and hauled all the old boards out the the trailhead.  We will contact the Shelton Parks and Rec. Dept. to see if they can pick them up, otherwise it'll be a dump run next week.

The deck boards are attached to stringers elevated on timber piles set in the marsh.  Some of the screws were stripped and couldn't be pulled out.  These were cut off with a small reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade.  Some side rails were bolted to the ends of the boards (another trip back to the car for the adjustable wrench that was forgotten).  

Interesting fact: there's a lot of animal tracks visible in the mud under a boardwalk that you only see when you're kneeling on the boardwalk looking upside down trying to loosen carriage head bolts.

Meanwhile Aidan was cutting back briars with one of the electric hedgetrimmers.  We had cut this area earlier in the year, but brush +sun +water =lots of growth + thorns.

Gia got some hands-on quality trail time with the loppers and trimmer.  The RecPath looked a lot better when they were done with it.  Now all we have to do is work on the grass to get our full crushed stone width back, but that's for another day.

Devin & Bill were replacing one the last boards.  We replaced 8 broken or spongy boards in all, and the RecPath Boardwalk is back in serviceable condition.  Nice job.

Mike, Gia, & Devin on the repaired Lane St. Boardwalk at the end of the job.  We hauled all the tools back out to Lane St, loaded the cars, and Mike & I put things away at the Trails Barn.

The Shelton Land Trust's Hawley Meadow along the RecPath is at the end of the boardwalk- a "Before" picture.

Thanks to everyone who came out:  Aidan, Devin, Gia, Betsy, Bill, Mike & Terry.  Maintenance is seldom glamorous, but it was a good fall morning to be outside.  

And as Bill put it "I am impressed how we were able to replace bad boards without anyone getting tetanus, at least that we know".  Now There's a performance metric for success on a work party.  

Go visit the RecPath at Lane St. - it's really pretty right now.  Also check out the events page for our Full Moon Hike on October 17th (that's THIS Thursday).

The Paugussett "Indy Link" Improved

A better tread for the wet season

The "Indy Link" section of the Paugussett Trail is probably no one's idea of a hiking destination, but it's an important connection between Shelton Lakes and other open space properties like Housatonic Woods and Indian Well. It now has a better treadway that will hopefully remain dry during the wet season and have fewer annoying roots and rocks.  

The Indy Link section of the 
Paugussett Trail

The woods are poorly drained and we've had lots of problems with the trail over the years. Parts were previously relocated and we have several Scout bridges. North of the bridges, the treadway became confusing the past few years. It was originally routed on higher ground covered with tree roots, but summer trail users took the lower ground instead, packing in a treadway over temporarily dry wetlands and up drainage gullies. The higher ground grew over with vegetation and the lower ground became a morass during mud season. 

Treadway (right) separated from
drainage gully (left)

The trail tread has now been reestablished back on higher ground and clearly delineated, with material added to help with the tree roots. Another reason for excess mud was people placing rocks in the middle of a drainage channel, damming it up. That keeps happening around town.  If the trail is wet, please don't screw up the drainage even more with logs or rocks. Anyway, the dam was removed, the drainage channel reclaimed, and large stepping stones were placed in a few muddy spots. The one remaining low spot was then given an 8-foot section of bog walk. 

New bogwalk

Some of the existing Scout bridges have decking boards that are rotting out. The worst boards were replaced for the winter, but the remaining decking is getting spongy and will need to be replaced within the next year or so. We've learned that 1" boards rot too fast, so they'll be replaced with 2" boards. 

Rotting boards

OK now until next year

The next section of the Paugussett requiring attention is the Meadow View section just south of Meadow Street, which last winter was covered in mud for a few hundred feet. This probably needs a long bog walk. Stay tuned!